Your Guide to Writing an Argumentative Essay

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Even if you are writing about something you have a strong opinion about, essay writing can be stressful—especially if you are pressed for time. So, consider this your stress-free, easy-to-follow guide to writing an argumentative essay. First, we’ll review what an argumentative essay is, and then we’ll talk about seven simple steps to writing a top-notch argumentative essay. Finally, we’ll go over some tips on how to find the best essay writing service to help you when you’re stuck.

What is an Argumentative Essay?

An argumentative essay is essentially a logically-supported discussion that persuades your audience about a certain topic or opinion. Generally, an argumentative essay does three basic things:

1. It argues or persuades in favor of a specific agenda or opinion.
2. It presents opposing opinions and then refutes them.
3. It supports the argument with scholarly, credible, data and logic.

In order to accomplish these three things, an argumentative essay usually follows an outline or flow that looks like this:

Here are some examples of common argumentative essay topics you may see in college:

• Health: The Case for the Affordable Care Act
• Politics and Health: Why Marijuana Should or Should not be Legalized
• Why Electric Cars are More Environmentally Friendly than Fossil-Fueled Cars

Seven Steps to Writing an Argumentative Essay

There are many approaches to essay writing, and sometimes the best process for writing will change depending upon what you are writing about. However, a few basic key steps can be applied in most all situations. So, consider this guide a framework for writing any argumentative essay. These seven steps will provide you with a great foundation for success.

1: Clarify your topic

Clarifying your topic may seem obvious, but it is sometimes easy to get diverted, especially when you are writing about something that is incredibly meaningful to you. Sometimes one topic can lead to the next.

For instance, if you plan to write about why electric cars are more environmentally friendly than gas-fueled cars, it may be easy to start talking about the state of the environment as a whole, and pollution in general. Or, it might be easy to start describing why electric cars are great in general. But in order to successfully defend your opinion, it is critical to stay on-topic by specifically explaining why electric cars are less harmful to the environment than gas-fueled cars.

It is important to clarify your specific argumentative statement (what the essay will argue for or against). Your argumentative statement may also be referred to as your thesis statement.

To do this, start by writing down a specific, rather than general, argumentative statement. For example:

• This argumentative statement is too general: “Electric cars are great.”
• A more specific argumentative statement, or thesis, is: "Electric cars are less harmful to the environment than gas-fueled cars."

If you are not sure how to best phrase an argumentative or thesis statement, essay writing services are great resources to turn to for examples.

2: Define your audience

Defining your audience means understanding who your topic is important to, and who you will be presenting your argumentative essay to. Although your professor (and maybe even other students) will be reading your argumentative essay, it’s important to consider your hypothetical audience.

Your real audience might be your professor, which is why it is important to write well and proofread your essay. But your hypothetical audience is who you would be trying to persuade in real life.

Example:

For instance, let’s revisit the electric car topic example. In this case, your hypothetical audience might be consumers who buy cars. You might want to write your essay in a way that persuades car shoppers, who care about the environment, why electric cars are less harmful to the environment. This means you will want to write in a way that makes sense to your audience (car shoppers) and talk about things that are relevant to them.

Defining your audience will allow you to “step inside your readers’ shoes as you write, and make sure your writing flows and makes sense. It will also help you decide what information to use to support your point. So, ask yourself: Who would this argument matter to and how can I write in a way that will make sense to them?

3: Research, research, research

Without a doubt, this can sometimes feel like one of the most overwhelming, or at least time-consuming, parts of the essay writing process. Sometimes it can be tricky to know exactly where to start, which is why it is important to reach out for help from an essay writing service, peer or mentor to make sure you have a solid foundation of supporting facts. The information you gather during this stage will help you write a strong essay. When you buy essay samples from Ultius, you can rest assured it will be a strong one.

This step requires researching three key categories:

1. Neutral articles about your topic
2. Articles that defend your point of view
3. Articles that take an opposite stance

After you gather information, use these helpful tips to organize your research:

1. Highlight or color code content according to key themes (like the three above)
2. Copy and paste research that best supports your argument into a separate document.
3. Make sure you correctly cite all the research you copy and paste so you can easily reference it when you write.

Again, this can be a lengthy process, even when well-organized. Don’t be afraid to reach out to an essay writing service for help organizing your research or finding credible, scholarly sources.

