Argument Essay Guidelines
How to approach the assignment
For this assignment, you will be writing a researched argument where you will take a stand on a controversial issue and utilize sources on both sides. You will need to fairly see the other side and then refute it. Remember, you are highly encouraged to use sources only from the Sinclair databases. Unless you decide otherwise, you will use your annotated bibliography topic for this essay.
There are two key pieces of advice to keep in mind about taking notes:
Make sure every note fully identifies the source.
Make sure every quotation is identified, so you don’t later plagiarize your source by accident.
Since this paper is longer than previous assignments and requires the use of sources, it may be beneficial for you to highlight key pieces of your sources. Your annotated bibliography will be a huge help for this assignment.
Remember that your topic choice is critical to your success on this assignment. You will be writing about the same topic that you researched for your Topic Proposal and Annotated Bibliography, but you can change topics if you feel that you need to. Please keep in mind that some topics are off-limits.
Topics that are off-limits
Do not write about abortion, gun control, religious issues, politics, capital punishment, the legalization of marijuana, conspiracy theories, or the cluster of issues relating to the right to die (i.e. euthanasia, mercy killing, and assisted suicide). Topics like human cloning, stem cell research, gay marriage and home schooling also might be problematic. I ask you not to write about these because they tend to be emotional or politically charged issues.
Instead, I want you to write about something that you can be objective about. You must fairly see both sides. (Down the road, peer feedback will be designed to help you see the other side — remember that this doesn’t mean that your essay won’t work! Your peers will only be trying to help you see the other side fairly.)
I hope to challenge you to write on fresh issue. To see if your issue will work, see if you can put it in the form of a question: Should __(we do or not do something)___ ?
Remember, too, that you can’t tackle a topic like world hunger, social security, cloning, war, or health care in four typed, double-spaced pages. It’s generally better to choose a simple, clear issue and argue it well.
Consider going to the Opposing Viewpoints database from the library homepage and checking out the topics listed there. Conduct some sample searches to see what’s “out there.”
The Argument Essay Guidelines
Write a paper persuading your audience to agree with you about an arguable, controversial issue based on the research you used for the annotated bibliography. You may switch topics, but you will have to find more sources and notify me in advance.
The paper should be:
5-6 pages in length (which is 1250 -1350 words)
based on research from 3-5 sources
12-point font in Times New Roman or Arial
double spaced
submitted with an MLA Works Cited page
All the papers you write for this class should be entirely your own work. The penalty for taking part or all your ideas or words from someone else’s work is a zero for the assignment–and possibly, depending on the seriousness of the plagiarism, an “F” for the course. Your academic honesty is necessary for this course to be fair, effective, and worthwhile.
Drafting the Argument Essay
Rough Draft
In this argument essay, you will attempt to persuade your audience to agree with your stance on an issue. You have selected your topic; now you are probably wondering how to begin.
Thesis Statement
Your thesis for this paper must be arguable and clearly state your side on the issue. In other words, it must be a statement that reasonable people could oppose.
Sometimes students want to write about topics like child abuse or teen alcoholism, arguing that they are wrong and should be eliminated. Is anyone out there for teen alcoholism or child abuse? Even teen alcoholics would say they’re not alcoholics, and child abusers would insist that they’re just administering proper discipline.
No reasonable person is in favor of child abuse or teen alcoholism. These topics could become arguable, however, if you argue that the best way to combat child abuse is a prison sentence for the first offense, or that the best way to combat teen alcoholism is to raise the drinking age to 25. People might argue that these measures are too severe or would not solve the problem.
Body
You must choose a side in this paper. It is not enough to choose a controversial topic — teen curfews, for example — and tell your readers the arguments for both sides. You must argue either for or against teen curfews, and your thesis statement should clearly indicate your position. This is where you will incorporate your sources to support your thesis. Be sure to quote experts, use statistics and facts to give your case credibility and authority in order to persuade readers.
Your goal in this paper is to persuade your readers to agree with you — or to at least reconsider their stance on this issue.
Your tone in this paper should be respectful and reasonable. After all, are you more likely to be persuaded by someone who is screaming hysterically at you, or someone who is speaking to you in a calm and reasonable way? Don’t insult those who oppose your position; your reader might be offended. Ease them into your argument by building common ground with your reader. Tell them a story that sets the scene or present a fact that is not arguable. Then ease us into your thesis … get us there slowly. Remember the classical rhetorical appeals you read about in your text: ethos, pathos, and logos. Using good sources will establish your ethos. Appealing to both emotions and logic will reach your audience most effectively.
Also, you must anticipate objections in order to strengthen your argument. If you can’t see the other side, your readers are going to lose respect for your essay. If you argue for condom distribution in high school as a way to combat teen pregnancy, you know that some readers will object that abstinence is the better method. You need to address that issue in your paper, or your audience might think you aren’t aware of the opposing arguments. You want them to know you have carefully considered the opposing arguments and still believe in your position.
When you raise opposing arguments, describe them briefly but fairly. You don’t want to accidentally convince your readers that the opposition is right by letting them win. Distance yourself from them by labeling them as the ideas of others, so people don’t think that you are contradicting yourself. You might begin by saying, “Some people might argue,” or “Critics disagree.” If you know exactly who your opponents are, you can be even more specific. If you were arguing for gun control, you can mention that “hunters” might have objections, for example.
Once you raise objections, you must respond to them in some way. You might show that they’re wrong, or you might admit that they’re valid objections, but that the arguments in favor of your position are stronger.
Conclusion
Consider ending your paper with either a call to action or a scenario. When you end with a call to action, you spell out what you want readers to do: write their Senator, sign a petition, complain to businesses, march on Washington, or whatever. When you end with a scenario, you describe the world either as it will be if people agree with you or as it will be if people are not persuaded by your arguments.
If, for example, you are advocating condom distribution in high schools, you might end with either a vision of how condoms will reduce teen pregnancy, limit the spread of sexually transmitted disease, and save lives — or a vision of how doing nothing will mean more teenagers will face pregnancies they can’t handle, more teens will lose their fertility to sexually transmitted disease, and more young people will lose their lives to AIDS.