Writing From Sources: The Argument Essay
The task in one sentence
Read several short texts on a contested issue, then write an essay that states your own claim and defends it with evidence drawn from those texts, not from personal anecdote or outside research.
Concepts you must control
- Claim: a debatable position, stated clearly and early, that answers the prompt's exact question.
- Reasons: the two or three sub-arguments that hold the claim up. Each body paragraph should advance one.
- Evidence: quoted, paraphrased, or summarized material with a source reference ("In Text 2, the author notes..."). Accuracy of attribution matters.
- Commentary/warrant: the sentence or two explaining why that evidence supports your reason. This is where most scores are won or lost.
- Counterclaim: acknowledging the strongest opposing point and answering it, which strengthens rather than weakens your argument.
- Coherence: transitions, consistent focus, and a conclusion that returns to the claim without merely repeating it.
Traps to expect
- Summarizing instead of arguing. If a paragraph could be replaced by "Text 3 says X," you have written a summary, not an argument.
- Quote dropping. Evidence with no commentary is inert; the reader cannot see your reasoning.
- One-source essays. Use most or all of the texts to show you weighed the full set.
- Ignoring the counterargument, which reads as unawareness rather than confidence.
- Misreading the prompt (e.g., arguing about a related but different issue).
- Plagiarism by near-copy: lifting phrasing without quotation marks and attribution.
Rule of thumb
Use the claim-evidence-commentary loop in every body paragraph: assert, cite, then explain the link in your own voice. A quick self-check: cover every quotation - if your paragraph still makes sense without it, the commentary is doing the work; if it collapses, the evidence was decoration.
Structural template that reliably scores
Introduction with issue framing and claim; two or three body paragraphs each pairing a reason with cited evidence and commentary; one paragraph conceding and rebutting; conclusion that states what is at stake.