How To Write A Toulmin Essay: A Comprehensive Guide

WHAT IS A TOULMIN ESSAY?

The core feature of a Toulmin essay is that it simultaneously makes use of the standard essay format, driven by a thesis and supporting paragraphs or sections, all the while making use of the formal Toulmin structure. The Toulmin structure is a highly formalized essay writing structure in which you must ground the structure of your essay in the Toulmin approach. This is a very significant limiting factor when you write a Toulmin essay as it means that you must absolutely write a Toulmin essay by including the six elements of the Toulmin structure.

Writing a Toulmin Essay means that you must be familiar with the Toulmin structure. The Toulmin structure begins with a claim which is then supported by grounds, a warrant, and backing. Read on to the next section to get a definition of these different components. Writing a Toulmin essay is also unique because you must write about what your potential opponents would say about your argument or Toulmin claim. The qualifier and rebuttal portions of writing a Toulmin essay are designed to incorporate these elements.

For most Toulmin essays, you will be assigned this type of essay so as to not only determine your ability to write an essay but also your ability to stick to a certain structure of argumentation. When you are writing a Toulmin essay, you must remember that your professor will be grading you as much on the quality of your Toulmin essay as your ability to stick to the Toulmin essay structure. When you are writing a Toulmin essay, think of it like this. Half your grade will be tied to your essay and half of it will be tied to your ability to write Toulmin style. Given that this is how your grade will be determined, getting a great grade on a Toulmin essay means sticking to the Toulmin structure in an almost religious manner.

Ultimately, the Toulmin essay is a very structured type of essay with little room for modification. Writing a Toulmin essay is primarily an exercise in structuring your essay in line with the formal Toulmin structure. Some professors assign the Toulmin essay because they believe that it is the optimal structure for scholarly argumentation. Other professors force you to write a Toulmin essay because it is very easy to grade by simply making sure that you have included all of the mandatory components of the Toulmin essay. If you are unsure of how to write a Toulmin essay using Toulmin structure, study the Toulmin style more thoroughly or hire Unemployed Professors to write you a custom Toulmin essay.

HOW TO WRITE A TOULMIN ESSAY

The first step in writing any Toulmin Essay is to choose a topic and then derive a thesis in relation to this topic. Writing a Toulmin essay is sometimes based on the five-paragraph model and sometimes based on a longer page length which will allow you to use more paragraphs for each section. Once you have chosen your thesis, you must absolutely tie your thesis to the Toulmin essay’s claim. This quite simply means that you must transform your Toulmin essay thesis into a Toulmin claim making up the main point of the essay.

Once you have completed the formulation of your thesis and sketched out your Toulmin essay through an outline, it is important that you break your essay down into the six component parts of the Toulmin structure: the claim; the grounds; the warrant; the qualifier; the rebuttal; and the backing. While the claim represents the thesis, the grounds are the evidence you will use to support your thesis and the warrant is what links your grounds to your claim. Integrating backing in writing your Toulmin essay means that you must explain what ties your grounds to you warrant. This is the part of writing a Toulmin essay that is what typically would represent supporting your thesis with evidence in a standard traditional essay.

Finally, writing a Toulmin essay that you consider alternative positions that would argue that your claim is wrong. In so doing when writing a Toulmin essay, you should use the qualifiers to highlight portions of your Toulmin essay that are uncertain and then base the rebuttal on a legitimate objection to your claim and the grounds which you are using to write your Toulmin essay. This is the final section of the Toulmin essay and, in writing a Toulmin essay, it will often replace the traditional essay conclusion unless your professor tells you otherwise. Observing the structure of the Toulmin essay described above is key to writing a Toulmin essay and getting an amazing grade.

HOW TO FORMAT A TOULMIN ESSAY

When writing a Toulmin essay, your professor is likely to specify a style guide and referencing style that you must use. These are usually either APA, MLA or Chicago Style. You should scrupulously stick to this style guide and referencing style when you write a Toulmin essay so as to avoid losing points unnecessarily. Because writing a Toulmin essay is all about sticking to the Toulmin structure, your professor will dock you marks for errors in formatting and referencing. Make sure that you thus observe and respect all of the formatting and referencing guidelines provided by your professor or teacher when you write a Toulmin essay.

Once you format your Toulmin essay in line with the style guide and referencing style your professor wants you to use, it is important to go back and ensure that you have explicitly made use of the six components of the Toulmin style. Make sure that you have explicitly included a claim, grounds, a warrant, backing, the rebuttal, and the qualifier. If you have only made use of a single paragraph for each of these when writing your Toulmin essay, make sure that each element is explicit and clear to your professor. If you ware writing a longer Toulmin essay, it is recommended that you make use of headings to identify your claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier and rebuttal. This will allow your professor or teacher to better delineate between the different elements you need to include when you write a Toulmin essay and ensure that you score the maximum number of points possible.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TOULMIN ESSAY AND A STANDARD ESSAY?

The main difference between writing an essay and writing a Toulmin essay is tied to the very specific nature of the Toulmin style. The use of the formal six-part structure made up of the claim, grounds, warrant, qualifier, rebuttal, and backing is unique to the Toulmin style and is not generally present in writing most essays. While a Toulmin essay follows the general process of writing a normal essay, writing a Toulmin essay requires that you adjust yourself to the specific components of the Toulmin essay. Doing this can be difficult if you are not familiar with the elements of the Toulmin structure but writing a Toulmin essay is just like writing any other type of essay once you understand what Toulmin style requires of you.