argumentative essay on online exams are better than offline exams

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Online Vs Offline Exam - Which is Better?

Online Vs Offline Exam - The mode of learning and examination has undergone significant changes in the education system over the last decade. Educational institutions are slowly moving into online teaching and education, which in a way, is changing the perception of learning among students and parents. Students often raise a query about which is better, an online or offline exam. Conducting the exam online has many benefits like less operational and administrative cost, no security threats and use of unfair means (cheating), and feasibility to students and organizers. Online exams have also shortened the timeline of examining the answers sheets and formulating the results besides its numerous other benefits. Here in this article, we’re discussing the “Online vs Offline Exam - Which is Better?”.

Online Examination - What and How?

Online examinations are becoming extremely popular these days with many universities, institutes and competitive examination bodies switching from the Pen and paper-based test. An online examination is an exam conducted on a computer with no physical question paper. Online exams are tests with Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) where candidates have to select the right answer among the four available options and mark on the virtual answer sheet.

Online exams, also known as Computer Based Test (CBT) are very beneficial to the organizers as it has zero risk of security or cheating front, are a safe and reliable mode of exam, reduce the time to check answers and prepare the result. The exam centres for computer-based tests are set up in colleges or computer labs with adequate facilities and arrangements required for conducting the online examination.

Safety and Security in Online Examination

The organization that takes over the responsibility of conducting the online examination specializes in conducting the tests with all the modern technologies and security measures to avoid fraud and make students comfortable during the exam. Certain institute-level arrangements like Computer Systems with internet and webcams are required for online examination. The arrangement of all setup necessary for the online examination is taken care of by the expert committee of the organization.

The official exam conducting authority monitors the exam either through the live CCTV streaming from the exam hall or through the webcam installed on the computer system. The webcam takes pictures of the candidate appearing the test at irregular intervals or records the video of the entire test duration for security of examination. There are negligible chances of any kind of fraud or cheating in online exams which makes it the preferred mode of exam these days. Also Read- JEE Main Question Paper | JEE Main Syllabus

Benefits of Online Examination

There are many benefits of online exams if we compare it with offline exam. Some of the benefits of online exams are listed below

• The operational, administrative, and logistic costs in less in online exams in comparison to offline exams
• The safety and security of the question paper is not compromised. It is next to impossible to leak online question papers
• Feasibility for students in attempting the exam
• Takes less time to check the answer sheets and prepare of result
• Questions and students answers can be saved and stored for a long time in an online exam

Offline Exam - What and How?

The offline exam is the traditional way of conducting tests with the offline question paper and OMR-based answer sheets. Students are provided with the complete questions in the form of question papers and an OMR answer sheet for marking the answers. Many offline exams are descriptive where students need to solve the questions to arrive at a solution or questions that need descriptive, theoretical, or essay as the answer. Offline exams are mostly prevalent in testing where the answer has to be essay-type or descriptive as questions in online exams are Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).

Most competitive exams and exams of admission in India are swiftly shifting to online exams because of the many benefits of online testing. Shortly, it would not be a surprise if most exams would be conducted online rather than offline. The operational setup, cost of logistics, and administration are some of the primary reasons behind moving to the online exam. Also, in the cases of question paper leaks, the safety and security of questions are one of the big issues in offline exams. Exams like JEE Main and NEET which have applicants in the range of 10 to 15 lakhs are conducted online.

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You may also read career as Airline Pilot.

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Argumentative Essay: Online Learning and Educational Access

Conventional learning is evolving with the help of computers and online technology. New ways of learning are now available, and improved access is one of the most important benefits available. People all around the world are experiencing improved mobility as a result of the freedom and potential that online learning provides, and as academic institutions and learning organisations adopt online learning technologies and remote-access learning, formal academic education is becoming increasingly legitimate. This essay argues the contemporary benefits of online learning, and that these benefits significantly outweigh the issues, challenges and disadvantages of online learning.

Online learning is giving people new choices and newfound flexibility with their personal learning and development. Whereas before, formal academic qualifications could only be gained by participating in a full time course on site, the internet has allowed institutions to expand their reach and offer recognized courses on a contact-partial, or totally virtual, basis. Institutions can do so with relatively few extra resources, and for paid courses this constitutes excellent value, and the student benefits with greater educational access and greater flexibility to learn and get qualified even when there lots of other personal commitments to deal with.

Flexibility is certainly one of the most important benefits, but just as important is educational access. On top of the internet’s widespread presence in developed countries, the internet is becoming increasingly available in newly developed and developing countries. Even without considering the general informational exposure that the internet delivers, online academic courses and learning initiatives are becoming more aware of the needs of people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and this means that people from such backgrounds are in a much better position to learn and progress than they used to be.

The biggest argument that raises doubt over online learning is the quality of online courses in comparison to conventional courses. Are such online courses good enough for employers to take notice? The second biggest argument is the current reality that faces many people from disadvantaged backgrounds, despite the improvements made in this area in recent years – they do not have the level of basic access needed to benefit from online learning. In fact, there are numerous sources of evidence that claim disadvantaged students are not receiving anywhere near the sort of benefits that online learning institutions and promoters are trying to instigate. Currently there are many organisations, campaigns and initiatives that are working to expand access to higher education. With such high participation, it can be argued that it is only a matter of time before the benefits are truly realised, but what about the global online infrastructure?