4: Create an outline

Now it’s time to create an outline based on your topic and the most important research themes and categories you uncovered.

Here is a great way to start:

1. Highlight or color code content according to key themes (like the three above)
2. Copy and paste research that best supports your argument into a separate document.
3. Make sure you correctly cite all the research you copy and paste so you can easily reference it when you write.

Use the example outline we reviewed in the first section, “What is an Argumentative Essay,” as an outline guide to start with.

If you are feeling a little overwhelmed, remember, you are not alone! There are lots of resources that can help. For example, Ultius is an essay writing service that can help you organize your outline and take some of the stress out of the writing process.

Once your outline is in-tact, you can simply plug in the research that corresponds with each point of your outline. This can be done by paraphrasing, quoting or pasting entire notes and references of research. But be sure to include a citation after each section of research. Essay writing services can also help with this if you are not sure how to cite correctly. Including your research notes in corresponding sections of your outline makes the writing process that follows much easier by providing you with a template to write from.

5: Write

Now that your outline is in place, it’s time to write! If you are feeling stuck, try free-writing first. Free writing is the process of writing without stopping for a set period of time. Afterwards, you can organize and edit.

Whether you choose to start with freewriting or start by writing your final essay in a logical way, the writing process is the step in which you will synthesize your research. The best way to do this is to explain the research you uncovered, why it is important and how it supports, or relates to, your argument.

If the process seems intimidating or overwhelming, consider buying an example essay from a top-quality essay writing service to use as a guide.

6: Edit

It’s always a good idea to edit at least twice. The first round of editing entails checking for things like:

• Sentence flow and structure
• Proper citations
• Logical presentation of facts

During the first round of editing, ask yourself, “does this make sense? Is it convincing?”

Next, edit for spelling and grammatical errors. Also, check to make sure citations are correctly formatted. A high-quality professional essay writing service can help you format your essay. Also, many essay writing services have examples of common citation styles that are helpful guides.

7: Check your citations

Just as it’s always a good idea to proofread and edit your document at least twice, it can never hurt to check and be sure you’ve cited all your sources correctly. In other words, always give credit where credit is due, and make sure your citations are properly formatted. Here are some important things to check for in order to avoid common citation errors:

• Make sure all the bibliography references correspond to an in-text citation, and vice versa.
• Check to be sure bibliography entries and in-text citations are consistently formatted, and correctly formatted.
• Be sure all quotes and paraphrased material includes a citation afterwards.

And remember, if in doubt, essay writing services are great resources to use when it comes to making sure your essay uses correct citations. Use our MLA style guide to help you cite your sources.

Finding the Best Essay Writing Service to Help

Essay writing services can be great resources, especially when you want to put your best foot forward by presenting a polished, top-quality argumentative essay.

Here are just a few things an essay writing service can help provide:

• Topic ideas
• Outline organization
• Help with research (and time-savings)
• Feedback
• Editing and proofreading
• Help citing and formatting correctly
• Example essays to use as guides

To make sure you receive top-quality assistance and example essays, it is important to know where to buy essay papers. So, before you click “buy essay online,” or “buy essay writing service,” make sure the writing service offers:

• Personalized customer service (preferably a phone number and 24/7 support)
• Free revisions
• Qualified writers
• The ability to communicate with your writer

And most importantly, resist the temptation to use a free essay writing service. Tempting as it may be, the likelihood of receiving a poor quality example or poor-quality assistance is much higher with free writing services. Unfortunately, some free essay services even resell content. It’s worth investing in a high-quality essay writing service, such as Ultius, that provides full-scope support.

Takeaways

Now that we’ve covered the basics of writing an argumentative essay and finding a qualified essay writing service to help overcome common roadblocks, here is a quick review.

Key steps to writing an argumentative essay:

1. Clarify your argument or thesis
2. Define your audience
3. Research
4. Create an outline
5. Write
6. Edit and proofread
7. Check your citations

This process can be lengthy, especially when it comes to researching and organizing. The more you practice the easier it becomes to organize your thoughts and overcome writer’s block. So, don’t feel discouraged! Plus, professional guidance is easy to access.

If you do hire an essay writing service to help you get started, be sure to find a top-quality essay writing service that checks all the boxes above before buying an essay and you should be all set! If you still need more help, you can buy argumentative essay samples from Ultius.