abuse of power argumentative essay

“Lucifer Effect” by Philip Zimbardo: Abuse of Power Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The essay is an argumentative paper which discusses abuse of power and its demerits. The paper is based on the book Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo . The paper begins with an introduction which states a thesis statement. The body of the essay reveals the term ‘abuse of power’ and its political and social drawbacks. Political and social problems in Afghanistan, Tibet, Iraq, and Pakistan are discussed. The dark side of the Iraq invasion is also revealed in this essay. The essay ends with a conclusion which restates the important points and supports the thesis statement.

Argumentative essay: Abuse of power

One of the serious issues that call for the attention of the general public is the abuse of power. It has been inferred as the complete dominance of power over the weaker section by those who possess power. Abuse of power is the condition in which the person who has complete power exerts his/her supremacy over others who lack it. If there is continuous power to the authority in a country, it may lead to abuse of power. Misuse of power causes dishonesty and it becomes a threat to the society. When one who has power rejects to accept the responsibilities it is the start of an ethical immorality. Only the one who has the power will do evil and it is the basic instinct. One should discuss the question as to how a good citizen becomes a mere coward when he is in power. When one attempts to realize a person it is very difficult to understand his strange behavior very easily as the external and internal behavior of a person will be extremely different. The abuse of power becomes more dangerous when the person who has power looks his own well being without caring for his/her fellow beings. People look for only power and at the same time they lack virtue and without virtue one cannot be a good person. The person who is in power seems always blind because he is not aware of his own deeds and he does not think what will be the consequences of his misbehavior. Power is necessary for the welfare of the state but when it is misused by the authority it is abuse of power. Abuse of power is one which is there all over the world. Men in power ill-treat others around him like a puppet in his hand. But on the other side, power can make or change the world into a better one. The people who are in power are of the stern belief that they should be honored by every one. One can view a good example in the case of Adolph Hitler who misused the power because of his self-esteem. Hitler was elected as the ruler of Germany because of his honorable conduct but when he came in power he became a mere tyrant. He was a Nazi and he changed the world itself with his power. He put the prisoners in the concentration camp and treated them so brutally and millions of people were executed as per his order. All these indicate how a person with power turns gradually into a tyrant. Regarding abuse of power, one can deduce that it causes political uncertainty and social anarchy by dividing people into two layers; a dominative authority and a group of struggling people.

The ‘Lucifer Effect’ discusses the basic question regarding the nature of human beings. When good people turn evil by doing cruel deeds, this conversion may be described as ‘Lucifer Effect’. “According to various scenarios of early Christian Church Fathers (from Cyprus, Armenia, Greece, and France), Lucifer was god’s favorite angel.” (Zimbardo). He once disobeyed God and had been thrown out from heaven to hell and he became a mere devil. It is same as the case of human being too. If the good people do some terrible actions, the after-effects will be same as Lucifer, as the society will treat them as evil. Human mind is a mixture of good and evil thoughts and by doing good activities people can overcome from their bad deeds. But when people get the power they simply forget the good quality. But the man in power does not know that it is cause of his own ruin. People are of the belief that it is the power that makes one a monster but on the contrary they are not aware of the truth that it is the people who make the power an abusive one.

