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9.3: The Argumentative Essay

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Learning Objectives

• Examine types of argumentative essays

Argumentative Essays

You may have heard it said that all writing is an argument of some kind. Even if you’re writing an informative essay, you still have the job of trying to convince your audience that the information is important. However, there are times you’ll be asked to write an essay that is specifically an argumentative piece.

An argumentative essay is one that makes a clear assertion or argument about some topic or issue. When you’re writing an argumentative essay, it’s important to remember that an academic argument is quite different from a regular, emotional argument. Note that sometimes students forget the academic aspect of an argumentative essay and write essays that are much too emotional for an academic audience. It’s important for you to choose a topic you feel passionately about (if you’re allowed to pick your topic), but you have to be sure you aren’t too emotionally attached to a topic. In an academic argument, you’ll have a lot more constraints you have to consider, and you’ll focus much more on logic and reasoning than emotions.

Argumentative essays are quite common in academic writing and are often an important part of writing in all disciplines. You may be asked to take a stand on a social issue in your introduction to writing course, but you could also be asked to take a stand on an issue related to health care in your nursing courses or make a case for solving a local environmental problem in your biology class. And, since argument is such a common essay assignment, it’s important to be aware of some basic elements of a good argumentative essay.

When your professor asks you to write an argumentative essay, you’ll often be given something specific to write about. For example, you may be asked to take a stand on an issue you have been discussing in class. Perhaps, in your education class, you would be asked to write about standardized testing in public schools. Or, in your literature class, you might be asked to argue the effects of protest literature on public policy in the United States.

However, there are times when you’ll be given a choice of topics. You might even be asked to write an argumentative essay on any topic related to your field of study or a topic you feel that is important personally.

Whatever the case, having some knowledge of some basic argumentative techniques or strategies will be helpful as you write. Below are some common types of arguments.

Causal Arguments

• In this type of argument, you argue that something has caused something else. For example, you might explore the causes of the decline of large mammals in the world’s ocean and make a case for your cause.

Evaluation Arguments

• In this type of argument, you make an argumentative evaluation of something as “good” or “bad,” but you need to establish the criteria for “good” or “bad.” For example, you might evaluate a children’s book for your education class, but you would need to establish clear criteria for your evaluation for your audience.

Proposal Arguments

• In this type of argument, you must propose a solution to a problem. First, you must establish a clear problem and then propose a specific solution to that problem. For example, you might argue for a proposal that would increase retention rates at your college.

Narrative Arguments

• In this type of argument, you make your case by telling a story with a clear point related to your argument. For example, you might write a narrative about your experiences with standardized testing in order to make a case for reform.

Rebuttal Arguments

• In a rebuttal argument, you build your case around refuting an idea or ideas that have come before. In other words, your starting point is to challenge the ideas of the past.

Definition Arguments

• In this type of argument, you use a definition as the starting point for making your case. For example, in a definition argument, you might argue that NCAA basketball players should be defined as professional players and, therefore, should be paid.

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Essay Examples

• Click here to read an argumentative essay on the consequences of fast fashion . Read it and look at the comments to recognize strategies and techniques the author uses to convey her ideas.
• In this example, you’ll see a sample argumentative paper from a psychology class submitted in APA format. Key parts of the argumentative structure have been noted for you in the sample.

Link to Learning

For more examples of types of argumentative essays, visit the Argumentative Purposes section of the Excelsior OWL .

Contributors and Attributions

• Argumentative Essay. Provided by : Excelsior OWL. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/rhetorical-styles/argumentative-essay/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of a man with a heart and a brain. Authored by : Mohamed Hassan. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : pixabay.com/illustrations/decision-brain-heart-mind-4083469/. License : Other . License Terms : pixabay.com/service/terms/#license

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Argumentative Essay: Solution for Bullying

Bullying is a big problem for children and young people that go through it. It knocks their self-esteem and makes them lose their confidence, and can make them dread going to school each day. In extreme cases, young people can become suicidal as a result of bullying, while in other very serious cases, it can get out of hand and lead to the bully murdering their victim. It’s also a huge problem for parents and teachers, because stopping bullying is a hard task and they often don’t know the best ways to go about it. There are three key elements to stopping bullying: educating the bullies, imposing greater sanctions for the bullies, and protecting the victim.

