An argumentative essay is an essay in which the writer tries to persuade a particular audience that their claim or point of view is correct. An effective argumentative essay utilizes the following four components of an argument:
The claim is the author's central argument that they are trying to persuade the audience to believe. Counterclaims are arguments of the opposing side which the author will address. Reasoning is the author's logic used to support and prove their claims. Evidence is sourced facts, statistics, data, or quoted experts the author uses to provide factual support for their claims and reasoning.
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A claim is an argument in statement form. The central or overall claim of an argumentative essay is also known as the thesis. After providing the thesis in the introduction, the author then spends the entire essay working to prove that claim through sub-claims (the central claim broken down into smaller chunks), reasoning, and evidence.
There are four types of argumentative claims: claims of fact, claims of value, claims of policy, and claims of cause and effect. Under each type of claim is an example of that claim on the topic of capital punishment. Note that the only factual claim on the topic is the claim of fact. The three other claims are up for debate and need to be supported by a lot more reasoning and evidence in order to persuade an audience to believe the argument.
A claim of fact (or a factual claim) is a claim arguing that something is or is not true. Claims of fact make assertions that can be proven or disproven with evidence.
A claim of value makes a judgement on something's worth, morality, or merit.
A claim of policy is an argument in support of, in opposition or, or for the alteration of an existing policy, law, or mandate.
A claim of cause and effect is a claim that one thing influences or affects another.
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A counterclaim is the argument opposing the author's claim. An effective argumentative essay will bring up counterclaims for two reasons:
An effective counterclaim will both disagree with and disprove a claim.
If the claim is that the United States should ban capital punishment, an effective counterclaim would be that the United States should not ban capital punishment because capital punishment provides a sense of closure for the families of the victims of violent crimes. This is an effective counterclaim because it disagrees with the claim (stating that it should not be banned) and provides reasoning that disproves it (that it provides closure).
Two key components of an argumentative essay are the reasons and evidence.
The reasons of an argument are the reasoning or logical proof provided to prove the argument. The reasons can also be thought of as the "why" behind a claim. Taking the policy claim from earlier, if an author is arguing that the United States should ban capital punishment, their reasons would be the reasons why they believe this is the case. For example, one popular reason in support of the claim about banning capital punishment is that capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison. The reason "capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison" answers "why" capital punishment should be banned. Reasons for a claim can also be written as a "because" statement with the claim: the United States should ban capital punishment because capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison. Good reasoning for a claim is on topic, logically sound, factual, and can be supported by evidence.
Evidence provides factual proof for the reasons in an argument and can consist of facts, data, statistics, published study results, and quoted experts. In order for evidence to be reliable, it must come from a credible source that is current, nonbiased, provides researched sources, and (preferably) peer-reviewed. When providing evidence to support reasoning, always make sure that the evidence comes from a credible source and that it is directly relevant to the reasoning.
Working with the above claim and reasoning (the United States should ban capital punishment because capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison), below is an example of strong evidence and weak evidence to support the claim and reason.
"Florida has estimated that the true cost of each execution is approximately $3.2 million, or approximately six times what it would cost to keep that person in prison for all of his or her natural life" (Spangenberg and Walsh 15).
"In addition to wasting lives, the death penalty also wastes money. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it's much more costly to execute a person than to imprison them for life" (Andre and Velasquez).
"The demographics of the death row population show a racial bias as well. 42% of the inmates are black, although African-Americans only account for 12.5% of the U.S. population" (Walter).
Argumentative essays have a basic structure that allows some room for the author's discretion. In a standard, five-paragraph argumentative essay, there are three sections, each with their own components.
Below is an example of an effective claim, supported by reason and on-topic, credible evidence, followed by an effective counterclaim that disagrees with and disproves the claim through its own reasoning, evidence to support the counterclaims, as well as an effective rebuttal to the counterclaim with evidence of its own. Note that every step of the argument is supported by credible evidence.
keep that person in prison for all of his or her natural life" (Spangenberg and Walsh 15).
An argumentative essay is an essay in which the author makes a claim (argument) and then attempts to persuade their audience to believe their claim through reasons, evidence, and the addressing of counterclaims. The standard format for an argumentative essay is as follows:
An effective argument contains all of the necessary components (claim, reasons, evidence, counterclaims) while keeping the intended audience in mind.
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The 4 parts of an argumentative essay are the claim, counterclaim, reasoning, and evidence. The claim is the author's argument that they are attempting to prove in the essay. The counterclaim is the opposite argument which the author addresses in order provide a rebuttal. The reasoning is the logic used to prove a claim. The evidence is the facts, data, and quoted experts used to provide support for the reasoning.
There are three parts of the structure of an argumentative essay: introduction, body, and conclusion. For a standard 5-paragraph essay, the introduction is one paragraph and contains the thesis statement, or overall claim for the essay. The body of the essay is three paragraphs and contains the author's reasoning, evidence, and counterclaims. The conclusion of the essay is one paragraph and contains an overarching summary of the argument as well as any implications this argument may have moving forward.
The function of a claim is to provide the author's argument. The overall claim for an essay is also known as the thesis and can be found in the introduction of the essay. Sometimes, an author breaks their overall claim, or thesis, into smaller claims called sub-claims.
A counterclaim is an argument that argues in opposition to the author's claim. An effective counterclaim works to disagree with and disprove the author's claim. If the author's claim is that organ selling should be legalized, an example of an effective counterclaim would be that organ selling should not be legalized because it can drive up the cost of organ transplants, meaning that only the rich could afford to receive a transplant.
This counterclaim both disagrees with the claim and disproves it with on-topic reasoning.
The main purpose of a counterclaim is to address the opposite side of the argument and provide a rebuttal. A rebuttal is when the author disproves an argument. So, not only does the author work on proving their claim, but they work on disproving the counterclaim or opposition's argument.
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