On 28 April 2004 The American News agency showed some striking photographs in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The photos are heart touching as the naked Iraqi prisoners are treated in a brutal way. Zimbardo is one among the shocked persons in America after seeing these photos and being a young psychologist he performed an experiment of the psychology of imprisonment with the division of a group of apprentice students into guards and prisoners. The effect was unpredictable as the open-minded students soon changed into great sadists who torture the prisoners in a strange way. Thus he learned from the experiment that “most of us can undergo significant character transformations when we are caught up in the crucible of social forces.” (Marriott). This shows how the good people turn into evil minded. In the Book ‘Lucifer Effect’ the author explains how good people turn into evil. Zimbardo wrote this book mainly based on the 20 th century’s bad examples of the man’s inhumanity to man especially the butchery of 350,000 Chinese civilians by the Japanese at Nanking in 1937. Zimbardo is of the view that the cause of the seeds of the evil flowers in the Abu Ghraib prison is mainly by the Bush Administration who tries to win the war with terror. The book explains about the powerful situational forces which lead man to act in a worse manner indifferent to their open minded character. The students are extremely good and all are open-minded in the beginning of the experiment as mentioned in the book. They shared everything together especially the sorrows and joys but the situation changes when they are placed in the role of guards and prisoners. The noble soul became the devil’s workshop as they start to treat the prisoners in a brutal way even though they know the truth that they are not criminals. The changes that occurred in the minds of the students is mainly from the situation they are forced to play as they are of the view that guards have the power to act as they like and thus they treat the prisoners in a brutal way. When they get the power they start to use it badly and it is the abuse of power. The behavior of the guards indicates how the situation forces them to act in a worse manner and also how the good becomes bad due to course of situation. All these indicate that both the good and evil lie in the very heart of human beings and it is the situation that makes them act good and evil. Thus the book ‘Lucifer Effect’, by Philip Zimbardo is a good example which expresses the abuse of power in detail.

Analyzing abuse of power, one can see the fact that it often leads to social anarchy and it is possible to identify many examples. Abuse of power creates severe political uncertainty and crisis. The soldiers at Abu Ghraib became the victims of their superior’s egotistical behavior and they were forced to work in severe conditions. 12 hours of work in a day affected the mental and physical wellbeing of soldiers. Medias reported that the thirst for political supremacy and power led Bush administration in a world of unending cruelty and they planted the seeds of the flowers of malevolence. In many circumstances soldiers did not get proper instructions and suggestions for their work. It is a common knowledge that power is a kind of political or national strength. Whenever the power is combined with exploitation, the problem begins. Manipulative actions of the people promote unfair, pessimistic, and biased outcomes in the society. Iraq’s Gulf attack (1990-91) ended in loss of more than 100,000 civilians (First Gulf War, 1990-1991). Missiles and other modern weapons destroyed civilian territories and towns. In the journal article entitled ’The Gulf War’, Mitchell Bard shows his willingness to support the evil of power. Here the author comments about the Gulf war and its political crisis. He states; ”The Iraqi leader also made the alarming disclosure that his commanders had the freedom to launch attacks against Israel without consulting the high command if Israel attacked Iraq.” (Bard).

The Abuse of power in policy formation, law making and other administrative reforms constitutes serious social and political problems. Self intentions of a particular group or community paved the way for the violation of policies by other people. In case of the Taliban, Tibetan issue, Military administration in Pakistan and several Latin American and Afro- Asian countries, majority in these nations were forced to obey the rules and regulations of their rulers. Analyzing the history of Taliban one should be able to understand the fact that extreme fundamentalism has implemented strict rules and regulations in favor of Muslim extremists. One can see that abusing of power reached its zenith when Taliban fundamentalists took the political control of the region. The women and children in Taliban were forced to live under the shadow of severe religious rules and restrictions practiced by the fundamentalists. The cruelest face of Taliban rule was explored through their judiciary. Fundamentalist’s justice is extremely brutal and atrocious. The journal article which was published by the name, The Taliban – Horrors To Women, Children And Men gives significant information about the uncivilized culture and the violation of human rights. It says; “There is little to no chance of appealing a case before a judge and jury.” (The Taliban- Horrors to Women, Children and Men).

The exponents of traditional Muslim religion show their willingness to practice a social system which permits them to view women and children as mere subjects. Poverty and ignorance give further imprisonment to the people. Restrictions in dress, education, amusements and religious worships drag the people into the world of unending afflictions. If analyzed, can see that abuse of power has engulfed the Fundamentalist government.

