When we talk about arguments, we need to move beyond the idea that an argument is a fight or disagreement. Instead, think of argumentation as a process of taking a stand, presenting reasons and evidence, and using logic to convince an audience.

“Don’t Raise Your Voice, Improve Your Argument.”

– Desmond Tutu

Why Argue?

We don’t always argue to win. Yes, you read that correctly. Argumentation isn’t always about being “right.” We argue to express opinions and explore new ideas. When writing an argument, your goal is to convince an audience that your opinions and ideas are worth consideration and discussion.

What is an Academic Argument?

Billboards, television advertisements, documentaries, political campaign messages, and even bumper stickers are often arguments – these are messages trying to convince an audience to do something. But an academic argument is different. An academic argument requires a clear structure and use of outside evidence.

Key features of an academic argument:

• Clear Structure: Includes a claim, reasons/evidence, counterargument, and conclusion.
• Claim: Your arguable point (most often presented as your thesis statement).
• Reasons & Evidence: Strong reasons and materials that support your claim.
• Consideration of other Positions: Acknowledge and refute possible counterarguments.
• Persuasive Appeals: Use of appeals to emotion, character, and logic.

Organizing an Argument

If you are asked to write an argument in college, there is a basic argument structure, much like the essay structure covered in the Essay chapter. Use this outline to help create an organized argument:

1. Introduction: Begin with an attention-getting introduction. Establish the need to explore this topic.
   1. Thesis Statement: What’s your claim?
2. Brief background on issue (optional).
3. Reasons & Evidence:
   1. First reason for your position (with supporting evidence)
   2. Second reason for your position (with supporting evidence)
   3. Additional reasons (optional)
4. Counterargument: What’s the other side of the issue? Explain why your view is better than others.
5. Conclusion: Summarize the argument. Make clear what you want the audience to think or do.

How to Be Persuasive?

Building an argument isn’t easy, and building a convincing argument is even more difficult. You may have a clear claim, solid reasons and evidence, and even refute the main counterargument, but your audience may not be convinced. Maybe they don’t care about the topic. Maybe they don’t find you credible. Or, maybe they find your evidence weak.

What can you do to convince them? How can you persuade your audience?

Greek philosopher Aristotle (Remember him from the Rhetorical Situation chapter?) asked similar questions and he concluded that arguments needed to be persuasive. In The Art of Rhetoric, he identified three means of persuasion:

• Logos: Use of evidence and reason to support the claim.
• Pathos: Appeals to the audience’s emotions and values.
• Ethos: An author leverages trustworthiness and character.

To build a convincing and perhaps influential argument, you need to not only have a structurally sound argument (claim, reasons, evidence, counterargument, conclusion), but you also need to leverage appeals to persuade your audience.

Arguments are complex and difficult to master. But understanding how to build and critically read arguments is essential in understanding and shaping our lives.

Strengthening Your Argument

Phrasing

It is important to clearly state and support your position. However, it is just as important to present all of the information that you’ve gathered in an objective manner. Using language that is demeaning or non-objective will undermine the strength of your argument. This destroys your credibility and will reduce your audience on the spot. For example, a student writing an argument about why a particular football team has a good chance of “going all the way” is making a strategic error by stating that “anyone who doesn’t think that the Minnesota Vikings deserve to win the Super Bowl is a total idiot.” Not only has the writer risked alienating any number of her readers, she has also made her argument seem shallow and poorly researched. In addition, she has committed a third mistake: making a sweeping generalization that cannot be supported.

Objective Language

You should avoid using “I” and “My” (subjective) statements in your argument. You should only use “I” or “My” if you are an expert in your field (on a given topic). Instead choose more objective language to get your point across.

Consider the following:

Now let’s look at this sentence again, but without the “I” at the beginning. Does the same sentence become a strong statement of fact without your “I” tacked to the front?

“Wow,” your reader thinks, “that really sounds like a problem.”

A small change like the removal of your “I”s and “my”s can make all the difference in how a reader perceives your argument – as such, it’s always good to proofread your rough draft and look for places where you could use objective rather than subjective language.

A Note About Audience

Many topics that are written about in college are very controversial. When approaching a topic it is critical that you think about all of the implications that your argument makes. If, for example, you are writing a paper on abortion, you need to think about your audience. There will certainly be people in each of your classes that have some sort of relationship to this topic that may be different than yours. While you shouldn’t let others’ feelings sway your argument, you should approach each topic with a neutral mind and stay away from personal attacks. Keep your mind open to the implications of the opposition and formulate a logical stance considering the binaries equally. People may be offended by something you say, but if you have taken the time to think about the ideas that go into your paper, you should have no problem defending it.

Questions to Consider

• How would your relatives react to the argument? Would they understand the terminology you are using? Does that matter?
• How would your friends react to the argument? Would they understand the terminology you are using? Does that matter?
• How would you explain your argument or research to a teenager vs someone who is in their 70s? Is there a difference?
• If you are aware that your classmates are more liberal or more conservative in their political standing, does that determine how you will argue your topic? Or does that even matter?
• If you are aware that your instructor is more liberal or conservative than you are, does that determine how you will argue your topic? Or does that even matter?
• If you were to people-watch at a mall or other space where many people gather, who in the crowd would be your ideal audience and why? Who is not your ideal audience member? Why?

