A graduate-level argumentative essay is a formal piece of writing on a certain topic. This form of the essay needs you to make an argument or take a viewpoint. The essence of your essay will be your major argument, which will be presented in your thesis statement.

A powerful and clear thesis statement should be included in a graduate school argumentative essay, which will subsequently be supported and demonstrated throughout the body of the essay.

Because it is a graduate school project, you will be expected to use more resources, demonstrate a deeper comprehension, and present a better argument than in an undergraduate writing assignment.

Organize Your Ideas

A graduate-level argumentative essay is not a list of facts or claims about a certain topic, poetry, narrative, or novel. Instead, it is a piece of writing that allows you to demonstrate your capacity to think.

To arrange your thoughts and opinions, you should begin your essay by carefully evaluating the topic.

If you are given precise guidelines, the scope of your essay will be limited in some way. For example, you may be asked to examine and write an argumentative literary analysis essay on Mark Twain's classic "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Create an Argument

The argumentative essay instructions in your graduate course will mostly urge you to examine, compare, assess, or explain anything.

You may be asked to examine the structure of a novel or a specific circumstance, compare two or more tales, events, or perspectives, or assess or explain the influence of anything using specific criteria or evidence.

For example, you may argue that the tone of a poem affects its mood, compare the impacts of two solutions to a problem and argue which one is superior, or assess the quality of a foreign policy endeavor.

Make a thesis statement.

After establishing your argument, try to condense it into one statement. This sentence, also known as your thesis statement, will serve as the foundation for your formal essay. A thesis statement for a graduate-level argumentative essay on a novel might be:

"While his portrayal of Colonel Sherburn in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is easy to dismiss as just another satire of a Southern gentleman, Mark Twain uses Sherburn to deliver a visceral attack on man's cowardice."

Organize Your Essay

You may arrange the remainder of your essay once you have prepared the thesis statement. Your thesis statement should come after your introduction, and the remainder of the paragraphs should support the stance you've stated in your thesis statement.

In other words, your formal essay should be ordered around your thesis statement, with the remainder of your paragraphs including evidence that supports or confirms your main point.

Your graduate-level essay should have a conclusion that summarizes the essay's stance in addition to the introduction and body paragraphs.

In its most basic form, a graduate-level essay is similar to an undergraduate essay. The distinction will be discovered in the degree of writing and sophistication expected by your lecturer in the final product.