Zimbardo writes about the pathetic condition of American soldiers in his masterpiece work The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo. Life in underground prisons gives horrible and fearful experiences for soldiers. The worst thing is that the majority of military officers could not know the problems of ordinary militants. In other words, their superiors are never ready to accept the realities in the warfield. Through the book Zimbardo reveals how circumstances and political environment can raise cruelty and abuse of power. Trials and punishments sometimes reached the level of personal revenge and utter selfishness.

Desire for power never ends as it adds to one’s acceptability and reputation. To an extent it is an integral part of one’s social life. But abuse of power can never be justified and it will certainly lead to moral evil. Quite often, abuse of power is considered as the prime source of moral evil. It is proved that when someone refuses to accept his responsibilities, moral evils begin to exist especially to those who are exclusively under his or her direct care and control. It can be said that someone gets power when he or she has a considerable influence on the reality of others. So power should be in accordance with the social accord or conventions. One’s competence to inflict his or her will on others can be termed as abuse of power and no doubt it is unlawful. Mental dexterity, social position, physical strength, knowledge, technology, weapons, wealth, or the trust that others have in him or her can be the root cause of abuse of power. When one’s advantage or earnings depends on harming or exploiting others it can be considered as extremely unethical and it is suggested that the main principle of human ethics and morality should be to avoid the abuse of power. It should be treated seriously that the decision to adopt an ethical principle as one’s own is a solely personal one, and cannot be forced on someone. It is not possible that someone will take on a principle that is not harmonious with his or her mental configuration and this will be influenced by childhood experiences. Putting an assistant in place of conflict of interest demonstrates a complete ignorance of ethics. (Abuse of Power).

To conclude, one can infer that the abuse of power is quite common in the modern world and most of the politicians and bureaucrats use it as a weapon to get their things done. Going back to history, there had been different examples of the abuse of power that many monarchs used it well. Analyzing the abuse of power one can understand the reality that abuse of power causes dishonesty, though power is necessary for the welfare and integrity of the nation. Different examples of the abuse of power includes the dominance or supremacy possessed by Hitler and the concentration camps used for suppressing Jews, abuse of power by Saddam Hussain as the president of Iraq, brutal torture of the US Army in the Abu Ghraib jail and the fundamentalist role in Afghanistan. Finally one can see that abuse of power causes political uncertainty and social anarchy by dividing people into two layers; a dominative authority and a group of struggling people.

Works Cited

• Abuse of Power. Sibling Rivalry. 2009.
• Bard, Mitchell. The Gulf War . Jewish Virtual Library: A Division of the American- Israel Cooperative Enterprise. 2009. Web.
• First Gulf War, 1990-1991. Australian War Memorial. 2009.
• Marriott, Edward. Torture as Second Nature: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how Good People Turn Evil . Guardian.co.uk. 2007. Web.
• The Taliban- Horrors to Women, Children and Men. Information and Entertainment @ Information- Entertainment-com. 2009.
• Zimbardo, Philip. Who was Lucifer and how did He Become the Devil. The Lucifer Effect. 2009.
• Conflict Resolution Tactics and Bullying
• The Phenomenon of Child Sexual Abuse in the Society
• Administrative Evil and the “Lucifer Effect”
• The Psychology of Evil Analysis
• The Stanford Prison Experiment and My Perception of Human Behaviour
• Forensic Psychology. Child Testimony in Abuse Case
• Corporal Punishment of Preschoolers
• Flannery O'Connor as a Prominent Voice of American Literature
• The Exception by Christian Jungersen
• Reflections on Domestic Violence in the Case of Dr. Mile Crawford
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, November 10). "Lucifer Effect" by Philip Zimbardo: Abuse of Power. https://ivypanda.com/essays/lucifer-effect-by-philip-zimbardo-abuse-of-power/

""Lucifer Effect" by Philip Zimbardo: Abuse of Power." IvyPanda , 10 Nov. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/lucifer-effect-by-philip-zimbardo-abuse-of-power/.

IvyPanda . (2021) '"Lucifer Effect" by Philip Zimbardo: Abuse of Power'. 10 November.

