Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
Definition: In this kind of essay, we not only give information but also
present an argument with the PROS (supporting ideas) and CONS
(opposing ideas) of an argumentative issue. We should clearly take our
stand and write as if we are trying to persuade an opposing audience to
adopt new beliefs or behavior. The primary objective is to persuade people
to change beliefs that many of them do not want to change.
X Are you one of those who thinks cheating is not good for students? (a
question cannot be an argument)
√ Cheating helps students learn.
If you believe that you can find enough evidence to support your idea and
refute others effectively, you can choose challenging topics as well. You
can enjoy writing about such topics:
Cheating is beneficial for students.
Murat 124 is a very good choice for conscientious drivers.
Stress is good for the human body.
Polygamy is quite natural.
For women, there is no need for men.
PRO idea 1
PRO idea 2
CON(s) + Refutation(s)
Conclusion
Pattern 2:
Thesis statement:
CON(s) + Refutation(s)
PRO idea 1
PRO idea 2
Conclusion
Pattern 3:
Thesis statement:
Conclusion
The sample essay has been written according to the third pattern.
Supporting our ideas: This is the most important part when persuading
others. We are asking some people to change their beliefs or actions. We
should be supporting our ideas with such facts, statistics and/or
authorities that there should not be room for any doubts. Here are some
faulty supports we should avoid:
Thesis: Leaving the university and starting to work is good for the
adolescent because …
e.g. X Some people may say that adolescents should not leave university
education; however, they are wrong. (what they say is not wrong.
Maybe their supporting idea is wrong /irrelevant /insufficient. We
should state their supporting idea specifically to be able to refute it.)
√ Some people may say that adolescents should not leave university
education because they are not physically and psychologically mature
enough to cope with the problems of the real world. However, they forget
one fact: adolescents can vote or start driving at the age of 18 (in some
countries even before that age!), which proves that they are considered
physically and psychologically mature at that age.
When refuting the opposing idea, we may use the following strategies:
• compromise but prove that their argument is not powerful enough:
They have a point in thinking like that.
To a certain extent they are right.
• completely disagree:
After seeing this evidence, there is no way we can agree with what
they say.
Throw out the bottles and boxes of drugs in your house. A new theory
suggests that medicine could be bad for your health, which should at least
come as good news to people who cannot afford to buy expensive
medicine. However, it is a blow to the medicine industry, and an even
bigger blow to our confidence in the progress of science. This new theory
argues that healing is at our fingertips: we can be healthy by doing Reiki
on a regular basis.
Some people may still maintain that in our material world, everything
depends on time. It is even “lacking time” that causes much of the stress
that leads to the illnesses we mentioned. How would it be possible to find
time to do Reiki to ourselves and the people around us when we cannot
even find time to go to the theater? This is one good thing about Reiki; it
does not require more than 15 minutes of our time. There is no need for
changing clothes or special equipment. It is a wonderfully simple healing
art, an effective method of relaxation and stress-relief. Most important of
all, it is less time consuming than medicine if we think of all the time we
spend taking medicine for some complaints and taking some more for the
side effects as well.