Writing an argumentative essay is a skill, the writer needs to convince his audience, which can become an uphill task if one is not properly equipped with good writing skills. The art of arguing is not an easy skill; people think that by providing his opinion one can argue successfully. 

However, an argumentative essay is more than just presenting your opinion. It requires logic reasoning backed with sufficient evidence. An argumentative essay explains the process of your reasoning from unknown to know, without doing this you will have an assertion but not an argument. 

Most students are not sure of their writing abilities, while others have negative experiences in the past. Some students may feel not capable of writing a perfect essay. Such a process requires being objective; many students struggle to write a formal essay by omitting slang words. Others might feel that a good argumentative essay requires using big words and complex language to look smart, which is not the case. 

An argumentative essay is slightly different from other types of essays; a good argumentative one requires evidence and fact to prove the claim. Perfect essay writing requires to support the paper claim or refute the claim. A good paper needs to express but not to impress; a perfect essay needs to use clear language and vocabularies that fit the topic and can be understood by the target audience. An argumentative paper should follow similar essay structure like other types of essays. The text itself should consist of an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement followed by the body paragraphs, and a conclusion to sum up the argument.

Writing a perfect argumentative essay needs a good topic for the argument before choosing a topic; analyze issues that will spark two different conflicting points of view. After choosing the topic, you have to choose which position to take, then research for evidence to back up your position. 

An argumentative essay structure is straightforward; the first step includes the introduction that entails explaining the subject, the position, before ending the paragraph with a thesis statement. At the beginning of the paper, introduce the topic and state your opinion within the first paragraph of the essay.  The first paragraph needs to present a brief explanation of the topic to be discussed, the background information. The essay title is important because it will present your point of view.

The body of an argumentative essay needs to be structured into three sections. The first paragraph of the essay body needs to begin with a topic sentence that introduces the main point of discussion.  For example, if the argument is about why the death penalty is inhuman or not and should be abolished, the body paragraph needs to present inhuman treatment and provide evidence why the death penalty is immoral. The second section of the body paragraph needs to continue providing more evidence to support the argument. For example in the second section, the writer needs to provide further argument and examples of negative effects of the death penalty. 

A perfect essay needs to include relevant quotes and examples that support the essay claim. The quotes and examples need to come from credible sources. Writing an argumentative essay is like trying to solve a rhetorical situation that requires the author to use persuasive language to convince his audience to lean towards a particular direction. The argumentative essay needs to convince the reader to accept the author's views. 

Some of the common mistakes when writing such an essay is that many writers confuse an argumentative essay to be a persuasive one. A persuasive essay uses emotional appeals to persuade the audience while argumentative one presents facts and examples to convince the reader. In most cases, writers forget to state the opposing side of the essay known as counterarguments. All in all, a good argumentative essay needs to present counter-arguments to convince the audience.

The conclusion is the last part of writing an essay; the conclusion needs to review the major points discussed in the essay body. This part also emphasizes on the author's point of view by coherently summarizing all the argument. The conclusion is the last chance for the author to convince its audience on the topic. Therefore, the language needs to be persuasive for the audience to see the sense of the argument.

After writing the first draft, it is important to go through the essay to check for minor mistakes. Most writers assume that writing ends after putting down the conclusion. Editing is important because correcting grammar and spelling mistakes make the essay look professional.  A well-structured paper should have five paragraphs and be free of grammatical mistakes. Finally, below is a list of good topics for an argumentative essay.