Learning to Write Convincingly: Topic Ideas for Argumentative Essays

Convincing writing is something that takes a degree of skill. Most students don’t think they’re good at writing or don’t like it, and this makes it harder to write argumentative essays. If that sounds like you, then this article should help. We’ll explore how to write to convince someone, tips for writing well and editing, as well as topics you can use for your essay. Writing an argumentative essay is something that requires a very particular focus and format. These are different from any other essay because you’re presenting something in order to convince the reader to agree with your point of view. Because of this, you need to have good enough arguments to show your perspective. These arguments should be backed up with evidence and research.

Writing Convincingly

The key to convincing writing is first acknowledging the other side of the argument and showing that you understand it. You have to research both sides when you’re doing the work for this essay. Talk about in your introduction how the other side thinks. For each body argument, mention a counter-argument that the people who believe other than you, would probably come up with and then shoot it down. In the conclusion, have a convincing quote or poignant question to make the reader think that you just might be right.

Tips for Writing Well

In general, good writing is learned through lots of practice. You probably don’t have time to do any particular exercises, but this argumentative essay does count as practice for future assignments. What you can do is look at example essays and take a look at what they do to make their essays good. Look at the word choices, sentence length, paragraphs, topics and ideas, and anything else that you notice. In time, you’ll get better at naturally noticing things like this and putting them into your own essay writing.

Argumentative Essay Topics

Topics for an argumentative essay need to involve an issue that doesn’t have a “black and white” answer. All shades of gray exist in the world as far as morals, philosophy, history and other things. There should be myriad perspectives and sides to the issue you choose, and you just need to defend and reason with one of them. Showing the reader of your essay that you know what you’re talking about goes a long way to convincing them you’re right.