There are many types of essays which makes it easy for one to confuse among the many. Argumentative and persuasive essays are different and in most cases, they are confused as being the same. Students often mistake arguments for opinions, thus tend to write papers that are subjective and persuasive rather than objective and evidence-based. The two, however, differ in terms of the purpose of the essay, method of approach and the support of opinion which makes them different.
First, the purpose of an argumentative essay is to make the reader recognize one’s opinion about the particular subject being addressed and decide whether or not to agree or disagree with the author’s perspective. On the other hand, persuasive essays are meant to get the reader to agree with the opinion of the author. In this case, the author is not so much interested in the decision of the reader; rather they are after arguing out and presenting their ideas opinionatedly. The difference in purpose is what causes the differences in techniques and justification.
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Secondly, while persuasive essays are emotion based, argumentative essays are based on logic and justifications that explain a particular opinion. In argumentative essays, authors use reason and logic to explain why their opinions are right. Emotions are not involved since the goal is not to push the reader on one’s side; instead, it is to make the reader recognize one’s opinion. Since persuasive essays are meant to make the reader agree with the author, there is a lot of emotive and technical language used to make the reader sympathies towards one’s opinion.
Persuasive essays ignore the counterclaims while argumentative essays acknowledge the counterclaims and justify them as to why they are not logical according to the author. Argumentative authors acknowledge opposing ideas to avoid sounding narrow-minded which makes the argument less compelling. Sometimes, the acknowledgement of counterclaims makes the basis of one’s argument stronger while in persuading, acknowledgement of the counterclaims will be seen to pin down the author.
Lastly, persuasive essays present claims while argumentative essays give evidence to the claims. An arguing author backs up the author’s opinion with evidence which necessitates the research of a particular topic. It is critical that while presenting an argument, to provide evidence that might propel a reader from the initial opinion to a conclusion. The quality of the evidence is paramount since it is what determines the effectiveness of the argument.
Both persuasive and argumentative essays try to convince the reader. The two present opinions that attempt to make the reader agree with what the author says. The author in both cases tends to stick to their opinion which they present to the reader as the most viable one. When evidence is applied to a claim, it becomes an argument.
It is evident that despite some similarity in these two types of essays, they have enormous differences in purpose, method and support of the opinion. The language, mood and tone of these two essays are different. In both cases, the author tries to convince readers to agree with them. In both cases, authors justify themselves, but achieving that justification can only be done with different intentions, techniques and support. Therefore, persuasive and argumentative essays are different and should neither be confused or mistaken for each other.
