one of the most common types of essay you'll have to write in your academic career is the opinion essay also known as the argumentative essay or the persuasive essay where you have to take a controversial idea or a topic that many people have differing opinions on you'll have to present your opinion and you'll have to defend it and support it now the purpose of the opinion essay is to persuade the reader into agreeing with you or at least recognizing that you are uh opinion and argument is valid so a couple tips before you write your uh opinion essay number one take a clear position it's important that the reader uh clearly understands your opinion you cannot sit on the fence in an opinion essay pick one side or the other also you have to be clear not just in your opinion but in your reasons and your details remember that it's it's not the re it's not the reader job to connect your ideas that's your job as the writer and third you should consider your audience meaning you think about if you're trying to persuade someone who is it that you are trying to persuade who would disagree with you and why if you consider the other side of the argument your own defense will be much stronger now once you've decided or considered those things it's it's time to write your essay now an opinion essay follows the basic structure it has three parts s the introduction the body and the conclusion now like all essays the introductory paragraph would start with a hook meaning a sentence that's engaging to get the reader attention and to introduce the topic in an interesting way you have the background information which would give a little bit of information about the topic in order that the reader can understand why it's controversial or why it's important and then of course the most important sentence in your essay is the thesis statement which is the last sentence of your introductory paragraph now in an opinion essay your thesis statement will be your opinion um in this case my example thesis statement is professional athletes who are caught taking performance-enhancing drugs should be banned from the sport for life now this is a good thesis statement because it's clear and I have taken a a definite position and now it's time for me to support my opinion now in the body it can be one paragraph or three or however many you need in order to fully support your opinion and meet the requirements of your class now the body paragraph should support your opinion with both reasons and details to have a strong argument you probably want at least three good reasons if you can't think of three reasons to support your opinion you you may have a weak argument now once you've given a reason for example a strict lifetime ban could protect other athletes from the temptation to use drugs you may want to add some detail to fully explain what you mean now if athletes are aware of the punishment of a severe punishment they will be less likely to be tempted uh by these performance-enhancing drugs like steroids now once you have uh presented your argument with reasons and details it's time for you to introduce something called the counterargument now the counterargument means the opposing view or the view of a person who would disagree with your opinion now you may ask why you would include the counterargument in your essay but remember that you want the reader to recognize that you have you have seen both sides of the argument you've considered both sides and you've made a decision so it's important to to include both sides for example in this case I've said some might argue that this punishment is too severe if you take away the person's ability to play the sport you take away their lifelong dream now this is the counterargument and once you've presented that it's time for you to answer it and explain why uh your opinion is stronger now there are two ways to respond to the counterargument you can refute or concede refute means that you are saying that counter argument is wrong that you disagree to concede means you're saying yes but so you're recognizing that the counter argument is is a good point but that your opinion is stronger now in this case my reputation is however it is the athletes taking these drugs who are the ones robbing other athletes of opportunity and dreams now once you've established the counterargument and the response you can move on to your concluding paragraph in the conclusion like all basic essays you want to restate the thesis paraphrase it you summarize your main points and then you want to end your concluding paragraph with a strong statement remember that just like the hook you're grabbing the reader's attention in the conclusion you want to leave the reader with a lasting impression and if you follow this guideline you're much more likely of writing a successful opinion essay so if you want to practice opinion essays follow the link at the end of this video