IvyPanda . 2021. ""Lucifer Effect" by Philip Zimbardo: Abuse of Power." November 10, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/lucifer-effect-by-philip-zimbardo-abuse-of-power/.

1. IvyPanda . ""Lucifer Effect" by Philip Zimbardo: Abuse of Power." November 10, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/lucifer-effect-by-philip-zimbardo-abuse-of-power/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""Lucifer Effect" by Philip Zimbardo: Abuse of Power." November 10, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/lucifer-effect-by-philip-zimbardo-abuse-of-power/.

• Login or Sign up

The Power of the Prosecutor in America: Abuse, Misconduct, Unaccountability, and Miscarriages of Justice

by Casey J. Bastian

The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty and reputation than any other person in America.

– Robert Jackson, Former U.S. Attorney (1940)

To many people, prosecutors are viewed as the “Champion of the People.” Americans rightly expect those given such tremendous responsibility and incredible power will ensure that justice is done. They shall maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system and promote respect for the rule of law. To that end, the American prosecutor ought to be noble and honorable, committed to vindicating the law, and someone to whom the notion of success isn’t simply the number of convictions obtained at any cost.

But what happens when we find that the reality is dramatically different? When it’s revealed that there is a darker side to the modern American prosecutor? Or worse, that prosecutors have never been the embodiment of the glowing public image, and securing convictions no matter the costs is all that has ever really mattered. Research, empirical evidence, and judicial findings reveal a seedy underbelly where individuals who wield immense power cause nearly as much damage to individuals and the rule of law as any number of criminal defendants.

For decades, prosecutors have ruled the criminal justice system with near absolute power. Concentrating so much power in the hands of any one human being inevitably leads to its abuse. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The consequences of this corrupted power play out every day across the country. Too many Americans are subjected to abusive power at the expense of their life and liberty. Jackson’s observation was not only insightful, but it has also become more deserving of heed as time passes.

There is simply no greater concentration of power in the criminal justice system than that wielded by the modern American prosecutor – and we now know it is abused at alarming rates. This has devastating consequences for the individuals involved and the criminal justice system at large. One report found that “the scope and subjects of prosecutorial power have likely increased over the past century.” In 2016, one scholar declared that the “system’s overriding evil is the concentration of power” in the hands of prosecutors.

Prosecutorial abuses occur at both the state and federal level. The great majority of prosecutions are conducted at the state level. The assumption that electoral oversight serves as a mechanism of restraint, as prosecutors at the state level are elected officials, bears little fruit. At the federal level, top prosecutors and their subordinates are appointed, with little to no electoral accountability.

The range of criticisms is broad and of many persuasions. “No one of good conscience should want the job,” said one former prosecutor. A federal appellate judge declared that “there is an epidemic of prosecutors hiding exculpatory evidence.” That’s alarming if true, and the evidence indicates that it is. The National Registry of Exonerations (“NRE”) found that 30% of all exonerations involved misconduct by prosecutors. The University of California at Irvine’s School of Social Ecology noted that misconduct by federal prosecutors was two and half times more common than misconduct by police and an astounding “seven times as common” among “white collar crime exonerations.”

That this is the reality after numerous Supreme Court decisions have established and reinforced procedural protections for criminal defendants should shock the conscience. It clearly demonstrates a profound willfulness by prosecutors to disregard the rule of law and embrace a disturbing “win-at-any-cost” mindset. Yet, prosecutors seem to bristle at the term “prosecutorial misconduct,” preferring, rather self-servingly, “prosecutorial error” because the term does not connote intentional wrongdoing.

The belief that prosecutors in general are a serious problem continues to gain momentum. Social justice activists argue prosecutors are “protecting trigger-happy cops.” Other critics argue that unchecked prosecutorial power is reflected in “overcrowded prisons, out of control snitches, and racially lopsided justice.” It is not just laypersons who are voicing their concerns; professionals, experts, scholars, and researchers are offering critiques on a national level as well.