The reason that bullies must be educated is that many of them are not aware of exactly how much they are hurting their victim. In serious cases, it is probably wholly deliberate, but even then, most bullies wouldn’t want their victim to become as suicidal as they have made them. Bullying can come in all sorts of forms and one that affects girls in particular is a group of so-called friends excluding them from everything. In cases like these, if the bullies understood that they had become bullies picking on a victim, they may think twice.

The second way to deal with the bullies is to punish them. This could be the only thing that works for incredibly nasty people, because they will only care when it begins to affect them. Bullying often isn’t taken seriously enough; for example, if you punched a person in the middle of the street you would probably be arrested, but if it happens in a case of bullying, the perpetrator might get a detention. It is important not to allow things to happen in school that they would never get away with out in the real world, and children and young people who don’t have boundaries and sanctions imposed as they grow up may not obey the law as adults.

The final main way to deal with bullying involves working with the victim. Victims of bullying need to know their self-worth so that they don’t just accept what’s happening to them, and need to be taught to be assertive without just being aggressive. They should also be taught that self-defence is allowed when necessary, and should not be punished for it, while it is very important that adults always listen to them and take their concerns very seriously.

All in all, there is no one single solution for bullying, but it’s not good enough to ignore it just because it’s hard to deal with. By using a combination of these three tactics, teachers should be able to stop bullying at school long before it gets out of hand.

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Persuasive Essay Writing

Persuasive Essay About Bullying

Learn How To Craft a Powerful Persuasive Essay About Bullying

Published on: Jan 24, 2023

Last updated on: Jan 29, 2024

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Are you looking for ways to craft a powerful persuasive essay about bullying? Writing an effective and engaging persuasive essay is no easy task.

However, with some preparation and planning, it can be a piece of cake! 

From outlining strong arguments to providing examples, we will explain all details of composing a perfect persuasive essay about bullying.

So without further ado, let’s get started!

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Writing a Perfect Persuasive Essay About Bullying 

Bullying is a major issue that affects many children, teens, and adults in schools, workplaces, and other environments. 

Writing a persuasive essay about bullying can effectively raise awareness of the problem and find solutions.

Here are a few components of a persuasive essay that you should include:

• An Introduction 

Start your essay with an interesting introduction that explains the concept of bullying and its effects on those involved.

Provide evidence to support your argument using facts, statistics, and personal accounts to support your claims. 

Offer potential solutions to the problem of bullying. Focus on proposing effective solutions that can be implemented in schools and other environments where bullying is a common issue.

• Call to Action

Conclude your essay with a call to action for both victims and bystanders of bullying. Encourage them to stop it or report it when they witness it happening.

Here Is How You Can Write a Persuasive Essay About Bullying Introduction 

Writing an introduction to a persuasive essay about bullying can be challenging.

To start, it's important to understand the purpose of the introduction. It is to provide a brief overview of the topic and introduce your thesis statement. 

• Begin by providing a general overview of the topic of bullying.
• Introduce the main point of your essay: your thesis statement. 
• Create a hook for your introduction to draw readers into your topic and compel them to read further. 
• State why this issue is important and relevant, providing evidence from authoritative sources to support your claims. 
• Conclude your introduction with a summary of the main points you will make in the essay. 

How To Write Body Paragraphs In a Persuasive Essay About Bullying

Body paragraphs in a persuasive essay about bullying should focus on providing evidence to support the thesis statement. 

This can be done through various research methods such as interviews, surveys, and personal experiences. 

Paper Due? Why Suffer? That's our Job!

Here are five ways to effectively write body paragraphs for a persuasive essay about bullying:

1. Utilize vivid tone and descriptive imagery

2. Present evidence - Provide facts, figures, and other evidence to support your argument. 

3. Discuss consequences: Explain how bullying hurts individuals, communities, and society. 

4. Make a call to action: Ask the reader to participate in anti-bullying initiatives or speak up when they witness bullying.

5. Offer solutions: Suggest ways to prevent bullying, such as implementing more school-wide programs or teaching students.

How To Write The Conclusion In a Persuasive Essay About Bullying

The conclusion of a persuasive essay about bullying should summarize the key arguments. 

It should provide a call to action for readers to take further steps in preventing or stopping bullying.

Check out this amazing video!

Lastly, it is important to end on a positive note, reassuring readers that progress is possible.