There is another argument that is very difficult to dispel, and that is the response of different types of students to the online learning paradigm. Evidence shows that there are certain groups of students that benefit from college distance learning much more than other groups. In essence, students must be highly motivated and highly disciplined if they are to learn effectively in their own private environment.

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Students and faculty weigh the benefits of online vs. in-person exams

Some aspects of the virtual world may be here to stay.

By NICK CHARANJIVA | October 4, 2021

This semester’s hybrid academic format has posed a multitude of technical and logistical challenges for proctoring exams. Contrary to last semester, professors can now opt for in-person exams depending on the format of the class.

However, courses are not required to administer their exams in person even if the course offers in-person accommodations. This shift has been viewed as a critical step towards returning to some sense of normalcy, but students and faculty continue to weigh the benefits of each format.

In an interview with The News-Letter , Applied Mathematics and Statistics Senior Lecturer Mario Micheli explained his approach to online testing for the past two semesters. Though he was reluctant to proctor exams virtually or force students to lock down their browsers, he was concerned with upholding academic integrity. 

For his exams, Micheli allowed students to access the internet, their notes and even a calculator, which was a drastic departure from his course before the pandemic. He explained that this adaptation went smoothly in the online format. 

“It seemed to work quite well because it was timed — the students were so focused for such a short period of time that it would have been a waste of time to talk to others,” Micheli said. 

He also noted that grade distributions for the course did not seem to change despite this modification.

“The kind of curve I got was very similar to the kind of curve I would get pre-COVID. I did make the tests a bit harder to compensate for the open-note environment, but it was fair because I suggested that they use cheat sheets, and they also had access to MATLAB and calculators,“ he said. “I made it not computationally harder but conceptually harder, so I could test the students’ deeper understanding of the material.”

This semester, Micheli considered continuing online exams as a precaution against COVID-19 transmission, but he told The News-Letter that his courses will return to in-person testing, mainly to mitigate any issues with academic integrity.

Spanish Language Senior Lecturer Naiara Martínez-Vélez explained that her courses will also have in-person testing, but she explained that her exams would still be completed online.

“My exams will be held in Blackboard but completed in class at our regular class time,” she said. “Because of the pandemic, it is better to avoid passing along papers from teachers to students and vice versa.”

Martínez-Vélez detailed some of the benefits of continuing online testing.

“It is ecologically friendly; it makes it easier to keep students’ records for longer periods of time; it offers faster tests results,” she said. “It offers flexibility for those students that may need to quarantine and cannot attend class in-person on the specific date of the exam.”

Like faculty, students have had to adapt to the online testing environment. Some, like junior Jeffrey Ding, expressed hesitations about returning to in-person exams.

“It is a little strange, as we have not done in-person exams for so long,” he said.

Ding noted that for online exams, many professors allowed access to notes and the internet, which he says made studying easier and reduced stress. However, he pointed out that many of these exams were also much more difficult than in-person exams and often took much longer to complete.

Other students, like senior Jayden Kunwar, were content with the return to in-person exams and noted the advantages of in-person testing. Kunwar said he appreciates the value of dedicating a certain location and time to important exams.

“I am a big believer in creating the right environments for certain events, and having a dedicated environment for test-taking can promote academic success,” he said.

Sophomore Hallie Gallo took her first in-person exam earlier this week and told The News-Letter about her experience.

“It was really strange returning to in-person exams, and I was stressed prior to the exam,” she said. “However, once I was taking the exam, I enjoyed it a lot more than online exams.”

Sophomore Fred Miglo recently took two in-person exams — one in Nervous Systems and another in Organic Chemistry — and explained that his exams felt less content-heavy than when they were online.

“When we were online, [professors] assumed that we used notes, so they made the questions more in-depth,” he said.

Miglo hopes that aspects of online learning like open-note exams will continue after classes become fully in-person.

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How Effective Is Online Learning? What the Research Does and Doesn’t Tell Us

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Editor’s Note: This is part of a series on the practical takeaways from research.

The times have dictated school closings and the rapid expansion of online education. Can online lessons replace in-school time?

Clearly online time cannot provide many of the informal social interactions students have at school, but how will online courses do in terms of moving student learning forward? Research to date gives us some clues and also points us to what we could be doing to support students who are most likely to struggle in the online setting.

The use of virtual courses among K-12 students has grown rapidly in recent years. Florida, for example, requires all high school students to take at least one online course. Online learning can take a number of different forms. Often people think of Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, where thousands of students watch a video online and fill out questionnaires or take exams based on those lectures.

In the online setting, students may have more distractions and less oversight, which can reduce their motivation.

Most online courses, however, particularly those serving K-12 students, have a format much more similar to in-person courses. The teacher helps to run virtual discussion among the students, assigns homework, and follows up with individual students. Sometimes these courses are synchronous (teachers and students all meet at the same time) and sometimes they are asynchronous (non-concurrent). In both cases, the teacher is supposed to provide opportunities for students to engage thoughtfully with subject matter, and students, in most cases, are required to interact with each other virtually.

Coronavirus and Schools

Online courses provide opportunities for students. Students in a school that doesn’t offer statistics classes may be able to learn statistics with virtual lessons. If students fail algebra, they may be able to catch up during evenings or summer using online classes, and not disrupt their math trajectory at school. So, almost certainly, online classes sometimes benefit students.

