In order to write a good strong argumentative essay you have to form a good and strong beginning sentence thesis for your essay. This is actually the most important part of writing the essay. This is the foundation for your whole essay and it must be done from the beginning. Until you have written the thesis sentence it is pointless to try to write any other part of the essay. Take your topic, gather your information and review it until you are familiar enough with the information to form a judgment about your topic. This opinion is the point of view and the stand you have decided to take on this particular topic and it will be the idea which the essay will to try to establish. This is your thesis sentence. This is the reason why the thesis sentence has to come first when you begin to write an essay.



Now you are going to build your argument on this thesis sentence. Look over your information and go through it again, and copy down every single piece of evidence, or reason, you can find which will support your point of view. After you have done all of this you will be able to know whether your P.O.V. is valid or not. If you cannot find enough evidence to support your idea to even convince yourself of the validity of your own conclusion, then toss the idea and start over. If you don't believe in the idea then you can not write an effective argumentative essay on the subject.

Next, you need to fix your argument to have the desired effect on whoever reads the essay. Go through your evidence you have wrote down and set them in order; weakest point first and then in descending order to the strongest point. By arranging the essay this way your argument will grow in force rather than get weaker and your conclusion will have more impact on the reader. If for some reason you can not use this sort of set up then just set up the arguments in the order in which they will appear in your paper. List any contrary arguments. You must state all of these fully and fairly, but show that your viewpoint should be favored. If you do not list both sides of an argument then your essay will appear to be one sided and unconvincing.

Now, you write your outline starting with the thesis sentence. Always make sure you use proper grammar and spelling. Give a brief introduction, if it is needed, to clarify any questions that may arise. Copy your thesis sentence exactly as you wrote it to start with as the conclusion of your outline. This may seem a bit redundant but if your outline has wandered from the original idea you may find that your thesis will no longer have the impact you originally desired. By doing this little self-check you can sometimes save a lot of time and grief.

Now you check your outline and make sure there are no self-contradictory ideas, or concepts, in it and that all of the material is relevant to the essay. Cut out any gaps in your reasoning, any platitudes or dogmatic statements. These have no place in the essay. All that is left to do now is write your essay, proofread it, and turn it in!