What is an argument?
An argument is your article or dissertation’s central idea, also called “claim,” “thesis,” or “hypothesis.” An argument is directly linked to scholarly conversation and backed up with data or evidence that supports the idea.
Why does your article, dissertation, or thesis need an argument?
Building an argument is to establish and create a space for research by thinking about your present study’s relationship with previous work. A strong argument allows the reviewers and editors to see the novelty, significance, or contribution of your study, thus increasing your article’s chances of publication. A clear and strong argument also motivates readers to read your article.
Where to create an argument?
Arguments in the abstract: The abstract of your article should make it clear what the overall purpose and argument of the piece is and the contributions you make.
Arguments in the lit review: Our proposals do a nice job of making arguments from the literature and rooted in the literature. Arguments from the literature have to go beyond just summary.
Arguments in the discussion: If you are doing an empirically based article, the strongest position to make arguments is rooted in your data. In the “discussion” section, you can discuss your work, extend theories, propose new theories and models, propose teaching approaches, and much more.
Where do arguments come from?
All arguments in professional academic writing (articles, dissertations, theses, some course papers) require you to use existing research or your own novel research. Arguments may include:
- Data-driven or empirical arguments come from data. We collect new data from new populations and then can make arguments about that data.
- Theoretically-driven arguments come from evidence, logic, and reasoning. They have non-empirical data sources, including other texts.
- Practice-based arguments might focus on specific cases or examples of practical work in your field.
How do you create an argument?
In How to Write Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks, Wendy Belcher offers argument templates that you can use to help organize your work. The template consists of three parts: prior scholarship, your central idea, and the evidence to support your idea.
Sentence 1: other scholars debate/argue/assume/ignore [a problem].
Sentence 2: In relationship to that debate, argument, assumption, or gap, I argue/demonstrate/suggest/agree that [y is the case], based on my qualitative study/quantitative study/experiment/archival research/fieldwork/textual analysis of [my evidence].
Ritzenberg and Mendelsohn (2021)’s eight templates for developing arguments (p. 63-70):
The following templates are more specific, depending on how you are positioning your work.
Common Understanding and Complication Template
- While most people think _____________, a close examination suggests _____________.
- Popular consensus has dictated that _____________, but actually _____________.
- Scholars have commonly argued _____________, but in fact _____________.
Whole and Part Template
- Because _____________ is in tension with the entire text, we must reconsider _____________.
- When we consider the whole in light of the divergent part, we realize that _____________.
- While _____________ appears to diverge from the whole, in fact _____________.
Part and Part Template
- These two contradictory parts make us realize something new about the whole object, that _____________.
- While this part _____________, this other part _____________, which changes our understanding of _____________.
- Although it appears that _____________ conflicts with _____________, in fact _____________.
Form and Function Template
- Though the text is designed to _____________, when we encounter _____________, it forces us to realize that _____________.
- The formal aspect of the object suggests _____________, but its use suggests _____________. We must therefore revise our understanding of the object from _____________ to _____________.
- While the text seems to assert that _____________, the formal choice to _____________ complicates the way we understand that assertion.
Presence and Absence Template
- Given the presence of _____________, the surprising absence of _____________ suggests that we must rethink _____________.
- Because the text is missing _____________, readers must realize that _____________.
- Though _____________ appears to be missing, in fact we see _____________.
Expectation and Observation Template
- Though we expected _____________, we observed _____________; we can make sense of this discrepancy by _____________.
- Where we might expect to see _____________, we instead get _____________, which leads us to rethink _____________.
- By subverting our expectations, the object asks us to question the following assumptions: _____________.
Claiming a New Scholarly Problem Template
- While others have focused on the issue of _____________, a more productive way to define the scholarly problem might be _____________.
- Framing the problem as a matter of _____________, neglects to address _____________. Reframing the problem instead as _____________ allows us to understand _____________.
Claiming a New Project Template
- A new research method that entails _____________ will account for what the commonly used method cannot account for, namely _____________.
- While previous studies have taken the approach of _____________, that approach cannot offer insight into _____________. Instead, this study takes a different approach: _____________.
Using the above templates
What you will notice about the above templates is that they provide you with ways of situating your own work and ideas within the context of broader conversations.
These templates can be used throughout your introduction, literature review, and in your abstract.