Research-Based Argument Essay format

The Title of Your Essay in Title Case and Centered

Your introduction begins immediately. Begin with an engaging “hook” to interest your reader; within the first paragraph, fully address the reader’s rationale “Why should I care?” With the exception of any block quotes and the end references, all text should be flush left, ragged right, in the same font throughout the entire document (with the exception of italics when needed), and double-spaced. Note: this is just the standard, routine method of writing essays; never ‘justify’ text {stretched left to right margin} in basic manuscript drafts. Indent each paragraph’s first line at a standard depth by using the Tab key (the default is set to one-half inch or five to seven spaces as shown in this paragraph).

Your second of many paragraphs to come logically follows the first. You are permitted to use a simple/open narrative style such as the one show here, or you may choose to use a more formally-structured format in which you identify major sections and subsections of the essay manuscript. However, in such a relatively brief paper as required by the minimum word count requirements for this course, section and subsection headings are not required with the exception of the end bibliographic section: in APA style, this final section is simply titled “References”, and the word is centered, begins on a separate page (following your conclusion), and does not contain quotations. Please consult additional APA materials if using headings/subheadings is something you plan on doing, but again—these formal demarcations are not necessary.

By this point, but certainly no later than this third paragraph, you should have thoroughly engaged your reader as to the interesting, fascinating, intriguing, and salient, compelling nature of the particular problem or issue you will explore in this essay. You should have clearly, unambiguously, and explicitly stated the researchable (and arguable through logic and evidence) question or concise set of questions that you will rigorously investigate in your paper using peer-reviewed, professional grade scholarly resources, books, websites, journal articles, surveys and interviews. If you haven’t completed your introduction by the end of the first page—do so now!

You should beginning the body of your essay here. You will now understand why we emphasize the thoughtful construction of an in-depth outline with which to proceed writing your argument. You high-level outline provides the basic organizational strategy of your essay and should begin with the most critical element(s) of the question you are investigating. Logically, you should routinely use your most powerful, convincing, and authentic evidence and persuasive logic early in your argument. There is not an absolute rule on this approach, and some writers reverse the pattern of the strongest logic/data first and the weakest last. However, this is not an easy task to pull off successfully, and although many dramatic courtroom stories have the hero lawyer do precisely that, saving the best for last in a slam-dunk, final scene evisceration of his/her opponent. That theatrically-appealing approach is not recommended for this assignment.

It is a good idea to have multiple sources to support your most important point(s). Two heads may be better than one—and two references are often better than one in convincing the astute, discernable (i.e., critical) reader that an argument corroborated by multiple sources (from different researchers and sources) has more strength, validity, and generalizability. Musing back to the courtroom metaphor, a fair assessment is that your readers are on the jury as you prosecute (or defend) the position at issue: your researchable question. It is the jury or readers that will render the final verdict after all the evidence (on both sides of the equation) has been presented.

If there are flaws in your thinking or weaknesses in your evidence—well that’s why paper proposals, research prospectuses, and in-depth outlines were created. Any fuzziness, uncertainty, vague, obscure or unclear connections between the evidence you present and the arguments you weave should become apparent even before you begin writing, and certainly by this point in your essay (a mere 635 words!). To summarize your task: you are to (attempt to) write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood and the “verdict” falls clearly in your favor.

After you have completed the body of your essay and convincingly argued (and richly supported with sound, solid, scholarly empirical (i.e., observable, verifiable, demonstrated) research data, facts, and evidence of all kinds (graphs, illustrations, diagrams, survey results, interviews, statistics, etc.)—you should briefly summarize the major findings of your paper. This penultimate essay section is known as the summary, and you only need to restate the principal points made in your essay. One way of doing this summarizing efficiently is to take the “thesis sentence” (or data) from each of your critical paragraphs, rephrase them to flow together in a convincing and logical narrative form within one or two short paragraphs.

Finally, you have an open opportunity to expand and elaborate on your own perspectives in the paper’s conclusion (which follows the summary). The conclusion is where you can present you own ideas, models, approaches, and potential solutions to your research problem and ask: “Where do we go from here? What future research needs to be conducted to fill in the gaps to our knowledge and understanding of the problem/question? How do we get a consensus about how to move forward while reconciling all of the participants, stakeholders, policy-makers, corporate, government, and community interests?” Try to end your essay on a positive, fair-minded if not optimistic note (if at all possible)—but maintain and emphasize that something needs to be done or some definite action taken if the problem you examined is to be resolved and remedied. Address the jury’s hearts and minds (this is your last chance to persuade them that their cause is your cause, and that your view(s) should prevail) and then “rest your case”. The judge (your instructor) will act as “jury” in this case—and grade the outcome of your writing performance all things (and stated scoring rubrics) considered! Do not forget the references section that follows.

References

Each of your end references must follow the current APA style (American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition) correctly and fully. This is flush left, ragged right text—but with a hanging indent of one-half inch. Arrange all references in strict alphabetical order. Only include end references that you have specifically cited in the body of your paper. Remember that correct APA style is not ‘guesswork.’ APA is a rule-based system comprised of blocks or units separated by a period and space: {a} Author block. {b} (Date block). {c} Title block. {d} Source/Location block. Study all of the APA style (format) content/materials and numerous examples included within this course. There is ample information in the course to learn the APA style for in-text and end references (see our textbook, Everyone’s an Author, pp. 463-510; and other online course resources in the left-side Information tab). Also, feel free to explore other outside APA sources as appropriate and helpful, especially the superb, comprehensive Purdue Online Writing Lab website: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ Last, use your Blackboard group blogs for giving/receiving peer reviews, and see RCC writing tutors to authenticate your APA style in-text citations and end references.