How to Write an Essay on a Controversial Topic

Essays on controversial topics can be hard to write, especially when you are passionate about the topic. Writing a good essay on a controversial topic involves establishing good faith between you and your readers, presenting your argument logically, and knowing and countering the opposing argument(s).

Part 1

Part 1 of 6:

Establishing Good Faith with Your Readers

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Imagine the types of readers who might read your essay. You’ll want to imagine readers from various viewpoints to make the best argument. This means thinking about the people who are most likely to disagree with you, as well as those on the fence about an issue. By taking their concerns in mind, you’ll help to establish credibility with a wide variety of readers.
- Don’t preach to the choir. This is where you imagine only those readers who agree with you. For instance, if you are for labeling GMO (genetically modified organism) products, don’t just talk to organizations or people who already support that. You’ll need to consider farmers who rely on GMO products for their livelihood, corporations with lobbyists in congress, scientists who don’t think GMO products need to be labeled, etc. How can you convince these groups of your position?^{[1]XResearch source}
You can do this in a number of ways, but the most important is bringing up their concerns and explaining how you’ll address them. For instance, if you are trying to convince corporations that GMO labels are necessary, their primary concern is likely to be profit. So, you’ll need to show them how GMO labeling will bring more money to the table.^{[2]XResearch source}
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it can mean losing your reader's faith in your argument very quickly, even if everything else in your argument is true. For instance, if you claim that 99% of foods in supermarkets are genetically-modified, when the statistic is quite lower, your readers may distrust your other facts and claims as well.
Plagiarism can simply be a failure to cite your sources or as egregious as copying an entire essay or huge sections of essays. Any plagiarism in an essay seriously erodes the credibility of the author, often to the extent that readers are unwilling to consider anything the writer has said. So, take care with your sources, and keep notes that include your source, on each page, and always write direct quotes with quotation marks to ensure that you don't come back to your notes and forget that you've copied someone else's words.^{[3]XResearch source}
When you’re talking with a friend, if you misuse a word or spell something wrong, they are likely to know what you mean and may not care. However, when writing an essay, grammar is part of the message. This means that the care you take in making sure the essay has no typos or errors demonstrates to your readers your care for the subject. While this may not be factual—you could be a terrible speller and extremely passionate about your subject, but an antagonistic or even just a skeptical audience may see it as a way to discredit your argument.
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Part 2

Part 2 of 6:

Introducing Your Essay

This sentence or set of sentences should not be a cheesy or showy attempt to capture your audience's attention, but rather a way to lay out the stakes or importance of your argument. Don't use something that's completely irrelevant. Rather, introduce the topic, the context, and the stakes within the first couple of sentences. Sometimes you can put a story at the beginning, and if it's immediately relevant and addresses the topic, context, and stakes, then it is fine. If not, it might be best to get to the point.^{[4]XTrustworthy SourceUniversity of North Carolina Writing CenterUNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing processGo to source}
This should include the current debates on the issue, any relevant history, and it's prevalence in the media (whether it's all over the place or barely mentioned can be important). Giving the context helps people unfamiliar with the issue get their bearings, and refreshes it for those more familiar with the issue. It also helps define the importance of the issue and your argument.^{[5]XTrustworthy SourceUniversity of North Carolina Writing CenterUNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing processGo to source}
The thesis is your argument or claim. It is not a statement of fact, but something that is arguable based on the evidence you provide in the essay. Your thesis is not merely an organizing statement, which provides the order of your evidence, but the claim you are making. For instance, the following is an organizing statement: "GMOs have been studied scientifically, but people continue to worry that they are unsafe." This is a thesis: "GMOs should not be labeled, because the scientific community has reached a consensus that they are safe for people to eat." The idea that GMOs should not be labeled is the arguable part of the thesis.^{[6]XTrustworthy SourceUniversity of North Carolina Writing CenterUNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing processGo to source}
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Part 3

Part 3 of 6:

