College students being assigned academic papers are not only to master their writing skills but also to learn to take their stands. Every point of view in an essay or coursework should be proven with arguments as well as supported by relevant evidence. If you don’t know how to do it professionally, follow this step-by-step route to create good arguments.
Step 1: Searching for a Claim
After choosing the topic for your future paper, start searching for the related issues which could be covered during the process of writing. Don’t use a claim that can’t be reinforced by facts or personal experience – it seems hollow. The good one must be challenging enough to hook the audience and solvable at the same time. Besides, check the following things:
Validity
The idea which is going to be discussed in the essay shouldn’t be unsubstantiated, but it has to be borne out by the solid facts. To make sure your claim is appropriate, surf the web, read periodicals, etc.
Also, you must know what actually the claim is. It is not a description or a summary of the information provided in the paper. It is a point of view on the issue which is going to be proved in the underlying paragraphs and transformed into an argument.
Attractiveness
Don’t choose such topics that may seem boring or incredibly complicated for an average reader familiar with your field of study. Many students use obsolete claims which have been discussed many times before. Try to attract the audience by a fresh little-known idea.
Justification
Even if the claim is valid but you don’t know how to back it up with the relevant data, the argument remains weak. There are a lot of theories on the Internet based on nothing, so beware.
The best place to go through lots of potential evidence is the Internet, but the majority of articles on unknown websites should be verified by more reputable resources. To find the facts, you may use printed and online publications, textbooks, dissertations, etc.
Step 2: Making an Argument
There are a few kinds of evidence. Let’s get acquainted with the most common of them:
Facts
The fact is an indisputable truth. While providing the reader with them, you aren’t leaving them even a single gap to doubt about your argument. Such information may be represented by:
- Numbers
With the population quantity – about 44,500 people for each square kilometer – the capital of Bangladesh – Dhaka – is the most populated city on the Earth.
- Names
Some people deem that human beings were created by God, but Charles Darwin has already proved the origins of our species.
- Dates
The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 with the huge number of members in 2017.
This kind of evidence is the best to start involving the reader into an argument.
Judgments
Basing on already mentioned facts, the student can make his or her own assumption how the events could unfolding unless the situation existed. Even though the judgment can't be immediately proven, it should be built on valid links revealed after examining the evidence.
For instance,
If staff on Chernobyl nuclear power plant adhered to the operation rules of the object, the accident could never happen.
Testimonials
The testimony is another kind of evidence used for the creation of the convincing argument. There are two types of it: information from eyewitnesses and an expert opinion on this issue. Both have their benefits and shortcomings.
The account of an eyewitness is the best way to find facts and to write them up as a memo or personal experience. People love individual stories and examples from life so you may grab your audience’s attention by adding such testimony to your academic paper. The shortcoming of this one is the absence of 100% credibility of the information – any evidence from a person may be subjective. Let’s have a look at the example:
This person spent 4 years working at McDonald's and they can assure you that the fast food fully corresponds to the industry sanitation terms and conditions. He saw it firsthand that the company supplies only natural semi-finished products to the McDonald's kitchens.
An expert opinion implies thorough fact’s revision by a professional in the chosen field of study. It resembles more a judgment with the only difference from the previously mentioned evidence: it is not an author's finding. The disadvantage of it – any claim from an expert may be disputed by the other expert. Thus, such evidence does not purport to be the final truth. For instance,
Entrepreneur Alistair Milne trusts that if Bitcoin returns to the market-leading position of approximately 84% (where it was before the Bitcoin Unlimited/forking fears), the price will be about $7000 in the nearest future.
Documentary Evidence
Such information can be taken from various documents: letters, diaries, laws, unpublished writings, speeches, and many others.
“Every person who lives in the USA is less likely to be considered an outsider anywhere within its borders.” – Thus wrote Martin Luther King in his famous letter.
During the writing, you should use different kinds of evidence to make your paper more convincing and diverse.
Step 3: Checking
It can happen that you have missed something while composing your argument. Before delivering an assignment to the professor or presenting it to a wide audience, check every argument in the essay.
To do the revision more effectively, try to:
- Reread your claim for a few times and make sure you proved it;
- Ask friends or relatives to listen to the arguments;
- Get a list of possible questions and find the answers in your paper.
If something remains unclear, solve the problem and add some more evidence which will finally persuade even the most demanding reader.
Take the creation of arguments responsibly because this part of the writing process is probably the most important. By filling your paper with relevant evidence, you may compel the reader to overlook less significant shortcomings such as formatting errors or an imperfect structure.