Counterargument

Speaking of the audience, there are three main strategies for addressing counterargument:

• Acknowledgment: This acknowledges the importance of a particular alternative perspective but argues that it is irrelevant to the writer’s thesis/topic. When using this strategy, the writer agrees that the alternative perspective is important, but shows how it is outside of their focus.

• Accommodation: This acknowledges the validity of a potential objection to the writer’s thesis and how on the surface the objection and thesis might seem contradictory. When using this strategy, the writer goes on to argue that, however, the ideal expressed in the objection is actually consistent with the writer’s own goals if one digs deeper into the issue.
• Refutation: This acknowledges that a contrary perspective is reasonable and

understandable. It does not attack differing points of view. When using this strategy, the writer responds with strong, research-based evidence showing how that other perspective is incorrect or unfounded.

Examples

Let’s see how these three strategies could work in practice by considering the thesis statement “Utah public schools need to invest more money in arts education.”

• Acknowledgment: One possible objection to the thesis could be: “Athletics is also an important part of students’ educational experience.” The writer could acknowledge that athletics are indeed important, but no more important than the arts. A responsible school budget should be able to include both.
• Accommodation: Another possible objection to this thesis could be: “Students need a strong foundation in STEM subjects in order to get into college and get a good career.” The writer could acknowledge that STEM education is indeed crucial to students’ education. They could go on to argue, however, that arts education helps students be stronger in STEM classes through teaching creative problem-solving. So, if someone values STEM education, they need to value the arts as well.
• Refutation: The most common objection to education budget proposals is that there is simply not enough money. Given limited resources, schools have to prioritize where the money is spent. In terms of research required, refutation takes the most work of these three methods. To argue that schools do have enough resources to support arts education, the writer would need to look at the current budget allocations. They could Google “Salt Lake City school district budget” to find a current budget report. In this report, they would find that the total budget for administrative roles in the 2014–15 school year totaled $10,443,596 (Roberts and Kearsley). Then they could argue that through administrative reforms, a small portion of this money could be freed up to make a big difference in funding arts education.

Student Example: Mini-Argument

Suggested Assignment: Time to Write

Purpose:  This assignment will demonstrate the understanding of how to write an argument

Task: This assignment establishes a position on a significant problem (or issue) and directs the argument to a specific audience.

Compose a position argument on a significant problem (or issue) and direct your argument to a specific audience. Whether you are taking a stand on a personal experience, a newsworthy situation, or a lifestyle, educational, or religious belief, provide a vivid description of the issue so that your audience can appreciate the significance of the problem and understand your position (or claim). Your description should reveal the importance of the issue to you as well as its effect on your audience. Your clear position on the issue should appear in your thesis statement. Support your thesis with reasons that are themselves supported by specific details, examples, and anecdotes. As you draft your position argument, be sure to acknowledge and address any concerns or beliefs that oppose your own.

A position argument is not just your opinion. It is a carefully constructed point of view based on reasons and evidence. Bring your supporting reasons to life with research through detailed, credible evidence and examples, whether personal anecdotes, statistics, or other details.

Because you want your audience to consider seriously your position, conduct research to see what evidence your opposition uses. Acknowledging the values and beliefs of your audience helps you establish common ground. In doing so, you make clear that you respect and understand your audience—and hope they will try to understand you as you work to persuade them to change their attitudes or actions.

You will utilize elements of logos and ethos. As you are considering the elements of your rhetorical situation, you will also want to consider whether your audience is supportive, wavering, or hostile. For this essay, we will be pre-writing, identifying a thesis, using library databases to find evidence, outlining, writing a rough draft, peer-reviewing, and completing a final draft of 750-1000 words in length.

Key Features of an argument:

• Clearly describe the problem or issue
• Target the audience
• Include background on why the issue matters
• Acknowledge counterarguments
• Illustrate the ability to use a third-person point of view effectively in an argument.
• Present a thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph.
• Support the thesis using RESEARCH MATERIAL and specific details.
• Illustrate the ability to argue a position or a solution argument.
• Support the thesis using research material and specific details.
• Plus MLA formatted Works Cited page
• Must utilize 3-4 sources
• Must include in-text citations that identify the source for the evidence
• In-text citations must match the references in the works cited page

Key Grading Considerations

• Introduction
  1. Hook
  2. Bridge
  3. Thesis
  4. Essay Map
• Conclusion
  1. Restates thesis
  2. Summarizes main ideas
• Organization
  1. Transitions
  2. Thesis Statement
  3. Topic Sentences
  4. Clear introduction, argument, counterargument, and conclusion
  5. An appropriate sequence of paragraphs
• Discussion & Evidence
  1. Relevant, current sources
  2. Parenthetical (in-text) citations
  3. Clear use of author, purpose, audience, tone, voice, ethos
  4. No logical fallacies
• Language Use, Mechanics & Organization
  1. Correct, appropriate, and varied integration of textual examples, including in-text citations
  2. Limited errors in spelling, grammar, word order, word usage, sentence structure, and punctuation
  3. Good use of academic English
  4. Demonstrates cohesion and flow
  5. Uses the rules of dialogue
• Fully in MLA Format
  1. Paper Format
     1. Header
     2. Heading
     3. Date format
  2. Works Cited Page
     1. Five (5) sources or more
     2. alphabetical order
     3. hanging indent

Attributions

• Writing Unleashed by Sybil Priebe, Ronda Marman, and Dana Anderson is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
• About Writing: A Guide by Robin Jeffrey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
• Time to Write by Christine Jones is licensed under the Creative Commons Public Domain License.