When preparing to argue you must be certain of a few things to be successful. If you aren’t prepared on these key items your argument could turn into a complete disaster for you and leave you in your opponent’s dust. When writing an argument you must have a clear position on the matter at hand, you must have adequate support, and your argument must have an absence of fallacies.
The first objective when writing a reasonable argument is to state a clear position on the matter. Keep an open mind to your opponents view. Many times a writer will feel one way about a topic until they actually see the other side of the case and decide to change their mind. Exploring may lead you to a new position or give you more ammo for your side of the case. Also anticipate opposing views. To be convincing you must be aware of the other side of the issue. You must know where the other person is coming from to be totally prepared.
Next, give adequate support and decide which points of the argument to include. Offer evidence that effectively supports your claims. A personal experience is one way to accomplish this. When you state a personal experience, your audience will see that you yourself have actually been there in that situation, which will give you more credibility. Another way is to give factual information that you have gathered from research. Giving factual information is a good way to gain credibility because it is information that has been proven by experts. Also, use graphs, charts, or diagrams to better emphasize a major point or idea.
Finally, find the appropriate tone for your argument. Remember that you are trying to persuade or change your audience’s mind, not to isolate them. When you make a reader feel as if they are being pushed away they will not try to see your viewpoint of the topic. Also, instead of trying to force your position on the matter down their throat, try to present your ideas in a more calm and accommodating way to your readers....