In comparisons of online and in-person classes, however, online classes aren’t as effective as in-person classes for most students. Only a little research has assessed the effects of online lessons for elementary and high school students, and even less has used the “gold standard” method of comparing the results for students assigned randomly to online or in-person courses. Jessica Heppen and colleagues at the American Institutes for Research and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research randomly assigned students who had failed second semester Algebra I to either face-to-face or online credit recovery courses over the summer. Students’ credit-recovery success rates and algebra test scores were lower in the online setting. Students assigned to the online option also rated their class as more difficult than did their peers assigned to the face-to-face option.

Most of the research on online courses for K-12 students has used large-scale administrative data, looking at otherwise similar students in the two settings. One of these studies, by June Ahn of New York University and Andrew McEachin of the RAND Corp., examined Ohio charter schools; I did another with colleagues looking at Florida public school coursework. Both studies found evidence that online coursetaking was less effective.

About this series

This essay is the fifth in a series that aims to put the pieces of research together so that education decisionmakers can evaluate which policies and practices to implement.

The conveners of this project—Susanna Loeb, the director of Brown University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and Harvard education professor Heather Hill—have received grant support from the Annenberg Institute for this series.

To suggest other topics for this series or join in the conversation, use #EdResearchtoPractice on Twitter.

Read the full series here .

It is not surprising that in-person courses are, on average, more effective. Being in person with teachers and other students creates social pressures and benefits that can help motivate students to engage. Some students do as well in online courses as in in-person courses, some may actually do better, but, on average, students do worse in the online setting, and this is particularly true for students with weaker academic backgrounds.

Students who struggle in in-person classes are likely to struggle even more online. While the research on virtual schools in K-12 education doesn’t address these differences directly, a study of college students that I worked on with Stanford colleagues found very little difference in learning for high-performing students in the online and in-person settings. On the other hand, lower performing students performed meaningfully worse in online courses than in in-person courses.

But just because students who struggle in in-person classes are even more likely to struggle online doesn’t mean that’s inevitable. Online teachers will need to consider the needs of less-engaged students and work to engage them. Online courses might be made to work for these students on average, even if they have not in the past.

Just like in brick-and-mortar classrooms, online courses need a strong curriculum and strong pedagogical practices. Teachers need to understand what students know and what they don’t know, as well as how to help them learn new material. What is different in the online setting is that students may have more distractions and less oversight, which can reduce their motivation. The teacher will need to set norms for engagement—such as requiring students to regularly ask questions and respond to their peers—that are different than the norms in the in-person setting.

Online courses are generally not as effective as in-person classes, but they are certainly better than no classes. A substantial research base developed by Karl Alexander at Johns Hopkins University and many others shows that students, especially students with fewer resources at home, learn less when they are not in school. Right now, virtual courses are allowing students to access lessons and exercises and interact with teachers in ways that would have been impossible if an epidemic had closed schools even a decade or two earlier. So we may be skeptical of online learning, but it is also time to embrace and improve it.

A version of this article appeared in the April 01, 2020 edition of Education Week as How Effective Is Online Learning?

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Despite giving students chances to cheat, unsupervised online exams gauge student learning comparably to in-person  exams

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Jason C.K. Chan receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

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The big idea

Students don’t have to be supervised during online exams. That’s because unsupervised online exams can accurately assess student learning, according to our study published in July 2023 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Our data set comprised nearly 2,000 students from a public university in the Midwest. We analyzed exam scores from the first half of the spring semester of 2020, when tests were administered in person, and the second half, when the pandemic forced schools to shift online. This enabled us to compare how students performed on in-person exams versus online exams taught by the same instructor in the same course.

Our data showed a strong correlation between the scores that students achieved from unsupervised online exams and supervised in-person exams. In other words, students who got the best scores on the in-person exams also got the best scores on online exams.

We also examined whether this correlation changed based on students’ being early or later in their college career, the course discipline, the class size, or whether the exams featured mainly multiple-choice or short-answer questions. None of those factors significantly affected how well online exams assessed student learning.

We further analyzed our data to see if we could find clear signs of cheating during online exams. Because students who are doing poorly in a course are more likely to cheat , we predicted that students who had done poorly on the in-person exams – during the first half of the semester – would increase their scores more on online exams if they cheated.

We found no evidence for this type of cheating. This is important, because most people expect students to cheat during online exams. For example, a recent survey showed that more than 70% of college faculty believed cheating to be a significant problem for online exams, but only 8% believed the same for in-person exams.

Why it matters

COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of online teaching and assessments. For that reason, we thought it was important to examine whether unsupervised online exams can accurately assess learning.

Previous studies have shown that students obtained higher scores on online exams than on in-person exams. Those results have sometimes been seen as evidence of cheating , which calls into question the suitability of online exams as a form of assessment.

But to judge whether online exams accurately assess learning, we must show that a student who earns high marks on in-person exams does the same on online exams and vice versa. In other words, the two forms of exams should rank-order students similarly, which was exactly what we found in our data.

What’s next

Although this data shows that online exams, even when unproctored, can accurately assess student learning at a relatively broad scale, it all comes from a single university. For that reason, caution is needed when attempting to draw general conclusions.

Moreover, much has changed in online education over just the past year with the rise in popularity of generative AI tools like ChatGPT , which can facilitate cheating.

