The argumentative essay is a genre of writing that requires the student to investigate a topic; collect, generate, and evaluate evidence; and establish a position on the topic in a concise manner. Argumentative essays are also known as “persuasive essays,” “opinion essays,” or “position papers.” In an argumentative essay, the author adopts a position on a debatable issue and uses reason and evidence to convince the reader of his/her opinion.
One type of argumentative writing creates a logical argument to convince people that your idea or argument or position is more reasonable or sound than another one.To do this well it is important to state facts, evidence, and examples from research, case histories, testimony or quotes from experts, legal cases, and scientific experiments. In addition, argumentative writing techniques can be used to persuade people and get them to believe your idea and take action. Some of the ways you can do this is by appealing to reason or emotion, using vivid examples, and by getting testimony from people with first hand knowledge.
One type of argumentative text is the position paper. the position paper presents an arguable opinion about an issue. The goal of a position paper is to convince the audience that your opinion is valid and worth listening to. Your job is to take one side of the argument and present it in a manner that is easy for your audience to understand and shows them you have well-founded knowledge of the topic being presented. It is important to support your argument with evidence, as well as to speak to any counterclaims to show you are addressing all sides of the issue.
Similar to this, a proposal argument is one of the most common and effective forms of argumentation. A proposal argument defines a problem, suggests a remedy, solution or course of action for a specified audience; and uses specific tactics to persuade others to take action. Likewise, a persuasive essay is one in which you attempt to get the reader to agree with your point of view. You are trying to present arguments, research, and ideas in order to sway the reader one way or the other. The chart below shows the differences to remember when writing a position paper to inform, or a persuasive to influence others.