Prosecutorial abuse is considered to be “quite possibly the most pressing challenge in American criminal justice.” Such a belief stems from the reality that the professional decisions of prosecutors “are relatively unconstrained and subject to weak oversight.” Indeed, the existing jurisprudence meant to ensure honest prosecutorial functioning has no teeth, with courts reluctant or unwilling to invoke their supervisory authority in an effort to sanction and prevent abuse. As such, continuing conversations about prosecutorial power must include discussions on non-existent accountability and unrestrained discretion. Professor of law Angela J. Davis, at the American University of Washington College of Law, argues that the “deficiency of prosecutorial discretion lies not in its existence, but in the randomness and arbitrariness of its application.”

Prosecutorial Discretion

A prosecutor’s discretionary charging power, the ability to charge someone with a crime – or not – is likely the most consequential of the many important duties and responsibilities of prosecutors. This power is the “essence” of “control over the entire system.” The prosecutor can guide the entire outcome of the process as they desire through nothing more than the charges filed against a defendant. There is a notable lack of transparency when it comes to the exercise of this discretionary power.

The decision to charge or plea bargain is entirely discretionary and essentially unreviewable. This power results in prosecutors having a “greater impact” than that of any other official within the criminal justice system. Factors that lead to these decisions are made behind closed doors. There is absolutely no requirement that a prosecutor disclose their reasoning. Most offices do not even have uniform standards guiding these decisions, and charging decisions are often made on an ad hoc (when necessary) basis, e.g., perhaps the prosecutor learns that the defendant has a criminal history or information that can be leveraged.

The significance of this discretionary latitude cannot be overemphasized. Let’s imagine a person is arrested for allegedly possessing methamphetamine. The prosecutor has multiple options: no charges or charges designed to increase the prosecutor’s leverage for purposes of conviction. A charge of simple possession is likely a misdemeanor, while distribution offenses can carry lengthy mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment. A factually innocent person faced with the potential to spend years behind bars will frequently plead guilty to simple possession, after being charged with the greater offense, just to minimize sentencing exposure. There are many real world cases in which people have pleaded guilty to possession of a drug that later turned out to be to be a perfectly legal substance such as doughnut icing or stress-ball sand. Such a disturbing outcome is even more likely if the person has a prior record. The NRE found that 20 percent of all exonerations involved wrongful convictions resulting from guilty pleas.

Another aspect of prosecutorial discretion is the “trial penalty.” That describes the situation where a prosecutor requests a substantially harsher sentence upon conviction at trial, after the defendant rejected a prior plea offer containing a lighter sentence, for no other reason than the defendant had the audacity to insist on exercising their right to a trial and did not spare the prosecution the “inconvenience and necessity of a trial.” According to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, “This penalty is now so severe and pervasive it has virtually eliminated the constitutional right to a trial.”

Pretextual Prosecutions

Another form of exercising prosecutorial power is “pretextual prosecution.” There is an enthusiastic trend towards this “ad hoc instrumentalism.” It has been described as “the use of criminal prosecutions and other legal proceedings as interchangeable tools” available for opportunistic use “against people or behaviors thought to be dangerous or undesirable.”

Traditionally, there was a sense among prosecutors to only prosecute criminal violations and not do so out of a “desire to punish the defendant for other reasons.” With pretextual prosecution, instead of first discovering a crime has been committed and identifying the culprit, a prosecutor starts by “picking the man” and then “pin some offense on him.” This strategy is becoming known as “intelligence-driven prosecution.” The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office proudly boasted of discerning who was “driving crime in Manhattan” and then becoming “focused on taking them out.” This concept of “intelligence-driven prosecution” mirrors similar policing tactics. Advocates argue there is nothing nefarious about it but simply that prosecutors “employ computerized analytics to target organizational resources where they will have the greatest impact.” Often, the poor and other disfavored groups are subject to these so-called intelligence-driven prosecutions. Unfortunately, the opportunities for prosecutorial abuse are virtually limitless.

