Have any questions? Live chat

Writing Blog

The Difference between Argumentative and Persuasive Papers

June 22, 2022| Category: Writing Tips

Finding the main distinctive features of argumentative and persuasive essays might be a dilemma for many writers, who have recently started dealing with academic papers. We will explain the main differences briefly and accessibly in this article.

What Is the Core Shade of Persuasive Writing?

While you may already know the answer, we will put it simple: its emotional aspect is fundamental. Usually, when we want our opinions to persuade others, we use the emotional appeal as a means of influence. Indeed, such a strategy may take a dark turn, as, for instance, it frequently does in politics. Politicians greatly rely on persuasive writing, which often serves a wicked purpose – to brainwash people’s minds.

Yet, you can also use psychological technique of persuasion to make your readers or listeners feel better, predominantly about themselves. If a person is upset or disappointed, if someone has low self-esteem, you can use persuasion to lift their spirits and make them believe in much more positive versions of themselves. Persuasive writing serves a neutral purpose in advertising. For example, you may see an add with a cute animal and the title “Take care of me, and I will bring you much love”. The majority of people would be instantly convinced that it would work exactly as the title said.

Persuasion also works to the benefit when discussing healthy lifestyles and the ensuing practices based on inspiration and determination. Besides the commercial purposes, students often compose persuasive essays on versatile topics. Those assignments teach them to gain confidence in their own opinions and generate original ideas without being afraid of some outside criticism. A paradox is that by persuading others, you are also persuading yourself that you have an essential mission or a goal to accomplish.

What is Argumentative Writing?

In contrast, argumentative writing is a more formal scholarly counterpart of persuasive writing. While persuasion can be subjective as it revolves around your beliefs, every argument needs to be supported by solid evidence. Persuasive writing instils the emotional component in readers’ minds, intended to make the target audience believe in the righteousness of the researcher’s opinion. When creating an argumentative essay, you have to carry out profound research full of evidence-backed findings and references to credible experts in the field. On the contrary, persuasive papers can be grounded on individual insights.

The simplest vivid example comes also from common advertisements, especially against some harmful habits. When you read “Smoking causes infertility”, it does not imply a subjective opinion – it presents sufficient evidence, which was obtained from such organizations as the WHO and FDA. Likewise, all the healthcare products, from toothpaste to medicine, cannot be deemed beneficial without prior scientific research. Thus, firm argument always lies in scientifically based proof or any equivalent authoritative evidence.

How to Create Effective Argumentative Essays

Before you begin writing an argumentative essay, you have to collect facts on the issue you are exploring. Remember that all the information you present should have proper relevant references. It might be time-consuming at the start, but you will gradually get used to an in-depth researching.

It is favorable to come up with the most convenient strategy of academic investigation to have an approximate outline for every new work of an argumentative type. You will likely have to collect facts and figures related to the topic, so it is good to generate specific frameworks that can be applied to similar cases. You will start saving your time as soon as you get used to it. When you complete the investigatory part, move to the actual elucidation of the arguments you are proving. Each paragraph should reflect the balance between your opinion and a convincing background that supports it.

One more peculiar aspect about an argumentative essay is that it often mirrors a debate, which is grounded on unbiased, objective elements of prior research. Your arguments can be both positive and negative; but the quintessence always consists in an adequate proof.

How to Write Insightful Persuasive Essays

Persuasive writing is much more flexible. It brings about more creative opportunities because facts and figures are not as essential as in argumentative papers. Your main purpose is to convince your readers that your opinion is special and veritable. The trick is that you are actually allowed to come up with an independent opinion, which has never existed before (if you are prodigious enough).

If you can persuade others that your ideas are insightful and thought-provoking, you have coped with the task! Therefore, persuasive essay is more about the ability to choose the right compelling words, even emphatic ones, to interest your audience. As a writer, you need to know a bunch of rhetorical devices, which can evoke the anticipated emotional reactions. Always keep in mind the intention to hook your readers and make them believe in your opinion.

However, how can you know what your readers are interested in? You have to scrutinize your audience in advance. Of course, if you research a certain topic, you look for the people interested in it. Yet, it’s important to estimate whether they are teenagers or adults, amateurs or professionals. These factors also affect the level of their potential reliance on your authoritative opinion. You have to realize that teens will not likely be passionate about the topics pensioners are interested in and vice versa. Moreover, you will have to embed typical phrases of the First-Person Narration, such as: “I believe”, “To my mind”, “In my opinion”, etc.

There are some challenges students usually encounter when writing both types of the mentioned essays. It is interesting that some students prefer doing research rather than inventing opinions, which might fail to be as convincing as you initially expect. In both cases, it is advantageous to know your audience.

Diverse Embodiment of Subjective and Objective Viewpoints

It is easy to remember that almost every academic essay comprises three arguments at the very least. If you want your paper to be more enticing, it is witty to include counterarguments. Yet, opinions merely based on facts are predominantly typical of argumentative essays. But will a paper satiated with arguments hold attention of your readers? The trick of keeping them interested is an enclosure of a contrasting standpoint. Such a smart technique is aimed to involve readers even more by choosing a side, which they favor more, not being dependent on the writer’s judgement. Such kind of approach is logic-based.

The major divergence that we can trace in a persuasive essay is the lack of the opposing opinion. The writer’s beliefs and viewpoints form the essence of the composition. If you do not convince your audience, then your opinion fail to be unique or attention-grabbing.

Conclusion

Both persuasive and argumentative essays aim to convince the target audience, but they are based on contrary approaches. Argumentative writing appeals to the readers by means of relevant scientific findings, facts, and statistics. Persuasive writing uses emphatic devices and insightful opinions, which can be purely subjective. The two types of essays must encourage further investigations or debates in the given sphere.

