Winning the Argument

Everyone wants to be a winner. In life, we often argue with those we love. Writing an argument for a paper is not so different. The elements of a written argument are the same as the elements of an argument with a parent/sibling/significant other. Think of this scenario:

You are the person who cooks dinner in your family. Your parent/sibling/significant other/child/roommate is the one to do the dishes. You spend your time cooking up a mighty fine dinner - maybe a nice roast chicken - you know, something that makes a big mess. You eat dinner. Now, however, comes the problem. Your parent/sibling/significant other/child/roommate is not willing to do the dishes. What do you do?

Of course, you argue with him/her. Now. In this argument, what would your thesis be? Your thesis would be that the other person has to do the dishes. You would need to persuade this person that he/she should do the dishes at this point since it is obvious by the dirty pots that they are not going to wash themselves. How do you go about doing this?

Chances are that what you will do is state an argument. "Because I cooked dinner, you should wash the dishes." This is an argument supporting the fact that the other person should wash the dishes. The part of the argument that you need to prove is going to be that you cooked dinner and that it didn't magically end up on the dinner table. To prove your point, however, you would need some supporting facts. What supporting facts help your cause? Well, the simple fact that there was a roast chicken on the table, as well as mashed potatoes and green beans is a convincing fact that there was a dinner. Also, the fact that the person who should wash the dishes watched the news while you prepared all this food is a supporting fact that you cooked dinner since it means that he/she did not cook the food. In addition, you should close this argument, in order to be persuasive and all, with the point that it has always been agreed that the dishes would be washed by the person who did not make the food. Since you made the food and the other person did not, it is the other person's responsibility to wash the dishes.

Writing an argument for an essay is the same principle. Every essay should have arguments that prove the thesis. These arguments require facts. Any good supporting argument will have the following structure:

1) A Topic Sentence (this will be a special post all on its own)
2) A discussion of how this argument relates to your thesis.
3) Facts to support your topic sentence.
4) A conclusion proving how and why this argument argument has proved this thesis.

All of these elements must be incorporated in an essay argument in the same way that you would incorporate them into an argument with someone about dishes.

For example,imagine your essay is about the Red Sox being the best team in baseball. One argument supporting this might be that the talent on the team is better than those on other teams. Let's see how the four elements of the argument work with this example:

1) Topic Sentence: The Red Sox are the best team in baseball because the players are extremely talented.

2) Talent is important to the success of a baseball team because how well each player does adds up throughout the season. Even if the team has people who can hit well, without a solid pitching staff that team will not be successful. Thus, all the players have to be talented.

3) Examples of facts would include ERAs, batting averages, as well as quotations from various sportwriters (ESPN, Sports Illustrated) discussing the way the players perform in the games. You might even want to use quotations that discuss the fact that Red Sox players are more talented than, say, Mets players.

4) You would want to, at this point, explain that a good batting average means the person hits a lot of balls and that in doing this it brings in runs. Bringing in runs allows the team to score more points. Scoring the most points wins the baseball game. Winning the baseball game makes them a good team.

The last part of the argument, the explanation, is the important part. Always try to tie your arguments back to your thesis. Even though it may seem obvious that winning games makes a team good, you need to explain all of the how's and why's to your reader. Not explaining why you are correct in an essay is the same as doing nothing but complaining about dirty dishes. It proves nothing and only frustrates the other person!

In the same way, when writing an academic essay, you use quotations for your proof. An author is often an expert on a topic. That expert has a lot more knowledge about a topic than you do. When writing an essay for a class, you should always incorporate at least one other person's point to prove that yours is correct. For example, if you are writing an essay on why Will Ferrell is one of today's funniest comedians, look for reviews of his movies that discuss this. People who review movies for a living have seen a lot more movies than you have. They get paid to do nothing BUT watch movies! Obviously, someone who spends his/her whole life watching movies is going to be someone that people will believe when he/she compares Will Ferrell's talent to that of other actors. Quote what the movie reviewers say about Will Ferrell's performance. Look at several different reviews for several different movies. Discussing only one movie is like saying that one winning baseball game, even if the rest of the season is nothing but losses, makes that team the best team in the sport. You need to show that Will Ferrell has been funny and well liked in everything he has done, or at least in most of it.

The more facts and quotations you have to support your point, the more people will listen to you. The more people listen to you, the better a case you are making. Think of a burglary trial - even a fictional one such as those on Law & Order or CSI. In order to prove that the person stole something, the prosecution has to have a lot of evidence to support its point. The prosecution can't just say, "the defendant really liked the candlestick so he obviously stole it." That isn't a very convincing argument. Lots of people like things that others own. They don't just steal them; they buy their own. However, if the prosecution has evidence such as fingerprints that put the defendant at the scene of the crime, the case becomes more compelling. Even further, if the prosecution has fingerprints, finds the exact object in the defendant's home with the owner's fingerprints on it, pictures of the person entering the home from a video alarm system, and witnesses as well as a reason that defendant would want the specific object and not want to buy his own (what if it's a one-of-a-kind candlestick?), the case is likely to be won. If there is any doubt at all, the prosecutor will lose the case.

Think of your essays as though a jury is listening to you argue a point. You want them to believe you are right. You want them to find no doubts in your case. You want your arguments to be clear and convincing. You want to have the winning argument!