Increase in Prosecutorial Power

What precisely is driving the increase in prosecutorial power is a subject of debate. It is not solely within individual cases that prosecutors wield power. The full spectrum of prosecutors’ duties and powers also involve planning and lobbying for criminal justice policies and strategies. Typically, the head prosecutors also serve as “de facto leaders of the local criminal justice system.” Prosecutors lobby for or against policies while exerting substantial influence over criminal justice legislation. Increased power may be a natural consequence when one considers the “politics of crime,” involving “tough on crime” politicians and policies.

There has been an “explosion” in what constitutes a federal crime. In 1980, there were 3,000 federal crimes; in 2008, there were 4,450. In addition, there are federal regulations, which are so numerous that they can’t even be accurately counted, but it is believed that they number in the “tens of thousands.” According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, there were almost 84,000 federal prosecutions in 2010; there were only 29,000 in 1990. Misdemeanor prosecutions have doubled at the state level since 1972. So, the question is: could the increase in prosecutors’ power be attributed to the “proliferation of criminal statutes”?

Other factors to consider are ballooning caseloads and rapid rise of plea bargaining. Researchers in 2012 found that “as systems of criminal adjudication have become increasingly burdened, they have substituted consensual case dispositions for trials.” Similar to how traffic increases when a highway is widened, plea bargaining seems to have “inflated caseloads by expanding the system’s capacity.” That’s quite thought-provoking because it’s generally been thought that the rise to dominance of the plea bargain was in response to untenable caseloads.

The natural restraint of a prosecutor to behave ethically and legally has been curtailed by the Supreme Court. In Imbler v. Pachtman , 424 U.S. 409 (1976), the Court declared that it is “better to leave unredressed the wrongs done by dishonest officers [of the court] than to subject those who try to do their duty to the constant dread of retaliation.” And with that statement, the Court helped create the environment in which many prosecutors brazenly flout the rules governing fair trials and ensuring due process of law because they understand that there are virtually no consequences for bad behavior. Prosecutorial immunity is the likely root of prosecutorial misdeeds and the increase in power.

Another reason advanced as to why prosecutorial power is increasing is that it is more acceptable to people. The prevailing sentiment is that “prosecutors traditionally have exercised authority only within the sphere of criminal proceedings,” and this seems to affect only “actual or potential criminal defendants.” Since most people can’t imagine that they would ever be the target of prosecutorial power, they have limited empathy for those who are.

It is naïve to believe that you would never be the target of a criminal prosecution. Harvey A. Silverglate discussed the overreach of federal law in his book “Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.” According to the book, federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition, and prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. When everything is a crime, everyone is a criminal. Prosecutors understand that and use it to their advantage.

David A. Sklansky teaches and writes about criminal law, criminal procedure, and evidence at Stanford Law School and has written extensively on issues surrounding the modern prosecutor. In “The Problems with Prosecutors,” he identifies “at least seven different problems with American prosecutors.” These issues include the level of overall prosecutorial power generally, unmitigated discretionary function, frequent illegal misconduct, a mindset of punitive ideology governing prosecutor conduct, prolific unaccountability, organizational inertia in prosecutors’ offices, and the “ambiguity” of the prosecutor’s role in the criminal justice process. Many believe that all the problems in the criminal justice system revolve around these seven issues.

Differing Views of the Role of the Prosecutor

There is a school of thought that believes a just use of the prosecutor’s power is where we find the solutions – after all, if the prosecutor wields so much power, exercised correctly, it would probably result true justice. This is known as the “progressive prosecutor” movement. The idea took off after Angela Davis published her 2009 book “Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor.” In her book, she argued that “prosecutors should use their discretion to reduce mass incarceration and racial disparities.”

