ACADEMIC WRITING

Organisation
Argumentation
Compare and Contrast
Cause and Effect
Classification

Argumentation

The purpose of an argumentative academic essay is to present your idea or point of view and to defend it. You want to convince, persuade or change your reader’s mind with your writing. In stating your idea, opinion, or point of view, you need to support it with evidence such as facts, statistics, further information and examples. However, it is important to understand your audience when you are writing your argumentative essay as they may disagree or have more knowledge than you on the topic. Although there may be more than one organisation pattern to follow in argumentative essays one pattern may be as follows: an introduction (the claim or opinion that you want your reader to accept as the truth), arguments in favour of your statement followed by supporting information (examples, explanations, statistics, and facts), counterarguments against your statement/opinion followed by refuting arguments to the counterarguments, and a conclusion which recaps your main arguments and conclusions.

CHECK POINTS

- is the purpose of argumentation clearly stated in the introduction of the text?
- is the writer’s point of view/stand/opinion/claim clearly stated?
- are the issues/questions for or against the argument well-defined?
- are the arguments supported sufficiently? not enough?
- are there counterarguments ? Are they handled in detail and supported sufficiently?
- is the line of argument easy to follow?
- is there any irrelevant material to the main line of the argument in the essay?
- is there some argument/supporting information which is unclear? Unfinished?