1) Explanation of the problem 2) Stating your position 3) Argument supporting your position 4) Rebuttal of expected criticisms 5) Resolution of the issue

1. Argumentative essay outline
 Explanation of the problem
 Stating your position
 Argument supporting your position
 Rebuttal of expected criticisms
 Resolution of the issue
Writing an argumentative essay entails five basic steps: researching the
issue, stating your position on the issue, arguing for your position,
rebutting objections to your position, and resolving the issue. The outline
of such an essay might look like this:

2. Explanation of the problem
This very first step in constructing an extended argument or writing an
argumentative essay is to become thoroughly acquainted with the complexity
of the issue at stake. Your main concern shouldn’t be that of defending the
position that you may already have on an issue; your goal is to discover which
of the available positions on the question is the most valid one. It is likely that
researching the question may cause you to discard your original position.
Excellent preparation involves looking at all sides of the coin. Not only does this
lead you in determining which position to defend, it also familiarizes you with
the possible arguments for or against that position. It also familiarizes you with
alternative positions on the problem and the reasons that are supporting them.
Most important, you’ll understand the major criticisms of your position and the
arguments supporting it, which you must successfully rebut as part of your
essay.

3. Stating your position
Before presenting your argument for your position, it is a good idea to indicate
why the question at issue is an important one. The very fact that you are writing
an argumentative essay suggests that there is an important unresolved or open
question to be addressed.
After you have carefully discussed the significance of the issue, you should state
your position on it right at the start of your essay. This should be done similarly
to the way a prosecutor does it in his or her opening statement at the beginning
of a trial. Your research has already led you to the conclusion you’ll be
defending, so you should declare it as quickly as simply as possible. If it is a
problem to be solved, you should make it clear that you believe your proposal
will help solve it. There is no need to spend a lot of space up front addressing
the complexity of the issue. The complex nature of the question will become
sufficiently clear as you present your argument in support of your position.

4. Arguing for your position
The section in which you argue for your position is the most critical part of your
essay. Here is where you’ll present the argument in support of your stated
position. The argument for your position should look like a considerably
expanded version of a standard-form argument. Typically, you should use one
paragraph for each premise in your argument so that the reader is less likely to
be confused about the parts of your argument. Remember that everything you
say should help support the position, so you shouldn’t include extraneous
material, even if it would make the essay more entertaining or colorful.
Set forth the strongest evidence you have in support of your conclusion, making
all your premises as explicit as possible and arranging them so that they flow
from one to the next in logical way. Use examples sparingly so that the reader is
less likely to confuse an illustration with a part of the argument. Also, if
possible, try to make your argument a deductive one, to increase the relative
strength of the argument.

5. Rebutting Objections to Your Position
The fifth criterion of a good argument, the rebuttal criterion, deserves a special
status. A good argument should provide an effective rebuttal to all serious
challenges of most arguments. This is the most neglected feature of most
arguments. Almost any arguer can find relevant and acceptable premises and
what appears to be sufficient number of premises to support a conclusion, but
such an argument would not be good one unless it could also effectively answer
the criticisms of those who challenge its merit. You should include effective
rebuttals to the strongest of those criticisms as a part of your essay. If you do
not have an effective response to them, then you probably should not be
defending that position. You should have discovered this during the research
phase of the argumentative essay assignment.
Since only one position can be the most defensible position on the question,
you should also be able to identify significant flaws in arguments supporting
alternative positions on the issue. However, since it may not be possible to land
a knockout blow against each of those alternative positions, you should at least
make it clear that the argument for your position comes closer to successfully
meeting all the criteria of a good argument that the arguments for the
alternative positions.

6. Resolving the issue
Since you’ll have stated the conclusion of the essay at the beginning, you
probably don’t have to state it again at the end. However, you probably will
want to show how the position you have defended resolves the question, solves
the problem, or settles the conflict, which was the main impetus for writing the
essay. You might also point out how the argument successfully meets all the
conditions of a good argument, including the effective rebuttal of criticisms of
your argument, the position it supports, and the arguments for the strongest
alternative positions. Finally, you may wish to suggest areas related to the
question where further research may be usefully conducted; but do not leave
the reader with any doubt about where you stand on the issue.