We want to obtain a larger data set to determine if our results hold true beyond a single university.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to write an a+ argumentative essay.

Miscellaneous

You'll no doubt have to write a number of argumentative essays in both high school and college, but what, exactly, is an argumentative essay and how do you write the best one possible? Let's take a look.

A great argumentative essay always combines the same basic elements: approaching an argument from a rational perspective, researching sources, supporting your claims using facts rather than opinion, and articulating your reasoning into the most cogent and reasoned points. Argumentative essays are great building blocks for all sorts of research and rhetoric, so your teachers will expect you to master the technique before long.

But if this sounds daunting, never fear! We'll show how an argumentative essay differs from other kinds of papers, how to research and write them, how to pick an argumentative essay topic, and where to find example essays. So let's get started.

What Is an Argumentative Essay? How Is it Different from Other Kinds of Essays?

There are two basic requirements for any and all essays: to state a claim (a thesis statement) and to support that claim with evidence.

Though every essay is founded on these two ideas, there are several different types of essays, differentiated by the style of the writing, how the writer presents the thesis, and the types of evidence used to support the thesis statement.

Essays can be roughly divided into four different types:

#1: Argumentative #2: Persuasive #3: Expository #4: Analytical

So let's look at each type and what the differences are between them before we focus the rest of our time to argumentative essays.

Argumentative Essay

Argumentative essays are what this article is all about, so let's talk about them first.

An argumentative essay attempts to convince a reader to agree with a particular argument (the writer's thesis statement). The writer takes a firm stand one way or another on a topic and then uses hard evidence to support that stance.

An argumentative essay seeks to prove to the reader that one argument —the writer's argument— is the factually and logically correct one. This means that an argumentative essay must use only evidence-based support to back up a claim , rather than emotional or philosophical reasoning (which is often allowed in other types of essays). Thus, an argumentative essay has a burden of substantiated proof and sources , whereas some other types of essays (namely persuasive essays) do not.

You can write an argumentative essay on any topic, so long as there's room for argument. Generally, you can use the same topics for both a persuasive essay or an argumentative one, so long as you support the argumentative essay with hard evidence.

Example topics of an argumentative essay:

• "Should farmers be allowed to shoot wolves if those wolves injure or kill farm animals?"
• "Should the drinking age be lowered in the United States?"
• "Are alternatives to democracy effective and/or feasible to implement?"

The next three types of essays are not argumentative essays, but you may have written them in school. We're going to cover them so you know what not to do for your argumentative essay.

Persuasive Essay

Persuasive essays are similar to argumentative essays, so it can be easy to get them confused. But knowing what makes an argumentative essay different than a persuasive essay can often mean the difference between an excellent grade and an average one.

Persuasive essays seek to persuade a reader to agree with the point of view of the writer, whether that point of view is based on factual evidence or not. The writer has much more flexibility in the evidence they can use, with the ability to use moral, cultural, or opinion-based reasoning as well as factual reasoning to persuade the reader to agree the writer's side of a given issue.

Instead of being forced to use "pure" reason as one would in an argumentative essay, the writer of a persuasive essay can manipulate or appeal to the reader's emotions. So long as the writer attempts to steer the readers into agreeing with the thesis statement, the writer doesn't necessarily need hard evidence in favor of the argument.

Often, you can use the same topics for both a persuasive essay or an argumentative one—the difference is all in the approach and the evidence you present.

Example topics of a persuasive essay:

• "Should children be responsible for their parents' debts?"
• "Should cheating on a test be automatic grounds for expulsion?"
• "How much should sports leagues be held accountable for player injuries and the long-term consequences of those injuries?"

Expository Essay

An expository essay is typically a short essay in which the writer explains an idea, issue, or theme , or discusses the history of a person, place, or idea.

This is typically a fact-forward essay with little argument or opinion one way or the other.

Example topics of an expository essay:

• "The History of the Philadelphia Liberty Bell"
• "The Reasons I Always Wanted to be a Doctor"
• "The Meaning Behind the Colloquialism ‘People in Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones'"

Analytical Essay

An analytical essay seeks to delve into the deeper meaning of a text or work of art, or unpack a complicated idea . These kinds of essays closely interpret a source and look into its meaning by analyzing it at both a macro and micro level.

This type of analysis can be augmented by historical context or other expert or widely-regarded opinions on the subject, but is mainly supported directly through the original source (the piece or art or text being analyzed) .

Example topics of an analytical essay:

• "Victory Gin in Place of Water: The Symbolism Behind Gin as the Only Potable Substance in George Orwell's 1984"
• "Amarna Period Art: The Meaning Behind the Shift from Rigid to Fluid Poses"
• "Adultery During WWII, as Told Through a Series of Letters to and from Soldiers"

There are many different types of essay and, over time, you'll be able to master them all.

A Typical Argumentative Essay Assignment

The average argumentative essay is between three to five pages, and will require at least three or four separate sources with which to back your claims . As for the essay topic , you'll most often be asked to write an argumentative essay in an English class on a "general" topic of your choice, ranging the gamut from science, to history, to literature.

But while the topics of an argumentative essay can span several different fields, the structure of an argumentative essay is always the same: you must support a claim—a claim that can reasonably have multiple sides—using multiple sources and using a standard essay format (which we'll talk about later on).