Presenting Your Argument Logically

This means making sure each claim you have supports your overall thesis or claim. In the introduction, you should include a summary of your argument as well as an overview of the organization of the essay. This will help your reader know where you're coming from and help you gain their trust. You should start the body of the paper, including your sub-claims as the topic sentences of your paragraphs or sections (can be more than one paragraph).^{[7]XResearch source}
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Back up each point you make with concrete, specific evidence. It can be tempting to write vaguely, as the vague seems to be safer. If you say something like “GMOs are unnatural,” it is vague because it does not define “natural” and it rests on the false assumption that all natural things are automatically better and safer than non-natural products. However, if you include data from respected scientific studies of the effects of GMOs on people (currently there isn’t a lot of such support),^{[8]XResearch source} you are more likely to convince people of your claims. When including evidence you’ll want to include at least some of the following:^{[9]XTrustworthy SourceUniversity of North Carolina Writing CenterUNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing processGo to source}
- If you use scientific data, make sure it comes from a valid, peer-reviewed source. It should have a statistically significant sample size, and preferably should include a review of the literature (or summary of other studies doing similar things).
- Specific examples can be useful in making a point in an essay, but beware of relying solely on anecdotal evidence, as it can be misleading. Just because one person has a specific experience does not mean that experience can be generalized.
Statistics are useful in establishing the importance of a topic, as well as the effects of a phenomenon on groups of people. However, statistics can be misleading, and it is important to acquire your statistics from reliable sources. You have to address context, the sample size, etc, to determine if a statistic is useful and straightforward.^{[10]XResearch source} Remember that statistical correlation does not equal causation (there are many spurious correlations, or statistical coincidences).^{[11]XResearch source}
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Use credible sources. When convincing an audience, it is incredibly important to use the most credible sources. If a source is known for factual errors and bias, then it is probably not the best source to use to convince a skeptical audience. When looking for a good source, consider the following:^{[12]XResearch source}
- How recent is it? Is a scientific paper from 1893 still valid? It may be so, but you’ll want to know whether more recent scientists cite it, and if there are any scientists since then who have refuted it.
- Is it scholarly? While it may not be essential to use solely academic sources for a paper, they can add a lot of credibility to your work. This is because most scholarly papers go through an extensive peer-review process before being published. The same is not true for very many other sources, including the news, most magazines, and many blogs. That doesn’t mean those sources aren’t credible, but that they are often processed very quickly (especially online) and are more prone to factual errors and bias.
- What sources does the source use? Do they use scholarly or other credible sources? Or do they cite personal blogs, or contain no citations at all?
- What is the purpose of the piece? Is it an op-ed, the purpose of which is to express an opinion, not necessarily to provide evidence for that opinion.
- Is the source biased? What biases does it have? It is important to know these before using it in a paper.
Choose a citation style such as MLA or Chicago. Then follow that form throughout. You should include an in-text citation each time you quote, summarize, or paraphrase a source. Be consistent in your citations. Some people think that using sources takes away from their originality or their voice in a paper. On the contrary, it helps to distinguish your voice from the voices of others, and helps to build your credibility. Besides, failing to cite your sources constitutes plagiarism.^{[13]XResearch source}
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Part 4

Part 4 of 6:

Supporting Your Argument

In order to convey your argument to your audience, you need to analyze your evidence. This means breaking down your evidence into its component parts and explaining the purpose of those parts to your audience. Sometimes this will mean analyzing your sources for accuracy, their use of sources, and their rhetoric.^{[14]XTrustworthy SourceUniversity of North Carolina Writing CenterUNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing processGo to source}
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Organize your essay in a way that makes sense and furthers your argument. Good organization is part of your argument. If you hide your most important point in a tangential paragraph, you’re suggesting to the reader that it is not that important. Good organization tells the reader what you want to do, how you intend to do it, and why it’s important. The following organizational structures are often useful for argumentative papers about controversial topics:
- A cause and effect structure can help show the ways in which your preferred option is preferable to other options because of a cause or an effect of that option. For instance, you can show how labeling GMOs makes people feel safer about their food. The feeling of safety would be an effect of labeling. But you would have to show how this effect outweighs any negative effects caused by such labeling.
- A compare and contrast essay is often the most effective in a persuasive essay, as it shows the similarities and differences among the different options your presenting, and can highlight why your view is preferable to others. You can compare and contrast in a point-by-point way or you can present your argument and then address the counterargument in separate parts of the paper.
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Avoid logical fallacies that mislead. Logical fallacies occur when you use a line of reasoning that does not make sense. Logical fallacies weaken your argument, and if your audience recognizes them, they will not be likely to take your argument seriously. Here are some examples of common logical fallacies:^{[15]XResearch source}
- Hasty generalization is where you assume because a thing is true in a certain context, it must be true in a lot of other circumstances. For instance, if you say, “I got sick after eating GMO corn; therefore, GMO corn makes people sick,” then you are making a hasty generalization. You would need first to establish that it was the corn that made you sick, and that other people get sick not just from that particular brand of GMO corn, but from all GMO corn to prove your statement.
- A red herring is something that distracts from an argument. Xenophobia is often such a red herring, as it stirs people up and causes them to blame certain groups of people for something like job loss (which is demonstrably false), while distracting them from the actual evidence in the case such as which factors in our economy actually lead to job loss.
- A straw man is a false and easily disproven argument used to make another argument look good.
- The either/or fallacy occurs when someone insists that there are only two options for a given situation, when in actuality there are many.
- The slippery slope fallacy occurs when someone believes that because one thing happened, then it is inevitable that other (often negative) effects will follow.
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Avoid logical fallacies that are aggressive. This includes the ad hominem fallacy, some appeals to emotion, tu queue, personal incredulity, among others. These types of fallacies immediately alienate many potential readers, as they often cast blame (often wrongly), grossly mischaracterized arguments, people, and ideas, and sometimes even accuse the reader. For an explanation of these fallacies, see below:^{[16]XResearch source}^{[17]XResearch source}
- Ad Hominem is where you attack a person rather than their argument. For instance, if you say “Scientists are haughty know-it-alls—they don’t really know anything about GMOs,” you are attacking the scientists’ character rather than addressing their arguments about GMOs.
- Appeals to emotion that turn on invoking people's anger, but do not actually address the situation are fallacies that are aggressive and not particularly convincing to other parties.
- Tu quoque is where you turn the criticism back on the person making the criticism rather than addressing their argument. Children often turn to this when they are caught in the act of doing something wrong like coloring on the walls: "But you said I could use my crayons."
- Personal incredulity is where you don't believe a fact or argument simply because you don't understand it or it seems "unnatural" or somehow wrong to you based on a gut feeling. Many people used this fallacy to fight marriage equality by implying that their own aversion to/lack of understanding of same-sex relations justified outlawing it.
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Part 5