That there are racial disparities in arrests and convictions is evidenced by numerous studies. The Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed that a Black man has a one in three chance of being incarcerated; compare that to Hispanics (one in six) and whites (one in 17). Critics claim this demonstrates the “stark racial disparities that characterize the American criminal justice system.” Former federal prosecutor, professor, and analyst Paul Butler writes that the “movement is new but promising.” Butler argues that because prosecutors are “one of the primary sources” behind excessive punishment and mass incarceration, “they must be part of the solution.”

There is also the idea of conviction integrity units (“CIU”) within prosecutors’ offices that can provide oversight, especially after complaints of misconduct are filed. The State Bar of Michigan reported that “As of June 2022, there are 94 CIUs nationwide,” at the local, state, and federal level. CIUs are designed “to promote transparency and conduct collaborative investigations” with defense attorneys.

There is also the idea of “community prosecution” branches, which encourages “prosecutors to focus on pragmatic solutions rather than punishment for its own sake.” Some prosecutors are uncomfortable with this role since they are accustomed to the more “combative function” traditionally embraced by the profession. Hadar Aviram published a 2013 article in the St. John’s Law Review where he described prosecutors as “hyperadversarial.” Aviram added that they “Subscribe to a ‘conviction psychology’ theory of prosecution, where prosecutors prioritize convictions over justice.” So, what should the role of a prosecutor be exactly? For that answer, we look again to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court’s View of Prosecutors

In 1935, the Supreme Court was led by Chief Justice Charles. E. Hughes and is often referred to as the “Hughes Court.” The Hughes Court is remembered for both “championing economic conservativism” and “remarkably progressive rulings that dramatically expanded civil rights and personal freedoms.” The Court truly seemed to advance constitutional protections for the individual in every arena of society presented. The scope of criminal procedure decisions merits a lengthy analysis, but the Court’s opinion in Berger v. United States , 295 U.S. 78 (1935), stands as the high-water mark for prosecutorial idealism.

At that time, the public image of the prosecutor was quite favorable. A New York District Attorney named Williams Travers Jerome was publicly called the “Courtroom Warrior” and was highly regarded due to several high-profile prosecutions. Thomas E. Dewey became famous as New York’s “rackets-busting” Special Prosecutor for convicting several notorious gangsters and the president of the New York Stock Exchange. Dewey became the inspiration for the character in “Mr. District Attorney,” a popular radio show. The show’s opening was quite hyperbolic: “Mr. District Attorney! Champion of the People! Guardian of our Fundamental Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness!” The prosecutor enjoyed the public image as the pinnacle of ethics and morality. But even then, the reality was starkly different. Many courtroom observers viewed the typical prosecutor as a “dirty fighter who wins by cheating.”

Henry Singer left the military after World War I, became a lawyer, and opened a private practice in the 1920s. Singer would eventually join the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. At the time of Harry Berger’s prosecution, Singer was the Chief Assistant. Berger was charged and placed on trial for a run-of-the-mill conspiracy to deal in, and possession of, fraudulent bank notes. While Singer was known as an “aggressive trial lawyer,” he was never as well-regarded as Dewey or Jerome. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit once rebuked Singer for “improper courtroom conduct.” The Berger record reveals Singer did not learn his lesson from being chastised by the appellate court.

Berger and several co-defendants were prosecuted by Singer. Each charge was based on the testimony of one co-defendant named Jack Katz. He was Singer’s key witness. The Second Circuit would later characterize Katz as a “thoroughly unreliable person.” Katz had a lengthy criminal record and was originally facing 122 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. Singer promised him only two years and a $10,000 fine in exchange for his testimony. If that is not enough to give you pause regarding Katz’s motivation and reliability, Katz also believed Berger was “romancing his wife.”

Seven trial witnesses testified to Berger’s “good reputation for honesty.” Based on Katz’s testimony, Berger would be convicted of only the conspiracy charge and sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Berger appealed, arguing that he was innocent and Katz framed him. Berger also argued that there was a variance between the indictment and the proof at trial.