This is why many argumentative essay topics begin with the word "should," as in:

• "Should all students be required to learn chemistry in high school?"
• "Should children be required to learn a second language?"
• "Should schools or governments be allowed to ban books?"

These topics all have at least two sides of the argument: Yes or no. And you must support the side you choose with evidence as to why your side is the correct one.

But there are also plenty of other ways to frame an argumentative essay as well:

• "Does using social media do more to benefit or harm people?"
• "Does the legal status of artwork or its creators—graffiti and vandalism, pirated media, a creator who's in jail—have an impact on the art itself?"
• "Is or should anyone ever be ‘above the law?'"

Though these are worded differently than the first three, you're still essentially forced to pick between two sides of an issue: yes or no, for or against, benefit or detriment. Though your argument might not fall entirely into one side of the divide or another—for instance, you could claim that social media has positively impacted some aspects of modern life while being a detriment to others—your essay should still support one side of the argument above all. Your final stance would be that overall , social media is beneficial or overall , social media is harmful.

If your argument is one that is mostly text-based or backed by a single source (e.g., "How does Salinger show that Holden Caulfield is an unreliable narrator?" or "Does Gatsby personify the American Dream?"), then it's an analytical essay, rather than an argumentative essay. An argumentative essay will always be focused on more general topics so that you can use multiple sources to back up your claims.

Good Argumentative Essay Topics

So you know the basic idea behind an argumentative essay, but what topic should you write about?

Again, almost always, you'll be asked to write an argumentative essay on a free topic of your choice, or you'll be asked to select between a few given topics . If you're given complete free reign of topics, then it'll be up to you to find an essay topic that no only appeals to you, but that you can turn into an A+ argumentative essay.

What makes a "good" argumentative essay topic depends on both the subject matter and your personal interest —it can be hard to give your best effort on something that bores you to tears! But it can also be near impossible to write an argumentative essay on a topic that has no room for debate.

As we said earlier, a good argumentative essay topic will be one that has the potential to reasonably go in at least two directions—for or against, yes or no, and why . For example, it's pretty hard to write an argumentative essay on whether or not people should be allowed to murder one another—not a whole lot of debate there for most people!—but writing an essay for or against the death penalty has a lot more wiggle room for evidence and argument.

A good topic is also one that can be substantiated through hard evidence and relevant sources . So be sure to pick a topic that other people have studied (or at least studied elements of) so that you can use their data in your argument. For example, if you're arguing that it should be mandatory for all middle school children to play a sport, you might have to apply smaller scientific data points to the larger picture you're trying to justify. There are probably several studies you could cite on the benefits of physical activity and the positive effect structure and teamwork has on young minds, but there's probably no study you could use where a group of scientists put all middle-schoolers in one jurisdiction into a mandatory sports program (since that's probably never happened). So long as your evidence is relevant to your point and you can extrapolate from it to form a larger whole, you can use it as a part of your resource material.

And if you need ideas on where to get started, or just want to see sample argumentative essay topics, then check out these links for hundreds of potential argumentative essay topics.

101 Persuasive (or Argumentative) Essay and Speech Topics

301 Prompts for Argumentative Writing

Top 50 Ideas for Argumentative/Persuasive Essay Writing

[Note: some of these say "persuasive essay topics," but just remember that the same topic can often be used for both a persuasive essay and an argumentative essay; the difference is in your writing style and the evidence you use to support your claims.]

KO! Find that one argumentative essay topic you can absolutely conquer.

Argumentative Essay Format

Argumentative Essays are composed of four main elements:

• A position (your argument)
• Your reasons
• Supporting evidence for those reasons (from reliable sources)
• Counterargument(s) (possible opposing arguments and reasons why those arguments are incorrect)

If you're familiar with essay writing in general, then you're also probably familiar with the five paragraph essay structure . This structure is a simple tool to show how one outlines an essay and breaks it down into its component parts, although it can be expanded into as many paragraphs as you want beyond the core five.

The standard argumentative essay is often 3-5 pages, which will usually mean a lot more than five paragraphs, but your overall structure will look the same as a much shorter essay.

An argumentative essay at its simplest structure will look like:

Paragraph 1: Intro

• Set up the story/problem/issue
• Thesis/claim

Paragraph 2: Support

• Reason #1 claim is correct
• Supporting evidence with sources

Paragraph 3: Support

• Reason #2 claim is correct

Paragraph 4: Counterargument

• Explanation of argument for the other side
• Refutation of opposing argument with supporting evidence

Paragraph 5: Conclusion

• Re-state claim
• Sum up reasons and support of claim from the essay to prove claim is correct

Now let's unpack each of these paragraph types to see how they work (with examples!), what goes into them, and why.

Paragraph 1—Set Up and Claim

Your first task is to introduce the reader to the topic at hand so they'll be prepared for your claim. Give a little background information, set the scene, and give the reader some stakes so that they care about the issue you're going to discuss.

Next, you absolutely must have a position on an argument and make that position clear to the readers. It's not an argumentative essay unless you're arguing for a specific claim, and this claim will be your thesis statement.

Your thesis CANNOT be a mere statement of fact (e.g., "Washington DC is the capital of the United States"). Your thesis must instead be an opinion which can be backed up with evidence and has the potential to be argued against (e.g., "New York should be the capital of the United States").

