How to Write an Argumentative Essay on Confucianism

If you are tasked with writing an argumentative essay on Confucianism you must follow the steps below:

What is an argumentative piece?

First of all, the argumentative essay is a type of writing where you must investigate your topic (have a look at our ready-made topics on Confucianism). You want to collect evidence, evaluate it, and then form your position on the topic.

1) Outlining

The first step is to write out the content you have. Start with an outline. Take your notes and combine them into an outline that shows your best organization (to gather more information you can use facts on Confucianism to enrich your notes). Then draft your thesis statement. This should be a single statement that explains the purpose of your work to the reader.

This statement belongs in your introduction where you introduce all of the content you will present in the body of your work. This is something that many students save for last.

2) Writing

With the body, where many students start their writing process, your job here is to show why the evidence in support of your conclusion is stronger compared to the evidence in support of the opposing views. You will actually add strength to your argument if you point out the strength found in the reasoning of the opposition and the quality of their conclusions compared to your conclusions.

• You should include supporting evidence in the form of:
  • Examples
  • Comparisons
  • Statistics
  • Anecdotes
• You should use one paragraph within the body of your text for each of the points you plan to analyze. In addition to this, you want to use transitional sentences for every paragraph to move you from one point to the next. Make sure, when doing this, that the entire essay remains well organized.

The conclusion is where you reiterate the points you made in your body, but never introduce new material.

3) Editing

When you are done writing your draft, it is time to review for editing. This means larger picture items such as proper support and flow.

After you have verified that every paragraph is properly written, in the right order, and has sufficient evidence, it is time to proofread. It is recommended that to proofread, you print a double spaced copy of your draft and take a red pen to it. When doing this, you will have to read over it several times but each time you look for something different.

• For the first read, check for spelling errors.
• For the second read, check for grammatical errors.
• For the third read, check for punctuation errors.
• The fourth read, check for citation errors.

Checking line by line, for one type of error at a time will help you catch things that you might have otherwise not noticed. A spell check is handy, but it will not catch errors such as “defiantly” versus “definitely” since both are legitimate words, but your fingers may have simply typed the wrong word or auto-correct changed it to something else.

Remember that finding appropriate evidence to support your position will take time, but the more facts you introduce in support of your position, the better your final piece will be.