Lesson 4.01: Creating Arguments

Supporting a conclusion

It is important to understand the difference between an essay and an argument. In most of the other subjects you might study at school and university, you will be asked to write essays. If a question asks whether you agree with a particular claim or not, a good essay will discuss the reasons in favour of both sides of the question and then come to a judgement.

But you have already seen in Chapter 8 that an argument is different. It consists of a conclusion, supported by reasoning. If an opposing opinion is mentioned at all in an argument, it is only to show why it is wrong. Balance is a virtue in an essay, but not in an argument.

The first step in writing an argument to support a conclusion is to think of some reasons which can be used to support it. It is not likely that you will normally be asked to do this as a separate task. But it is useful to practise this skill in isolation.

Strands of reasoning

The second step in writing your own argument is to expand your reasons into strands of reasoning. One way of doing this is to provide reasoning to support a reason, which thereby becomes an Intermediate Conclusion (IC). Alternatively, the reason may be the starting point for the reasoning, and the way in which it supports the main conclusion may be expressed in an IC.

Structurally, the arguments given in Section B of the Critical Thinking exam and Document 1 of the Applied Reasoning paper are the kind of arguments you should aim to write yourself. Of course, you should not imitate the deliberate flaws and weaknesses which are introduced into those arguments for the purpose of evaluation.

Your arguments should be divided into paragraphs, each of which consists of a brief strand of reasoning supporting an IC. Follow the rule: a separate paragraph for each strand of reasoning, and a separate strand of reasoning for each paragraph. A simple way of making this structure clear and recognisable is to leave a blank line after each paragraph.

Page updated

Report abuse