Why Is Strong Argumentative Essay Outline Important

Why Is Strong Argumentative Essay Outline Important Argumentative essay is defined as a genre of writing that requires the student to investigate the given topic, collect information, generate and evaluate evidence, in a bid to establish a position on the subject in a concise fashion. It’s the type of work where you have to develop an argument based on evidence and elaborate the stand you take. You may love or loathe writing these essays, but you can’t avoid them. There’ll come the time when you are supposed to write a high-quality argumentative essay to show your understanding of some particular essay topic, but you shouldn’t feel nervous. Successful completion of the essay depends on your ability to create the essay outline correctly. Not sure how to do it? Don’t despair; this post will show you how easy it can be! [short_code_type_1] Structuring the argumentative essay outline Although it might seem complicated to you now, once you learn how to structure the argumentative essay outline correctly, it’ll become easier. Your work is comprised of different parts with equally important value. These parts or sections have a role in presenting the topic, developing the argument, presenting evidence, and so on. That said, main parts of the argumentative essay are: Introduction Developing the argument Debunking opponents’ arguments Conclusion If you think this structure is vague, don’t worry. Every section is thoroughly explained below. [short_code_type_2] Section 1: Introduction Just like in any other form of writing, the introduction is where you create the foundation or a basis to build the rest of your work upon. If the intro isn’t structured very well, then the rest of the essay will suffer too. An argumentative essay should start with an introduction comprised of the hook, background info, and  thesis. Hook The hook is the first sentence (or two) of your work, and its primary purpose is to catch the reader’s attention, hence the name. When a professor, client, or some other person starts reading the essay, its beginning determines whether they’ll continue reading it or not. Let’s say you’re about to read something, would you continue reading that piece if the beginning were dull and boring? The answer would be no. Hooks aren’t limited to essays only; they are present in all types of writing, which is why you’re highly likely to click on links with the catchy sentence under the headline. Here are a few tips you can use to form the hook: Use a quote from famous people, scientists, writers, artists, etc. Anecdote can also be a good way of grabbing someone’s attention Pose a question Set a scene that reader can relate to Include an interesting fact or definition Reveal a common misconception Background information After creating the hook, you proceed to provide some useful background information about the subject. To make things easier for you, this part of the introduction should answer these questions: What is the issue you’re going to discuss? Who cares about the topic? Where is the subject or issue prevalent? Why is the subject or some issue you’re about to discuss importantly? [short_code_type_3] Thesis The thesis statement is the last sentence (or two) that contains the focus of your essay and informs the reader what the essay is going to be about. Your thesis is more than a general statement about the idea or issue that you’re going to elaborate in the essay; it has to establish a clear position you are going to take throughout your argument on a given topic. Since this is the last part of the introduction and your opportunity to introduce the reader to the subject and your position, you have to ensure it is structured correctly. Your thesis should be: Unified Concise Specific Clear, easily recognizable The thesis should match the requirements and goals of the assignment, but you have to be careful and avoid making some common mistakes. For example: Thesis is not a title It is not a statement of the absolute fact Thesis is not an announcement of the subject It’s not the whole essay, but the main idea you’ll discuss [short_code_type_4] Section 2: Developing the argument Now that your introduction is well-crafted you’re about to proceeding to the second part of the argumentative essay. In this section, you have to develop the argument using claims and evidence to support them. Claim When structuring the argumentative essay outline, you should pay special attention to claims. A claim is the central argument of an essay, and it poses as one of the most important parts of academic papers. In fact, the effectiveness, complexity, and the overall quality of the paper depend on the claims you make. The primary purpose of claim in essay writing is to define paper’s goals, direction, scope, and support the argument. Making claims is easy, but the question is: who’s going to believe in them? That’s why the second section of the argumentative essay is invalid without the evidence. Evidence Every claim you make throughout the essay has to be supported by evidence. You have to prove to the reader that claims you make are valid and accurate, the only way to do so is to incorporate reliable, trustworthy evidence based on facts, studies, statistics, and so on. It’s important to bear in mind that evidence is not anecdote or personal knowledge you just happen to possess on a given subject. The evidence is the result of a thorough research on the topic. Once you create the essay outline, you’ll get the idea of claims you’re going to make, then start researching to find enough evidence to support them. Research is one of the most crucial aspects of essay writing, besides giving you material to support your claims it also aims to help you debunk opponents’ arguments.