Paragraphs 2 and 3—Your Evidence

These are your body paragraphs in which you give the reasons why your argument is the best one and back up this reasoning with concrete evidence .

The argument supporting the thesis of an argumentative essay should be one that can be supported by facts and evidence, rather than personal opinion or cultural or religious mores.

For example, if you're arguing that New York should be the new capital of the US, you would have to back up that fact by discussing the factual contrasts between New York and DC in terms of location, population, revenue, and laws. You would then have to talk about the precedents for what makes for a good capital city and why New York fits the bill more than DC does.

Your argument can't simply be that a lot of people think New York is the best city ever and that you agree.

In addition to using concrete evidence, you always want to keep the tone of your essay passionate, but impersonal . Even though you're writing your argument from a single opinion, don't use first person language—"I think," "I feel," "I believe,"—to present your claims. Doing so is repetitive, since by writing the essay you're already telling the audience what you feel, and using first person language weakens your writing voice.

For example,

"I think that Washington DC is no longer suited to be the capital city of the United States."

"Washington DC is no longer suited to be the capital city of the United States."

The second statement sounds far stronger and more analytical.

Paragraph 4—Argument for the Other Side and Refutation

Even without a counter argument, you can make a pretty persuasive claim, but a counterargument will round out your essay into one that is much more persuasive and substantial.

By anticipating an argument against your claim and taking the initiative to counter it, you're allowing yourself to get ahead of the game. This way, you show that you've given great thought to all sides of the issue before choosing your position, and you demonstrate in multiple ways how yours is the more reasoned and supported side.

Paragraph 5—Conclusion

This paragraph is where you re-state your argument and summarize why it's the best claim.

Briefly touch on your supporting evidence and voila! A finished argumentative essay.

Your essay should have just as awesome a skeleton as this plesiosaur does. (In other words: a ridiculously awesome skeleton)

Argumentative Essay Example: 5-Paragraph Style

It always helps to have an example to learn from. I've written a full 5-paragraph argumentative essay here. Look at how I state my thesis in paragraph 1, give supporting evidence in paragraphs 2 and 3, address a counterargument in paragraph 4, and conclude in paragraph 5.

Topic: Is it possible to maintain conflicting loyalties?

Paragraph 1

It is almost impossible to go through life without encountering a situation where your loyalties to different people or causes come into conflict with each other. Maybe you have a loving relationship with your sister, but she disagrees with your decision to join the army, or you find yourself torn between your cultural beliefs and your scientific ones. These conflicting loyalties can often be maintained for a time, but as examples from both history and psychological theory illustrate, sooner or later, people have to make a choice between competing loyalties, as no one can maintain a conflicting loyalty or belief system forever.

The first two sentences set the scene and give some hypothetical examples and stakes for the reader to care about.

The third sentence finishes off the intro with the thesis statement, making very clear how the author stands on the issue ("people have to make a choice between competing loyalties, as no one can maintain a conflicting loyalty or belief system forever." )

Paragraphs 2 and 3

Psychological theory states that human beings are not equipped to maintain conflicting loyalties indefinitely and that attempting to do so leads to a state called "cognitive dissonance." Cognitive dissonance theory is the psychological idea that people undergo tremendous mental stress or anxiety when holding contradictory beliefs, values, or loyalties (Festinger, 1957). Even if human beings initially hold a conflicting loyalty, they will do their best to find a mental equilibrium by making a choice between those loyalties—stay stalwart to a belief system or change their beliefs. One of the earliest formal examples of cognitive dissonance theory comes from Leon Festinger's When Prophesy Fails . Members of an apocalyptic cult are told that the end of the world will occur on a specific date and that they alone will be spared the Earth's destruction. When that day comes and goes with no apocalypse, the cult members face a cognitive dissonance between what they see and what they've been led to believe (Festinger, 1956). Some choose to believe that the cult's beliefs are still correct, but that the Earth was simply spared from destruction by mercy, while others choose to believe that they were lied to and that the cult was fraudulent all along. Both beliefs cannot be correct at the same time, and so the cult members are forced to make their choice.

But even when conflicting loyalties can lead to potentially physical, rather than just mental, consequences, people will always make a choice to fall on one side or other of a dividing line. Take, for instance, Nicolaus Copernicus, a man born and raised in Catholic Poland (and educated in Catholic Italy). Though the Catholic church dictated specific scientific teachings, Copernicus' loyalty to his own observations and scientific evidence won out over his loyalty to his country's government and belief system. When he published his heliocentric model of the solar system--in opposition to the geocentric model that had been widely accepted for hundreds of years (Hannam, 2011)-- Copernicus was making a choice between his loyalties. In an attempt t o maintain his fealty both to the established system and to what he believed, h e sat on his findings for a number of years (Fantoli, 1994). But, ultimately, Copernicus made the choice to side with his beliefs and observations above all and published his work for the world to see (even though, in doing so, he risked both his reputation and personal freedoms).

These two paragraphs provide the reasons why the author supports the main argument and uses substantiated sources to back those reasons.

The paragraph on cognitive dissonance theory gives both broad supporting evidence and more narrow, detailed supporting evidence to show why the thesis statement is correct not just anecdotally but also scientifically and psychologically. First, we see why people in general have a difficult time accepting conflicting loyalties and desires and then how this applies to individuals through the example of the cult members from the Dr. Festinger's research.

