Argumentative Essay Format
Introduction—The purpose of this paragraph is to set up and state one’s claim. The writer must do so by
including a clear thesis statement.
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Make your introductory paragraph interesting. How can you grab your readers’ attention and get them
interested in the topic?
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Give a brief explanation of your topic/issue, and provide some background information to help the
readers understand your main claim.
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End your paragraph with a clear thesis statement (one sentence that clearly states your claim).
Supporting Evidence—Body Paragraph #1—The purpose of this paragraph is to support your claim and
prove your argument.
 Topic Sentence—What is one item, fact, detail, or example you can tell your readers that will help them
better understand your claim/essay topic? Your answer should be the topic sentence for this paragraph.
 Give an explanation of your topic sentence (if necessary).
 Introduce Evidence—Do this in a few words (As Dr. Brown states, “...”) or in a full sentence (To
understand this issue, one must first look at the statistics).
 State Evidence—What supporting evidence (reasons, examples, facts, statistics, and/or quotations) can
you include to prove/support/explain your topic sentence?
 Explain Evidence—How should the readers interpret the evidence you are providing? How does this
evidence prove the point you are trying to make in this paragraph? (This part can be opinion based, and
it is often one to three sentences in length).
 Concluding Sentence—End your paragraph with a concluding sentence that reasserts how the topic
sentence of this paragraph helps us to better understand your paper’s overall claim.
Supporting Evidence—Body Paragraphs 2, 3, 4, etc.—Repeat the steps above when writing these
paragraphs.
Counter-claim Paragraph (s)—The purpose of this paragraph (s) is to anticipate your readers’ objections and
make yourself sound more objective and reasonable.
 Topic Sentence—Mention the fact that other people might disagree with or argue against your claim.
 Supporting Details—What possible arguments might your readers or your opponents pose against your
claim or against some aspect of your reasoning? Insert one or more of these counter-claims here, and
refute them in an intelligent, confident, and respectful way. (The best way to refute a counter-claim is to
refute the logic, data, and/or evidence that your opponents are using to support their main claims).
 Concluding Sentence—Reassert your paper’s main claim, and again remind the readers that the counterclaims are weaker than the evidence you provided.
Conclusion—Part 1—(Sum up Paragraph)—The purpose of this paragraph is to remind the readers of your
argument and your supporting evidence.
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There is no exact format for this paragraph. You should, however, creatively restate your thesis (or main
claim) somewhere in this paragraph, and you should also summarize your paper’s supporting evidence.
(This paragraph is, in many ways, what one would typically write in a traditional conclusion).
Conclusion—Part 2—(“So What” Paragraph)—The purpose of this paragraph is to illustrate to your teacher
that you have thought critically and analytically about this issue.
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Your conclusion SHOULD DO the following:
 Tell the readers why they should care about your paper. What is the significance of your claim?
What information should the readers take away from your paper?
 Create a sense of movement to a more complex understanding of the subject of your paper and/or
encourage the readers to take action.
 Serve as the climax of your paper. (Therefore, save your strongest analytical points for the end
of your essay, and use them to drive your conclusion).
 Utilize vivid, concrete language. (Since the conclusion determines the readers’ final impressions
of your essay, you do not want to leave the readers with the impression that your argument was
vague or unsure).
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Your conclusion SHOULD NOT DO the following:
 Simply restate your introduction paragraph. (If your conclusion says almost the exact same thing
as your introduction, it may indicate that you have not done enough critical thinking during the
course of your essay. Instead, you are simply ending where you started).
 Make new claims that require a great deal of additional support.