If you want to clearly differentiate between these types of research papers, you can put it simple: argumentative essay relies on logical explanations, while a persuasive essay generates a standpoint, which evokes reactions.

Preparation stages are also different. You need to do meticulous research on your subject matter when preparing your scholarly argumentative paper, and prior knowledge about your prospective audience is not deemed necessary. On the contrary, preliminary investigations and statistics assortment can be just secondary elements of your persuasive essay. The primary element of persuasion is a highly individualized opinion, which motivates and gives food for thought. Good knowledge of your audience contributes to the successful presentation of your judgement in persuasive essays.

Tags
"sandwich" approach A+ essay abstract abstract writing academic paper academic paper outline academic papers academic paper writing academic requirements academic sources academic writer academic writing academic writing issues academic writing rules academic writing tips active and passive voice in research writing active voice additive transitions adversative transitions a good book report a good summary AI-generated content AI-generated writing AI detection software tools AI detectors Alternative hypothesis an introduction to academic writing annotated bibliography annotation APA style appeals to trust and connection argument argument analysis argument analysis assignment argument analysis essay argumentative essay argumentative writing argument paragraph arguments article articles a thesis statement become a better writer become a writing guru bias bias-free language bias-free writing blogs Bloom’s Taxonomy body paragraph body sentences boost academic vocabulary brainstorming business capitalization capitalization rule capitalize capstone paper capstone project career career in writing causal transitions challenges a new freelance writer may face with characteristics of academic writing chronological order citation cite the source clarity in writing clients closing sentences coherent academic writing college essays college writing common mistakes communication in writing comparative essay compare and contrast paragraph complex assignment Complex hypothesis concept map concluding paragraph concluding sentence conclusion conclusion in academic writing conclusion in an essay conclusion writing conduct a search content content writing coordination counterargument Covid-19 creating concluding sentences creating PowerPoint presentations credible resources credible sources critical thinking customer feedback decode instructions decoding professors’ instructions definition of proofreading descriptive headings descriptive paragraph diagrams difference between a literature review and an annotated bibliography division double quotation marks edit your writing effective conclusion effective headings effective paragraph elements of academic language elements of paper writing emotional appeals Empirical hypothesis essay's conclusion essay mistakes essay paragraph essay pitfalls essays essay structure essays writing essays writing tips essays writitng tips essay writing ethos explain complex concepts expository essay features of academic writing figure figures and tables first-person pronouns flow of ideas free freelance freelance jobs freelancer freelance writer freelance writers freelance writing freelance writing business Google in academic writing graphs handling difficult tasks headings heuristics high-quality papers higher-level headings high grades high school-level composition high school assignments how reading helps you become a better writer how to avoid plagiarism how to write how to write a good film review how to write capstone paper how to write phd hypothesis hypothesis writing important improve writing skills in-text citations incorporation of visuals intellectual property interpret instructions intransitive verb introduction introduction paragraph introductory paragraph italics italics for titles job journal judgmental language language and style literature review Logical hypothesis logos lower-level headings main point of the paragraph make the article engaging meeting deadlines meeting the requirements meet the deadlines methodology methodology chapter methodology section MLA style narrative paragraph non-descriptive heading note taking Null hypothesis objective tone objective writing objectivity online online writers opening paragraph opinion essay order of importance outline outline writing paper outline papers parallelism paraphrase paraphrasing passive voice past simple pathos PDF Poster peer response peer review personal pronouns personal response personal response essay personal response paper persuasion persuasive essay persuasive writing PhD research proposal plagiarism plan for writing planning popular and scholarly sources popular sources positive feedback poster design poster layout PowerPoint presentation PowerPoint Presentation tips PPT PPT Poster PPTs presenting data in figures and tables present perfect present simple primary research problems writers face procrastination profession professional freelance writer pronouns proofreading tips qualitative methods quality quantitative methods quotation marks quotation marks for titles quote quoting racist and sexist biases in AI papers reduce word count redundancy redundant reliable sources repetition repetitive sentences repetitive writing reputable sources research research paper research paper in college research paper in high school research paper writing revising an essay rhetoric rhetorical devices rules of academic writing satisfy your customers scholarly archives scholarly materials scholarly sources second-person pronouns secondary research sentence structure sequential transitions Simple hypothesis simplifying complex assignments single quotation marks skills sources spatial order specificity spell checker spelling spelling error spelling rules start writing statistical data in academic papers Statistical hypothesis statistics statistics in academic writing stop procrastinating stress and creativity strong topic sentences structure of an expository essay subheadings subordination success successful academic writing successful papers successful paraphrasing suitable concluding sentences summary summary writing supporting evidence synthesis paper synthesize information synthesize sources table tables tables/graphs/charts task list as a guide techniques for writing summaries techniques to explain a difficult subject tenses in academic writing text structure the contents of the paper the main intention of the assignment thesis statement the structure of body paragraphs thinking levels third-person pronouns time management tips on revising an essay tips to writing a PhD research proposal tips to writing a social science paper token sentences topic of the paragraph topic sentence transitional words transitions transition terms transitive and intransitive verbs transitive verb types of academic texts typical writing problems unique idea use Google for research utilizing AI tools in academic papers vocabulary vocabulary building well-structured essay what writers can learn from reading novels word choice word count work wrap sentences write a conclusion writer writer job write unique texts writing writing a book report writing a film review writing a good PhD research proposal writing an A+ film review writing an essay writing an outline writing a paragraph writing as profession writing a statement writing a summary writing burnout writing clear writing errors writing essays writing fast writing hacks writing job writing mistakes writing mood writing papers writing pitfalls writing process writing skills writing style writing tips written communication skills