Learn more about making perfect persuasive essay outlines in this amazing blog!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Bullying

We have shared some practical examples of persuasive essays on bullying so that you can get inspired and start crafting your paper. 

Persuasive essay about bullying must stop

Short Example of Persuasive essay about bullying

Persuasive essay about bullying in school

Cyber Bullying Persuasive Essay

Bullying Persuasive Speech

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Bullying

These essay samples can give you a helpful look at how other students have approached this complex topic before. 

Argumentative Essay About Bullying Introduction, Body, Conclusion

Argumentative essay about bullying pdf

Check out this amazing blog by our expert writers on persuasive essay examples !

Interesting Persuasive Essay Topics About Bullying

Have a look at these inspiring topics. You might get motivation for your next persuasive essay. 

• Should Schools Implement Mandatory Training Programmes to Address Bullying?
• What Role Do Parents and Guardians Play in Preventing Bullying? 
• Is Online Harassment on the Rise and How Can We Stop it?
• How Effective Are Anti-Bullying Policies at Schools?
• Should Employers be Responsible for Preventing Bullying in the Workplace? 
• How Can We Make Schools a Safer Place to Help Students Avoid Bullying?
• Is Social Media Making Bullying Worse? 
• Are Laws and Regulations Regarding Cyberbullying Effective Enough?
• Should Teachers Be Held Accountable for Bullying in the Classroom?
• What Are Some of the Long-Term Effects of Bullying on Victims? 
• How Can We Encourage Bystanders to Speak Out Against Bullying? 
• Is Cyberbullying More Difficult for Parents and Schools to Stop Than Traditional Bullying? 
• Should Government Intervention be Required to Address the Bullying Crisis in Schools?
• How Can We Help Victims of Bullying Heal and Recover? 
• What Are Some Effective Ways to Prevent Bullying From Occurring?

Check out some more persuasive essay topics to get inspiration for your next essay.

In conclusion, consider all aspects of the issue when writing a persuasive essay on bullying. You should provide evidence to support your point of view and address any potential counterarguments. 

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Bullying Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on bullying.

Bullying refers to aggressive behavior so as to dominate the other person. It refers to the coercion of power over others so that one individual can dominate others. It is an act that is not one time, instead, it keeps on repeating over frequent intervals.  The person(s) who bullies others can be termed as bullies, who make fun of others due to several reasons. Bullying is a result of someone’s perception of the imbalance of power.

Types of bullying :

There can be various types of bullying, like:

• Physical bullying:  When the bullies try to physically hurt or torture someone, or even touch someone without his/her consent can be termed as physical bullying .
• Verbal bullying:  It is when a person taunts or teases the other person.
• Psychological bullying:  When a person or group of persons gossip about another person or exclude them from being part of the group, can be termed as psychological bullying.
• Cyber bullying:  When bullies make use of social media to insult or hurt someone. They may make comments bad and degrading comments on the person at the public forum and hence make the other person feel embarrassed. Bullies may also post personal information, pictures or videos on social media to deteriorate some one’s public image.

Read Essay on Cyber Bullying

Bullying can happen at any stage of life, such as school bullying, College bullying, Workplace bullying, Public Place bullying, etc. Many times not only the other persons but the family members or parents also unknowingly bully an individual by making constant discouraging remarks. Hence the victim gradually starts losing his/her self-esteem, and may also suffer from psychological disorders.

A UNESCO report says that 32% of students are bullied at schools worldwide. In our country as well, bullying is becoming quite common. Instead, bullying is becoming a major problem worldwide. It has been noted that physical bullying is prevalent amongst boys and psychological bullying is prevalent amongst girls.

Prevention strategies:

In the case of school bullying, parents and teachers can play an important role. They should try and notice the early symptoms of children/students such as behavioral change, lack of self-esteem, concentration deficit, etc. Early recognition of symptoms, prompt action and timely counseling can reduce the after-effects of bullying on the victim.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Anti-bullying laws :

One should be aware of the anti-bullying laws in India. Awareness about such laws may also create discouragement to the act of bullying amongst children and youngsters. Some information about anti-bullying laws is as follows:

• Laws in School: To put a notice on the notice board that if any student is found bullying other students then he/she can be rusticated. A committee should be formed which can have representatives from school, parents, legal, etc.
• Laws in Colleges: The government of India, in order to prevent ragging , has created guideline called “UGC regulations on curbing the menace of ragging in Higher Education Institutions,2009”.
• Cyber Bullying Laws: The victim can file a complaint under the Indian Penal Code .