The next paragraph continues to use more detailed examples from history to provide further evidence of why the thesis that people cannot indefinitely maintain conflicting loyalties is true.

Paragraph 4

Some will claim that it is possible to maintain conflicting beliefs or loyalties permanently, but this is often more a matter of people deluding themselves and still making a choice for one side or the other, rather than truly maintaining loyalty to both sides equally. For example, Lancelot du Lac typifies a person who claims to maintain a balanced loyalty between to two parties, but his attempt to do so fails (as all attempts to permanently maintain conflicting loyalties must). Lancelot tells himself and others that he is equally devoted to both King Arthur and his court and to being Queen Guinevere's knight (Malory, 2008). But he can neither be in two places at once to protect both the king and queen, nor can he help but let his romantic feelings for the queen to interfere with his duties to the king and the kingdom. Ultimately, he and Queen Guinevere give into their feelings for one another and Lancelot—though he denies it—chooses his loyalty to her over his loyalty to Arthur. This decision plunges the kingdom into a civil war, ages Lancelot prematurely, and ultimately leads to Camelot's ruin (Raabe, 1987). Though Lancelot claimed to have been loyal to both the king and the queen, this loyalty was ultimately in conflict, and he could not maintain it.

Here we have the acknowledgement of a potential counter-argument and the evidence as to why it isn't true.

The argument is that some people (or literary characters) have asserted that they give equal weight to their conflicting loyalties. The refutation is that, though some may claim to be able to maintain conflicting loyalties, they're either lying to others or deceiving themselves. The paragraph shows why this is true by providing an example of this in action.

Paragraph 5

Whether it be through literature or history, time and time again, people demonstrate the challenges of trying to manage conflicting loyalties and the inevitable consequences of doing so. Though belief systems are malleable and will often change over time, it is not possible to maintain two mutually exclusive loyalties or beliefs at once. In the end, people always make a choice, and loyalty for one party or one side of an issue will always trump loyalty to the other.

The concluding paragraph summarizes the essay, touches on the evidence presented, and re-states the thesis statement.

How to Write an Argumentative Essay: 8 Steps

Writing the best argumentative essay is all about the preparation, so let's talk steps:

#1: Preliminary Research

If you have the option to pick your own argumentative essay topic (which you most likely will), then choose one or two topics you find the most intriguing or that you have a vested interest in and do some preliminary research on both sides of the debate.

Do an open internet search just to see what the general chatter is on the topic and what the research trends are.

Did your preliminary reading influence you to pick a side or change your side? Without diving into all the scholarly articles at length, do you believe there's enough evidence to support your claim? Have there been scientific studies? Experiments? Does a noted scholar in the field agree with you? If not, you may need to pick another topic or side of the argument to support.

#2: Pick Your Side and Form Your Thesis

Now's the time to pick the side of the argument you feel you can support the best and summarize your main point into your thesis statement.

Your thesis will be the basis of your entire essay, so make sure you know which side you're on, that you've stated it clearly, and that you stick by your argument throughout the entire essay .

#3: Heavy-Duty Research Time

You've taken a gander at what the internet at large has to say on your argument, but now's the time to actually read those sources and take notes.

Check scholarly journals online at Google Scholar , the Directory of Open Access Journals , or JStor . You can also search individual university or school libraries and websites to see what kinds of academic articles you can access for free. Keep track of your important quotes and page numbers and put them somewhere that's easy to find later.

And don't forget to check your school or local libraries as well!

#4: Outline

Follow the five-paragraph outline structure from the previous section.

Fill in your topic, your reasons, and your supporting evidence into each of the categories.

Before you begin to flesh out the essay, take a look at what you've got. Is your thesis statement in the first paragraph? Is it clear? Is your argument logical? Does your supporting evidence support your reasoning?

By outlining your essay, you streamline your process and take care of any logic gaps before you dive headfirst into the writing. This will save you a lot of grief later on if you need to change your sources or your structure, so don't get too trigger-happy and skip this step.

Now that you've laid out exactly what you'll need for your essay and where, it's time to fill in all the gaps by writing it out.

Take it one step at a time and expand your ideas into complete sentences and substantiated claims. It may feel daunting to turn an outline into a complete draft, but just remember that you've already laid out all the groundwork; now you're just filling in the gaps.

If you have the time before deadline, give yourself a day or two (or even just an hour!) away from your essay . Looking it over with fresh eyes will allow you to see errors, both minor and major, that you likely would have missed had you tried to edit when it was still raw.

Take a first pass over the entire essay and try your best to ignore any minor spelling or grammar mistakes—you're just looking at the big picture right now. Does it make sense as a whole? Did the essay succeed in making an argument and backing that argument up logically? (Do you feel persuaded?)

If not, go back and make notes so that you can fix it for your final draft.

Once you've made your revisions to the overall structure, mark all your small errors and grammar problems so you can fix them in the next draft.

#7: Final Draft

Use the notes you made on the rough draft and go in and hack and smooth away until you're satisfied with the final result.

A checklist for your final draft:

• Formatting is correct according to your teacher's standards
• No errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation
• Essay is the right length and size for the assignment
• The argument is present, consistent, and concise
• Each reason is supported by relevant evidence
• The essay makes sense overall

#8: Celebrate!

Once you've brought that final draft to a perfect polish and turned in your assignment, you're done! Go you!

