Argumentative Essay Format

Title: ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY FORMAT
Intro:
PURPOSE: To set up and state one’s claim
OPTIONAL ELEMENTS Make your introductory paragraph interesting. How can you draw your readers in?
What background information, if any, do we need to know in order to understand your claim? If you don’t follow this paragraph with a background information paragraph, please insert that info here.

REQUIRED ELEMENTS
 If you’re arguing about a literary work—state author + title
 If you’re arguing about an issue or theory – provide brief explanation or your of issue/theory.
 If you’re arguing about a film—state director, year + title
 STATE your claim at the end of your introductory paragraph

BACKGROUND PARAGRAPH o 1-2 paragraphs tops; Optional (can omit for some papers). Also, sometimes this info is incorporated into the introduction paragraph (see above). o PURPOSE: Lays the foundation for proving your argument. o Will often include:
 Summary of works being discussed
 Definition of key terms
 Explanation of key theories

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE PARAGRAPH #1 o PURPOSE: To prove your argument. Usually is one paragraph but it can be longer. o Topic Sentence: What is one item, fact, detail, or example you can tell your readers that will help them better understand your claim/paper topic? Your answer should be the topic sentence for this paragraph. o Explain Topic Sentence: Do you need to explain your topic sentence? If so, do so here. o Introduce Evidence: Introduce your evidence either in a few words (As Dr. Brown states ―…‖) or in a full sentence (―To understand this issue we first need to look at statistics). o State Evidence: What supporting evidence (reasons, examples, facts, statistics, and/or quotations) can you include to prove/support/explain your topic sentence? o Explain Evidence: How should we read or interpret the evidence you are providing us? How does this evidence prove the point you are trying to make in this paragraph? Can