Part 5 of 6:

Addressing the Counterarguments

In order to make a good argument, you must be willing to research other views. This will help you construct your counterarguments, as well as help you understand the audience you’re writing for. This does not mean simply looking for things you can easily disprove (this is the straw man fallacy), but finding out how the opposing argument is framed and why people find that argument persuasive.
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Keep an open mind. If you go into a project believing you are right and that nothing can sway your opinion, it will be difficult to write a fair and balanced paper. If you can’t even read the other sides’ views with an open mind, you are unlikely to be able to convince them of your point. You may be surprised by what you find in your research. Allow yourself to be surprised.^{[18]XResearch source}
- Confirmation bias is where you look only for evidence that confirms your views.^{[19]XResearch source}
- Backfire effect is when you encounter evidence that calls into question deeply held beliefs and that makes you believe what you already believe all the stronger.^{[20]XResearch source}
In order to make a convincing case with a controversial paper, you must be able to state the opposing views fairly. You do this by accurately summarizing their views, acknowledging any valid points they make (and incorporating those points into your own argument as possible), and addressing their underlying concerns.^{[21]XResearch source}
Once you’ve stated their views, it’s important to consider your argument in light of those views. It doesn’t mean you have to change your view, just that the reassertion of your point must take the alternate views into consideration in order to be convincing.^{[22]XResearch source}
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Part 6

Part 6 of 6:

Concluding Your Essay

If you've organized your paper in a way that goes back and forth between argument and counterargument, you'll want to briefly summarize the counterarguments. For instance, you could say, "Some people have claimed that GMOs should be labeled because they are harmful to people's health, that people have a right to know what's in their food, and that they are also dangerous for the environment." If you've organized your paper, where your counterarguments all fall immediately before the conclusion, you'll want to be even briefer. You could say, "These arguments against GMOs fail to prove their scientific claims, and do not overcome the scientific and economic realities of attempting to label these foods."^{[23]XResearch source}^{[24]XResearch source}
This is especially effective in papers that end with a call to action. For instance, you can say, "I understand that it may feel scary or strange to eat a fruit or vegetable whose genes have been manipulated, but based on scientific consensus, there is little evidence to suggest that they are actually dangerous to people." By appealing directly to your reader, and attempting to bridge the gap between you and the skeptics of your audience, you will make a more convincing argument.^{[25]XResearch source}^{[26]XResearch source}
$How.com.vn English: Step 3 Bring your points together in way that highlights your thesis.$
Do not simply restate the thesis. In a short paper, especially, this will seem repetitive and unconvincing. Rather talk about how they evidence you've brought up should lead your reader to your point. You could say something like, "As you can see from this evidence, the case against GMOs doesn't stand the test of science or economics."^{[27]XResearch source}^{[28]XResearch source}
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