Conclusion:

It is the duty of the parents to constantly preach their children about not bullying anyone and that it is wrong. Hence, if we, as a society need to grow and develop then we have to collectively work towards discouraging the act of bullying and hence make our children feel secure.

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Argumentative essay on bullying

Bullying is recognized as a form of aggressive behavior that repeatedly implicates severe consequences to the victims. Even though bullying commonly happens in childhood, the impact can last well into adulthood. In order to provide them with such education and successfully decrease the bullying issues from schools, we need to determine the causes and effects that school bullying poses on children.

Children who bully usually come from dysfunctional families which conflict misbehavior and often child neglect or abuse. Based on the survey, a significant number of prone to bullying come from families that left with bad affection and devotion. In such families, parents may often be an example of inappropriate behavior, such as aggressive acts towards their friends, siblings or anyone around them. In order to make themselves feel better and confident to face other, they will intentionally and continuously react aggressively and simulate it with their peers. This is because they became overwhelmed with the power and attention that they got from other people and encourage them to gain popularity as well as the ability to have others afraid of them.

Other than that, many students have not learned how to manage the pressure from unmet expectations or lack the ability to solve a problem in their personal life. which make they vent their frustrations on those around them. This happen when the bully themself have difficulty in communicating to others when they have a problem. They feel powerless in an environment where the adult is always right. They may express that anger and helplessness by showing their frustration and anger on someone else especially on those whom are weak and don’t have the ability to protect themselves whenever the got into a problem. When people get frustrated and angry, they can usually stop themselves from doing things that will hurt others because they don’t have the ability to regulate their emotions, small annoyances can provoke them and cause them to severely overreact.

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“Parenting Doesn’t Matter”? Tell Me Another One.

This emergent consensus makes no sense to me.

This essay was adapted from Melinda Wenner Moyer’s newsletter, Is My Kid the Asshole? Subscribe here .

The other day, a friend pointed me to Arthur C. Brooks’ new essay in the Atlantic, “ The One Big Thing You Can Do for Your Kids .” Brooks is a Harvard social scientist, an Atlantic columnist, a former president of the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of 13 books, including  one he co-wrote with Oprah Winfrey.

Brooks makes a lot of points in his essay that I support. Like the assertion that “the parenting technique that truly matters is warmth and affection” and the argument that “you will make a lot of mistakes, but mostly they won’t matter.”

In other words, Brooks says, we don’t have to be perfect parents. Our kids will be OK.

I totally agree, but I’m not at all convinced by the premise for his argument. Brooks argues that it’s OK for us to make mistakes as parents because how we parent doesn’t matter—our children’s characteristics are shaped far more by nature (genes) than nurture (environment). “A huge amount of personality is biological and inherited,” Brooks writes, citing a couple of studies.

I think he’s overreaching here—and also overlooking other important considerations.

First, Brooks cites a study suggesting that genes play a large role in shaping personality. He writes:

One 1996 study involving 123 pairs of identical twins (who share 100 percent of their genes) and 127 pairs of fraternal twins (who, like any other pair of siblings, share about 50 percent)  estimated  that 41 percent of neuroticism may be inherited, as well as 53 percent of extroversion, 61 percent of openness to experience, 41 percent of agreeableness, and 44 percent of conscientiousness.

Yet, when I think about who I want my kids to become, I’m not focused on broad personality traits like these. I mean, yes—I hope that my kids don’t end up neurotic, and I hope that they grow up to be conscientious, agreeable, and open to new experiences. (I couldn’t care less about extroversion.) But what I care about far more are their values and choices. Will my son treat girls and women with the respect they deserve? Will my kids be anti-racist? Will they stand up for—or at least show support and compassion for—peers who are being bullied?

These questions aren’t answered by that study. But they are addressed by others, which suggest that what we do as parents absolutely shapes kids’ values and behavior toward others. We know that the conversations parents have with kids about racism, sexism, sex, consent, and bullying make a difference in terms of what values kids hold and how they behave toward others; I cite plenty of this research in  my first book . Other studies have found  that broad parenting practices shape kids’ values and moral development. Some studies even suggest  that the quality of the parent-child relationship affects how strongly various traits are shaped by genes vs. the environment—suggesting that how we raise our kids doesn’t merely affect how our kids turn out; it also affects just how much of an influence we have.

