Think Before you Begin

Topic Selection

If you have not been given a topic, think about topics you’re interested in. Select one you’re able to verify with credible, academic sources, as professors will often make academic sources a requirement for argumentative essays.

Writing for Your Audience

Who is your intended audience for your argument? How much information will your readers have about your issue? If you are choosing a controversial topic to argue, you’ll need to think about how others might disagree with you. Anticipating audience objections to your argument will help you write a better argument essay.

Prewriting Techniques

Which prewriting techniques will help you get started? It might be a good idea to use strategies like freewriting and brainstorming to get your thoughts going. If sources are required for your argumentative paper, getting some ideas down initially will help you have a good place to start for preliminary research.

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). Located at: https://owl.excelsior.edu/ . This site is licensed under a https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .