“Because I said so” is a fine reason in some arguments, but not in academic arguments.

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.