I’m tired of coming up with interesting titles for all these essays. Do I really need to come up with another one?

Yes. Absolutely you do.

Your title is the first chance you have at breaking through to your reader, connecting with them, and gently nudging them towards your side. If your title is clever, engaging, and related to your topic or position, then you’ve given yourself a much better chance at persuading your readers to agree with your argument.

How should I start my essay?

You really just get one sentence^[1] to grab your reader’s attention and convince them to engage with your writing. That’s it. You really want to start your paper off with a banger of a sentence rather than a whimper of dull academic drudgery. Find something related to your topic^[2] that is surprising, interesting, vividly descriptive, challenging, controversial—anything, really, so long as it pulls the reader in and gets them focused on your topic. That’s why they call that first sentence the “hook” of the essay. There’s more discussion of this back in the Tertiary Phase FAQ.

Where should I put my thesis statement?

While there is some flexibility here, the best place to learn to put your thesis statement at first is at the end of your introduction. This allows you the chance to start your introduction with some kind of hook that grabs the reader’s attention and pulls them into the paper and focuses them on the topic you’ve chosen. Then, you can present whatever background information they might need to fully understand your discussion of the topic. Finally, you’ll lead them to your main point about the topic, which is your thesis statement. That’s the basic flow of an academic-essay introduction.

Your introduction is now finished, and everything else that you add becomes the body of your paper, and the whole body of the paper serves to show your reader that your thesis statement is true.

How should I organize my argumentative essay?

There are a couple of valid ways to assemble your argumentative essay. The first and most straightforward looks a bit like this:

1. Introduction – Include a hook, an introduction to the topic or issue, and any background information that the reader might require, ending with a clear statement of your thesis.
2. Reason – State one of the reasons why your position is correct, along with supporting evidence, examples, explanations, statistics, etc.
3. More Reasons – Continue stating reasons along with evidence
4. Counter Argument – Once you’ve stated all of your reasons, make sure you acknowledge one of the opposing arguments and then refute or discuss it.
5. Conclusion – End with a restatement of your position, a call to action, a discussion of the significance of your position, or some other way to conclude your paper.

However, you might also consider organizing your paper in a slightly different way that deals with counter arguments after each of the points you make. This takes more time, but it also shows that your argument is super solid since you consider the opposing side’s views after every point you make. This pattern looks a bit like this:

1. Introduction – Same elements as above
2. Reason – Same as above
3. Counter Argument – Mention the opposition’s criticism of the reason you just stated, and refute or discuss it
4. Another Reason – Your second reason, along with whatever evidence you have to support it.
5. Counter Argument – What does the opposition say about your second reason? Deal with that here.
6. Repeat as Needed – Continue this pattern of reason + counter argument until you have given all of your reasons.
7. Conclusion – Same as above

As you consider which order to present your reasons in, keep in mind that people will remember most what they read last. This usually means that you want to place your strongest, most persuasive reason at the end of your paper. The second most convincing reason should probably go first in the body of your paper because that’s going to grab their attention early on and bring them toward your side. The least significant reasons, then, should go in the middle of your body since they are least likely to be remembered.

Can I use social media posts as sources to support my argument?

No. And yes.

Social media is a great way for people to connect with others and share their ideas. It’s not a great place, however, to figure out who is sharing the best, most accurate information. Someone can get lots of exposure because they are charismatic and draw people in with their personality, even though the information they share is inaccurate or biased. Attractive people with a poor comprehension of an issue will draw bigger crowds than people with average looks but genius-level understanding of a topic. So, you shouldn’t depend on social media to provide you with the information you include in your writing.

However, you are welcome to use social media posts as a source. Of course you are. I would not recommend, though, that you use social media as your only source. Using a social media post in addition to a research study or an expert’s explanation is a great approach that shows a balance of views taken from multiple areas. Just make sure that you’re not giving the social media more attention or significance than the actual expert’s writing or views.

Do I really need a Works Cited or References page for the one source I used in my paper?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

The Works Cited^[3] or References^[4] page should still be included no matter how many sources you have. The only time that the number of sources affects those pages is when you have no sources—then, clearly, you don’t need to include one. Any other non-zero number of sources requires a Works Cited or References page. It should still start on a new page, and all sources should be listed in alphabetical order, just like you did for the issue-analysis report.

People who disagree with my position are idiots. Can’t I just say that?

Okay, sure. Let’s follow that train of thought and see how it would affect your reader.

Imagine a reader that is unsure of their position on a particular issue. They haven’t really made up their mind about it. They’ve heard arguments from both sides, and portions of both viewpoints resonate with them and make some sense, but they do lean a smidge in the direction of your opposition’s ideas.

This reader is exactly who you are trying to reach with your argumentative paper, right? They’re undecided and open to hearing ideas that could sway their opinions. Then they read your paper which refers to ideas that they kind of agree with, and you call people who believe that idiots, which means you’re calling your reader an idiot. How much of a chance do you have to persuade them to believe you now? Not much of one.

The biggest thing you can do to persuade your readers is to gain their trust, and you won’t do that by insulting the opposite side, mostly because you could be directly insulting the readers themselves if they kind of hold those views.

Everyone I know agrees with me. Doesn’t that make my argument strong?

Having a large group of people that agree with you is awesome. You feel good, you all bounce ideas off of each other, and everyone else nods along in agreement. How could you not feel great in that setting?

On the other hand, how many times in history have large groups of people^[5] been very, very wrong about something? It has happened many times.

If your only reason for believing in your position is that a lot of other people believe it, you’re falling victim to a classic logical fallacy: the ad populum approach.^[6] This fallacy suggests that the strength of your argument comes from the number of people who agree with you instead of finding strength in the logical justification of your position. If so many people agree with you, there has to be a reason, right? I mean, they can’t all be wrong, can they?^[7]

Instead of arguing that you’re right because a lot of people agree with you, argue that a lot of people believe your position because of reasons X, Y, and Z, and focus on the reasons and how strong they are. Give evidence to support those reasons. Find experts who have done good research that supports your reasons. Share examples of how your reasons have affected people. Do all of that work to build a solid argument instead of the very soft non-support of “a lot of people think this is right.”