Academic Argument Basics

You’ll hear the word “argument” a lot in your academic career. You may be told that your essay needs to make an argument, or asked to summarize an author’s argument. If you’re used to thinking of an argument as a fight or disagreement, you might assume that academics are constantly yelling at each other, and that academic journals must read like a Subreddit full of trolls. However, when academics use the word argument, they intend a fairly specific meaning—a meaning that actually goes back to the Latin verb arguere: to clarify, assert, declare, prove, or show.[1]

If you think of argument as a “proof,” you’re getting closer to the way it tends to be used in academic contexts. In academics, argument refers not only to a claim being made, but also to the reasoning behind this claim and the evidence or facts used to prove these reasons.

When you join this academic community, you’ll be adding your voice to a variety of timely, crucial, and fascinating conversations. Whether you’re uncovering the benefits or cost of universal preschool, determining the best public health practices, debating which literary works should be in the canon, helping others obtain clean drinking water, or any of the infinite other topics you could choose to examine, the academic conversation will benefit from your participation.  The academic community needs your voice, your perspective, and your passion.

Being able to create a well-developed argument helps you add your voice to the conversation.  When you give your opinion and stance on various issues with credible evidence to support your views, your argument is strengthened.  This module will give you the tools and resources to create that strong academic argument.

If you’re having an argument with a friend or family member, you don’t always have to follow the rules of logic. In a pinch, you can resort to “Because I said so,” or “My house, my rules,” or “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.” This is the first clue that academic argument isn’t the same as an argument about who should do the dishes or take out the trash. In fact, what academics call an “argument” isn’t like an everyday argument at all, in the sense of a heated disagreement about something. In some ways, academic argument is the opposite of this kind of disagreement: instead of an angry exchange of words, academic argument calmly lays out the reasons why the reader should agree with the position being argued.

In this section we look at those elements that create an effective argument and start to think about how you can begin developing an argument worth writing about.

Adapted from:

"Why it Matters: Academic Argument" by Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). 

Introduction to Academic Argument  Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).