Your fifth and final paragraph is your conclusion, where you revisit your thesis in the context of all preceding evidence and succinctly wrap up everything.

Each paragraph should focus on either showcasing one piece of supporting evidence or disproving one contradictory opinion. Your second, third, and fourth paragraphs are your body, where you present your arguments and evidence, as well as refute opposing arguments.Your first paragraph is your introduction, which clearly presents your thesis, sets up the rest of the essay, and maybe even adds a little intrigue.Let’s start with the most basic argumentative essay structure: the simple five-paragraph format that suits most short essays. This alone leads to even more considerations, like whose argument to address first, and at what point to introduce key evidence. To make matters worse, the structure of argumentative essays is a little more involved than those of other essay types because you also have to address other points of view. Basic argumentative essay structureīecause your entire argumentative essay depends on how well you present your case, your essay structure is crucial. It’s hard to name one perspective as “true” if you’re ignoring all the others. That’s why argumentative essays don’t just talk about the writer’s own thesis but discuss other contradicting points of view as well. The idea is that an argumentative essay leaves no doubt that its thesis is accurate, usually by disproving or invalidating opposing theories. Not only would it be redundant, but also far too simplistic: Your evidence may be “look outside,” and that’d be the end of it! For example, “the sky is blue on a sunny day” would be an awful thesis for an argumentative essay. It usually has strong enough opposition to necessitate an explanation of why it’s wrong. The main difference is bias : Argumentative essays presume one point of view is correct, whereas expository essays usually present all sides of the argument and leave it to the reader to make up their own mind.Īnother distinction of argumentative essays is that the thesis is not obvious.

Likewise, it’s easy to confuse argumentative essays with expository essays, which rely heavily on fact-based evidence and copious research. In other words, argumentative essays favor quantitative support, while persuasive essays favor qualitative support. Argumentative essays focus more on concrete empirical data, whereas persuasive essays appeal more to the reader’s emotions. Persuasive essays do this, too, but tend to be more emotional and less formal. What makes an essay argumentative is the method of convincing: An argumentative essay uses fact-based evidence and unquestionable logic to prove that its thesis is true. Like persuasive essays and other types of essays, the point of argumentative essays is to convince the reader of a particular point of view. But don’t take our word for it-our evidence speaks for itself! What is an argumentative essay? Below, we run through the most useful techniques for writing the perfect argumentative essay.

Grammarly helps you improve academic writing Write with GrammarlyĪrgumentative essays are only as good as their argument, and structuring good arguments requires a little more than just being stubborn (even if it helps!).

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