Online notes on the structure of argument essays

Purpose and design

I have tried to show how the structure of a simple argument essay is more than just a collection of parts or stages, like a thesis, a preview, paragraphs with topic sentences and a conclusion. An argument essay, and in fact any coherent text, is a series of strategic moves, like making a claim and backing it up with evidence, or elaborating on a point, or making a concession. I have also tried to show how the parts of a text are linked together by chains of key-words.

The introduction paragraph

The introduction paragraph tells us what the essay is about, what the writer thinks is true, and what kind of evidence the writer is going to give. In this example essay, the writer gives a thesis, or central claim, and then backs up the thesis with general and then specific evidence. The list of specific evidence is a preview of the rest of the essay.

Making a claim and backing it up with evidence

Everything in the essay is designed to convince us that the thesis is true. The preview is a short summary of the evidence that the writer is going to give in the body of the essay.  Later, the KEY-WORDS in the preview will create a link between the thesis and each paragraph in the essay.

IntroductionThe dangers of smoking are now well known in medical science. Although smokers claim that it helps them to relax and release stress, the negative aspects of the habit outweigh the positive. Smoking is an expensive habit and it should be banned because it is a health hazard for both smokers and non-smokers and is also also addictive.

Concession and elaborations

This essay is about the negative aspects of smoking, but the writer also mentions that smoking has some positive aspects. This shows that the writer understands the opposite point of view and makes the argument stronger. This move is called concession.

The writer gives some general evidence for the thesis: smoking has negative aspects which are stronger than its positive aspects. This is elaborated, or expanded, into a list of specific evidence. The KEY-WORDS help to link these sentences together and later they will link this preview to the rest of the essay.

Making a link from Thesis to each Body-Paragraph

The writer takes the first item of evidence from the preview and elaborates or expands it in the first paragraph. The writer tells us what the first paragraph will be about in the topic sentence. The writer uses the KEY-WORDS "health problems" to link the topic sentence back to the preview.

Introduction . The dangers of smoking are now well known in medical science. Although smokers claim that it helps them to relax and release stress, the negative aspects of the habit outweigh the positive. Smoking is an expensive habit and it should be banned because it is a health hazard for both smokers and non-smokers and is also also addictive. .. Thesis - Your Argument    Preview - Main supporting Points

Linking the other body paragraphs to the Preview

The writer takes each item of evidence in the preview and elaborates or expands it into a complete sentence. These sentences become the Topic Sentences of each paragraph. The KEY-WORDS in the Preview are used to create a link with each Topic Sentence. Later, the key-words in the Topic Sentences will create a link to the sentences and ideas in each paragraph.

Smoking Should be Banned

Introduction

Thesis

The dangers of smoking are now well known in medical science. Although smokers claim that it helps them to relax and release stress, the negative aspects of the habit outweigh the positive. Smoking is an expensive habit and it should be banned because it is a health hazard for both smokers and non-smokers and is also also addictive.

Preview

Paragraph 1

Topic Sentence

Cigarette smoking causes a number of health problems which are expensive to treat. It is a major cause of respiratory diseases such as asthma, lung cancer and bronchitis. It also leads to heart disease. In spite of the money which the Government receives from taxing cigarettes, the cost of medical treatment for these diseases exceeds this income. As a consequence, non smoking taxpayers are forced to pay for the health costs of smokers. This is a very unfair situation.

Paragraph 2

Topic Sentence

Another reason for banning smoking is that cigarette smoke affects the health of non-smokers and unborn babies. Non-smokers soften suffer from eye and nose irritations, allergies and headaches as a result of inhaling second-hand smoke. There is also evidence to suggest that passive smoking may cause lung cancer. Smoking during pregnancy can hinder to growth of the foetus and may even result in death.

Paragraph 3

Topic Sentence

Finally, the nicotine which is found in cigarettes is highly addictive. Other addictive substances such as cocaine and heroin are illegal. The fact that tobacco remains legal is an anomaly.

Conclusion

Review

Thus, in summary, smoking causes numerous illnesses which are expensive to treat. It disturbs non-smokers and is an unhealthy addiction. Therefore, cigarettes should definitely be banned so as to make the world a better place for everyone.

The tree-structure graphics were created using a program called RSTTool by Mick O'Donnell. RSTTool is a program for mapping rhetorical relations within a text. You can find out more about rhetorical relations and how they work at the Rhetorical Structure Theory web-site. If you want to do your own analysis, you can download the RSTTool program for free from Mick O'Donnell's RSTTool page.