The Argumentation Essay

The purpose of argumentation is to convince your reader of a particular idea or contention. Since you, as the writer, will be trying to convince your reader of your position or viewpoint, it follows that your viewpoint on the subject is debatable. Thus, your thesis must have a debatable “edge” to it. An expository thesis might read, “Pesticides can be harmful if they are used improperly.” But an argumentative thesis statement would have a debatable quality such as “Pesticides should be banned from use in agriculture.” The argumentation thesis statement is frequently called a “proposition.” Of course, you should arrive at this thesis only after you have done some research on the topic. In argumentation, you should not decide your position on the issue based on how you might “feel” about it, but based on what you know and can support with evidence and reason. Since the thesis statement, or the “proposition,” is debatable, the introduction should NOT be controversial or inflammatory. Therefore, do not include anything here that your reader might find disagreeable or offensive. Remember, the introduction is the hook that will get your reader thinking about your issue and lead him or her to want to follow your reasoning further through the body of the paper. Your introduction should provide your reader with adequate background information about the issue and look at both sides thoroughly and fairly. You want to try to hook those readers who may not agree with you and you want to appear credible and reasonable to those readers who may be curious about your position and its merits. You should not worry about the readers who already think and feel the same way you do about the subject matter. They will automatically continue to read (if the writing is readable, of course!) since they are reading to have their beliefs and positions reinforced. The body paragraphs are very important because they provide readers with reasoning and the evidence that you have used to arrive at your proposition, or thesis. A couple of things to remember about an effective body in argumentation: first, you must be extremely well organized and structured within each paragraph, sticking to the development and explanation of one idea of support. And since you are trying to convince people who may not want to be convinced, you have to offer more than one example or illustration per support paragraph. Never offer one “oddball” case to support your thesis. For instance, you might research a story about a person who was not wearing a safety belt and was thrown from the car just before it went over the embankment. To use this as evidence that seatbelts really do not save lives is ludicrous, as your reader can easily see that you have ignored the larger body of evidence that proves that they do save lives. What this ultimately all means is that your evidence within the paragraphs of support must be factual, rational, sufficient and well documented. Remember that LOGIC is the key to argumentation. Stay away from emotional appeals and logical fallacies.
Argumentation Writing topics and assignment

Your essay must be 4-6 pages in length. Since the support for your thesis must be factual, you will need to do some research. Conduct this research just the way you did for your other papers. Choose a topic that lends itself to a powerful third person academic voice, but do not write about abortion, euthanasia, or gun control. Whatever topic you choose, make sure you stick with academic sources – that means no Wikipedia or any other encyclopedia or dictionary or book notes source, and do not cite from the Bible. You must cite from at least two essays from the Vesterman textbook as part of your research and your in-text documentation. This is not particularly difficult, since the essays in the textbook cover many topics and citations can be complementary to other primary research. You must also research at least three more sources; this makes at least five sources, although you may research and use more than that, of course.
Try to narrow your topic and determine your position as you research. You also should take notes on your sources, much like you did when you summarized the essays for your journal. Remember how much better you understood the essays when you had to write about them rather than simply read them? Also, be sure to pull out some suitable quotations that you can use to help you support your debatable “thesis,” or just the opposite, which you can use to discredit your opponent’s arguments. Next, determine your final thesis and develop an outline. Remember, this paper, like all research papers, must be documented with a properly formatted MLA Works Cited page at the end. WRITING ASSIGNMENT Remember that the purpose of argumentation is to convince. The thesis statement, or proposition, must be debatable. The introductory “hook” must be non-controversial, or at least not inflammatory. The body paragraphs must contain factual, documented supports. Remember that the argumentation paper forces you to take a stand on an issue. So in the body, you may want to “anticipate” an opposition argument. Mention it, but then show how this belief is incorrect, weak, irrelevant, or not as important as your arguments. Finally, the method used in argumentation is one of logic and reason. It is difficult to keep emotion out of argumentation. But it is imperative to stress the logical and rational if you are to win your reader’s trust, not just their sympathy. How can we stress the logical instead of the emotional? There are four basic ways. First is through words. Your wording should be powerful and clear but should not be emotionally charged. Use connotative verbs and nouns for maximum impact. Connotative adjectives and adverbs are helpful, but are far less powerful than verbs and nouns. Second, argumentation requires third person point of view. First person, or “I,” adds to the personal, emotional feeling of the paper. When speaking, this may advance your argument. But in argumentation, the first person-approach weakens the paper, and is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Read the first person-third person document posted on Blackboard for examples. The reader can easily dismiss the arguments as “just one person’s opinion” rather than accepting the factual basis for that opinion. Third person
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forces the facts to do the work, instead of the narrator. Second person point of view, or “you,” must always be avoided when writing argumentation because it assumes many things about the reader that are not true. Third, be sure to add plenty of logical, rational examples and illustrations. In argumentation, the best kinds of examples involve statistical information, objective examples from life, common knowledge from your sources, and detailed reasoning. Avoid personal and emotional anecdotes or what-ifs. Finally, the order of your supports makes an impact. Begin with the strongest, most logical reason your reader should be convinced, and work to the least logical or most emotional appeal. By starting strong, you have a better chance of getting the reader’s attention and keeping it. Plus, the longer you have your reader’s attention, the better chance you have to convince him/her of your belief. If you save your most powerful appeal until last, you may find you have no one to read it. When adding supports from your outside sources, remember that you should not start off your paragraphs with another author’s words or ideas. Use direct quotation and statistical info from your sources within the paragraph to BACK UP your ideas, not as the opening topic sentences. In other words, the early parts of each support paragraph should introduce that paragraph’s point of support and explain its reasoning. When you do get around to using your source’s material, remember that it might be helpful to introduce the author before quoting him/her directly, but that is only necessary when the author has credibility to the reader. For instance, if you were arguing that home-schooling is a viable option for parents who are unhappy with public education today, you might want to add a direct quotation from a Department of Education official or college admissions officer that favors the abilities of home-schooled children, and introduce the speaker of that quote in your text. About half the time, use the source’s first and last name and describe their authority before you quote directly. Consider this example:
Sue Ellen Reed, head of Indiana’s Department of Education, argues that home-schooled children are often “more self-directed and self-motivated than their public school counterparts” (qtd. in Jenkins 4). She goes on to cite several examples of the way home-schoolers function once they reach college.
The above example allows your reader to evaluate the merits of the speaker. The in-text citation shows that Reed’s quotation was taken from a source with the author’s name of Jenkins. A full bibliographic entry for that source should appear on the Works Cited page under Jenkins.
As always, once you have written the

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