Lixin Huang

Are you feeling uncomfortable and having a headache towards argumentative essays when it is your time to write?

In academic field we have to write many different kinds of essays and argumentative essay is one kind that we students usually have to deal with. On this page I will give some useful basic tips about how to write an argumentative essay when you are required to do it in limited period of time.

(1) Layout: As we can see from many argumentative essays, the layout of argumentative essay contains three basic parts: the contention, the fact which can support the contention and the examples which can illustrate your argument. At the beginning of your argumentative essay, you should list some background information about the topic you want to talk about and present the controversies about this topic; usually you have to cite some references to see how the topic was viewed in academic field. Then you should state your contention about which side you stand on and give evidence about why the side you stand on is right. Also it is important to provide enough examples to support your point. Finally you should give a conclusion by repeating your contention again.

(2) Things to Remember: You should search for as much information as possible! Writing an argumentative essay is like doing an experiment, you have to provide solid and real information and evidence to support your contention. DO NOT make up information or evidence!!! Also the more flaws you find about your opposite side, the better. Since in this way you could strongly defend your points and convince the others easily. Also you should avoid using emotional sentences (e.g. I feel that biking is not safe.), what you have to use are logical sentences (e.g. All the research mentioned above prove that biking is not safe.)

(3) Here are links of topics and examples of argumentative essays: http://homeworktips.about.com/od/essaywriting/a/argumenttopics.htm

http://www.custom-essays.org/samples/by_type/Examples_of_Argumentative_Essays.html