I want to spend a second reflecting on the numbers in that personality trait study too. The study finds that “41 percent of neuroticism may be inherited, as well as 53 percent of extroversion, 61 percent of openness to experience, 41 percent of agreeableness, and 44 percent of conscientiousness.”

If 41 percent or 53 percent or 61 percent of a trait is inherited, that means that the rest—a substantial portion!—is not inherited. This again suggests that the environment in which kids are raised  does  matter.

A few years ago, for this newsletter , I interviewed  Danielle Dick , a psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University who specifically studies genetic and environmental influences on human behavior. Dick explained to me that, yes, our kids’ genes absolutely shape who they will become. “The research unambiguously shows that our children’s genes play a large role in their behavior,” she told me.

But then she added: “I’m absolutely not saying that parents don’t matter.”

I was interviewing Dick because she wrote a (wonderful!) parenting book called  The Child Code: Understanding Your Child’s Unique Nature for Happier, More Effective Parenting —and if genes were the only thing that mattered, I daresay she would not have penned a book full of parenting advice. In  The Child Code , Dick argues that when making parenting choices, parents should consider how their kids are wired, because aligning parenting strategies with kids’ temperaments can make them more effective.

Back to Brooks’ essay. To support his argument that parents don’t matter, Brooks also mentions a 2021 study  that investigated the link between specific parenting behaviors and personality. Brooks described this study as showing that “in most aspects, parenting mattered about as much as birth order—which is to say, its effect was little to none.”

Yet, in the very next paragraph, Brooks highlights two important exceptions: The personality traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness were shaped by parenting. Conscientiousness was found to be shaped by parent involvement in kids’ lives and how much cultural stimulation parents provided, and agreeableness was shaped by how much structure the parents provided—did they make their kids do their homework, etc.?—and parents’ goals.

Conscientiousness and agreeableness are among the personality traits I care about most because they most closely align with being a good human being—and this study, which Brooks cites as evidence that parenting doesn’t matter, suggests to me that parenting does matter for these traits. Other studies have reported that the environment plays an important role in shaping social values too.

It’s also worth highlighting that this 2021 study looked only at how personality traits were shaped by four specific parenting factors: parental goals, parental involvement in their kids’ school, parental structure, and parental cultural stimulation. The study didn’t investigate the impact of so many other things we as parents do, such as the conversations we have with our kids and how we engage with their emotions (which, research suggests,  do matter when it comes to the development of children’s moral values).

So, even if the study had found no relationship between those four parenting dimensions and child personality traits, it would still be inaccurate and misleading to conclude that parenting doesn’t matter. The study looked at just a very small slice of what parents do.

As an aside, I find it interesting that most of the recent essays   I’ve come across  that argue that parents don’t matter have been written by men, who are often less involved in parenting. Maybe there’s a bit of rationalization going on?  It’s fine that I’m not doing much at home—parenting doesn’t matter!  Or maybe it makes sense: If men aren’t all that involved in child-rearing, then of course they will not have that much of an influence on their children. Research does suggest that kids learn more values from their  mothers and grandmothers  than from their fathers and grandfathers.

Still, these essays rub me the wrong way, and not just because they overgeneralize and cherry-pick the science. They feel like yet another way to undermine the hard, important work that women typically do. (Brooks also wrote an essay  on marriage last year that argued that couples shouldn’t attempt to split domestic duties equally because doing so “militates against one of the most important elements of love: generosity—a willingness to give more than your share in a spirit of abundance, because giving to someone you care for is pleasurable in itself.” OK, dude.) I can’t help but point out that the “Nature matters more than nurture” argument has long been used to support racism too.

Let me circle back to Brooks’ overarching point. Brooks argues that it’s OK for us to make mistakes as parents because what we do doesn’t make much of a difference. I disagree: I think it’s OK for us to make mistakes because parenting does matter. Mistakes are opportunities for growth and education. When we screw up, we teach our kids many important things. We teach them that all humans are works in progress and that we should strive to learn and grow throughout our lives. We model for them how to apologize, be humble, and take responsibility for our actions. We teach them that life is often more complex and messy and beautiful than we expect it to be—and that, I believe, is a good thing.