Be prepared and ♪ you'll never go hungry again ♪, *cough*, or struggle with your argumentative essay-writing again. (Walt Disney Studios)

Good Examples of Argumentative Essays Online

Theory is all well and good, but examples are key. Just to get you started on what a fully-fleshed out argumentative essay looks like, let's see some examples in action.

Check out these two argumentative essay examples on the use of landmines and freons (and note the excellent use of concrete sources to back up their arguments!).

The Use of Landmines

A Shattered Sky

The Take-Aways: Keys to Writing an Argumentative Essay

At first, writing an argumentative essay may seem like a monstrous hurdle to overcome, but with the proper preparation and understanding, you'll be able to knock yours out of the park.

Remember the differences between a persuasive essay and an argumentative one, make sure your thesis is clear, and double-check that your supporting evidence is both relevant to your point and well-sourced . Pick your topic, do your research, make your outline, and fill in the gaps. Before you know it, you'll have yourself an A+ argumentative essay there, my friend.

What's Next?

Now you know the ins and outs of an argumentative essay, but how comfortable are you writing in other styles? Learn more about the four writing styles and when it makes sense to use each .

Understand how to make an argument, but still having trouble organizing your thoughts? Check out our guide to three popular essay formats and choose which one is right for you.

Ready to make your case, but not sure what to write about? We've created a list of 50 potential argumentative essay topics to spark your imagination.

Courtney scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT in high school and went on to graduate from Stanford University with a degree in Cultural and Social Anthropology. She is passionate about bringing education and the tools to succeed to students from all backgrounds and walks of life, as she believes open education is one of the great societal equalizers. She has years of tutoring experience and writes creative works in her free time.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

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Online exams vs. paper exams – which are best?

Oct 5, 2018 | Students | 0 |

In 2013, David Hanson of the Independent Association of Prep Schools explained that, within a decade, he expected schools to make the shift to online exams .

He was backed up by the president of Pearson UK, who said that the Edexcel board were already delivering ‘nearly 900,000 online-based tests in schools and colleges’.

There is no doubt that technology is already permeating the world of exams and will continue to do so in the years ahead. However, this raises the question of which type of exams are best for students.

While there are many pros to moving to online exams (reduced paper, time and money savings for schools), what are the benefits for students?

Online exams

Pupils have grown up surrounded by technology and use it far more than previous generations. This has moved into the classroom with teachers making use of modern teaching methods such as VR and AR to enhance their students’ learning.

This means that this generation of pupils are more used to technology in their education and using it in exams seems the next logical step. In fact, many students might be uncomfortable with the idea of paper tests when so much of their learning has utilised technology.

It could be the educational equivalent of asking them to start a fire with twigs when they’ve always used matches previously.

Online exams can feel more accessible to students. They may also have the perception of being fairer because they appear more standardised and the marking is therefore standardised too.

Digital technology is already used by exam boards, for instance, to separate responses out for individual questions to speed up the marking process.

Rod Bristow, the president of Pearson UK commented that:

This has made the assessment process quicker, more secure and most crucially, fairer for learners, with no single examiner marking an entire paper.

The perception of improved fairness, then, may already have been demonstrated in the marking process and this could be replicated in the use of technology for assessment purposes.

There are, however, technological hurdles to overcome if online exams are to work effectively across the country.

For example, some schools don’t have the same level of broadband and technical equipment as others. Rural schools may not have the same capacity as inner-city schools, leading to discrepancies in the availability of online exams.

This could then lead to students who are technologically able feeling short-changed by the lack of options for them. There’s also the possibility that some pupils may not be technologically competent, and the system could adversely penalise them.

Paper exams

Paper exams remain the norm for complex subjects, although the capacity for shifts to computer-based testing is still widely discussed.

One benefit is that they are reliant on systems that have been proven to work for many years. This offers a level of security to students who know that the processes have been developed and utilised for generations.

There is less chance of papers being lost (although this still occurs) and a reduced fear of technical glitches causing issues with the examination. Equally, taking paper exams in a traditional setting can feel more like an exam and therefore the importance of it is reiterated to pupils.

In the same way that some students may struggle with technology, though, it’s also the case that some pupils may be completely unused to writing for long periods of time. This may mean that they can’t complete questions sufficiently and struggle to attain the grades they deserve.

In addition, legibility is required for papers to be effectively marked, and this is something that many students struggle with.

Online vs. Paper

As things stand, technology for bringing computer-based testing into schools comprehensively is still in the future, and the efficacy of them is still up for debate.

A 2016 American study on the different scores attained within online testing and paper testing concluded that the more effective method is the one that students are proficient with:

So, method of testing makes a difference in the following ways: if students are not adept at taking a test on a computer, they score higher on the same paper-and-pencil test. If they are adept with a computer, they score higher on the computer test. Steve Graham, Professor of Leadership and Innovation, Arizona State University

It seems, then, that the progress of online exams depends as much on the progress of computer literacy and confidence as it does on the development of onscreen exam technology.

Of course, at EDExams, we firmly believe in the future of online exams and marking. As more children grow up in the digital age, a shift to online exams will eventually happen and our platform can already be used to deliver the full examination process from mock exams to marking and grading.

Discover  how EDExams can help you introduce online exams in your setting.

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About Online Learning: Exploring the Pros and Cons

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