Researched Argument Assignment | Essay Help Services

Researched Argument // ENG 102

Length: 5-7 pages; double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman, 1 inch margins
Documentation: Cite at least 3 scholarly sources and include them in an MLA or APA style Works Cited page. Use parenthetical citations within the paper to acknowledge quotation and paraphrase.

Note: The following is a template for this assignment. You are not bound to it, but if you organize your paper differently, you will want to be sure that your paper still does all of the work described in the template. For example, if you want to engage counterarguments throughout your paper instead of concentrating them in one particular section, that’s great. But it’s essentially that you do engage counterarguments at some point. Do not include the numbering/lettering system of the template in your paper.

1) Introduction
a) Introduce your topic. What is the problem you’ll be investigating? What is its significance?
b) Explain the particular question within your topic that your paper will pursue.
c) In a thesis of either one or two sentences, propose how you will answer this question in the most precise terms possible.

2) Overview and Literature Review
a) Provide the background the reader will need to understand your argument. Sketch the history of this topic, and the particular question you’re bringing to bear on it. Expand upon the urgency and import of this issue.
b) Discuss the existing research on this question. How has this issue been understood to date? What to do scholars and researches have to say about it? Try to go beyond “Scholars A and B say yes, scholars Y and Z say no.” Instead, try to describe how the argumentative field is organized, identifying both areas of consensus and disagreement.

3) Argument
a) Describe which areas of this issue remain understudied or poorly understood. What’s missing from this debate? How will you provide it? Elaborate on the thesis, explaining how you intend to further the discussion in this paper. Develop your solution in detail.
b) Throughout section a), engage the existing research and use it to build your own points. Draw on evidence, from studies and/or simply through reasoning, for your claims. This is the core of your paper; each point and each claim must be thoroughly substantiated. Show that you understand this issue thoroughly and have thought hard about it from every angle.
c) Address counterarguments. Assume throughout the paper that your audience is inclined to disagree with you, and that you will need to persuade them otherwise. Do not assume they share your point of view. Come up with the strongest possible counterarguments to your own argument or proposal. Demonstrate that you thoroughly understand different or opposing points of view. Then explain how your approach anticipates and responds to these objections. This section is crucial: if you do not anticipate strong counterarguments, you will lose your reader. If you give a weak or poorly conceived account of a counterargument, you demonstrate that you don’t really understand the other’s position, and again, you will lose the reader. At the same time, if you are able to engage counterarguments effectively, you have a chance to nuance and expand upon your own argument in the process. Counterarguments allow you to explain benefits of your claim that may not be readily apparent.

4) Conclusion
​a) Encapsulate both the importance of the question you’ve been exploring and the urgency of your solution. What will be gained by adopting the approach you’ve advocated? What potential for change have you captured in this discussion?
​b) What are the major points you want the reader to take away? Note that this does not mean simply restating your thesis—it means saying the things you are able to say after the discussion that were not possible before you’ve laid out your argument.
​c) Think beyond the terms of the paper as constructed. What do we still need to know? What kinds of questions can we ask now?