The Second Circuit, and eventually the Supreme Court, would agree that any variance was “harmless” and not “fatal” to the indictment. However, both courts would note that the evidence of Berger’s involvement in the conspiracy was “weak.” This observation made Berger’s argument that Singer’s misconduct was “pronounced and persistent” integral to his appeal. Berger would argue that Singer’s misconduct denied him the right to a fair and impartial trial.

Judge Learned Hand of the Second Circuit addressed Berger’s entire argument in one dismissive paragraph. Hand found that Singer had “abuse[d] his position,” but it would be “fantastic” to believe any misconduct affected the verdict. Speaking of the trial, Hand concluded, “[w]e can find nothing grave enough to compromise its essential fairness.” Berger appealed, bringing his arguments before the Hughes Court.

The Hughes Court disagreed concerning Singer’s misconduct, rejecting Hand’s ruling. It found that Singer’s breach of official and professional rules was to be condemned for its “evil influence upon the jury.” The Court issued a unanimous opinion declaring Singer’s conduct was “extreme” and cited several examples of misconduct. Singer “overstepped” the “bounds of propriety and fairness” because he misstated facts, assumed “prejudicial facts not in evidence,” alluded to witness testimony that had never been stated, made “inflammatory remarks to the jury,” and seemed to lie about inculpatory statements made to him outside the jury. The Hughes Court would end up issuing an opinion that would be profound in its ideology but disappointing in its enforceability.

Within the opinion, Justice Sutherland wrote that a prosecutor’s interest “is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.” The prosecutor is a “servant of the law, the twofold aim” being “that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer.” One shall prosecute “with earnestness and vigor … strike hard blows” but is “not at liberty to strike foul ones.” The opinion concluded on this promising note: “It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.”

Singer’s repeated conduct was contrary to such principles. It is interesting to note that while the Hughes Court was analyzing Berger’s claims, Singer returned to private practice. In an ironic twist, Singer was convicted for attempting to bribe a juror during a high-profile murder trial. The conviction rested solely on uncorroborated accomplice testimony, much like the evidence used against Berger. Unlike Berger, the appellate division reversed Singer’s conviction because the accomplice’s testimony was “unbelievable,” finding that Singer’s right to a fair trial was “prejudiced by inflammatory and incompetent evidence.”

An examination of the legal landscape at that time reveals that Singer’s misconduct was not actually unique or unusual. In 1931, a 14-volume report by the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (“Report”), referred to as the “Wickersham Commission,” documented rampant prosecutorial misconduct in the criminal justice system. The Wickersham Commission was initially prompted by a need to examine prohibition-era policies but quickly broadened into a massive critique of the U.S. criminal justice system. One particularly relevant chapter was entitled “Unfairness in Prosecutions.” The Report analyzed 600 cases from 1926 to 1930 in which prosecutorial misconduct was brought to the attention of the courts. The Report noted systemic prosecutorial abuse and its “adverse impact of the misconduct on the administration of criminal justice.”

Of the 600 cases, two-thirds were reversed; the remaining one-third were upheld as the “defendant’s guilt was clear.” The Report found the continuation of such unfair practices would “create resentment against law and government” because the prosecutor is allegedly “responsible for law observance.” The Report noted that prosecutorial misconduct “easily engenders the dangerous feeling that a fair trial has been denied” and justice is not to be expected. A prosecutor behaving “tyrannically and brutally … alienates the defendant” and causes them to leave prison a “bitter enemy of society, more willing than before to continue a criminal career.” Then, as now, the Report observed that the most serious consequence is the “conviction of the innocent.” The Report ought to be required reading for all prosecutors.

These observations have led many scholars to question the specific purpose of the Supreme Court agreeing to hear Berger’s appeal. It was a routine conspiracy case that “raised no constitutional or significant federal question.” Some speculate that it was because pervasive misconduct was getting the attention of lower courts, academics, and the media. The Hughes Court might have believed it was a good time to “clarify the prosecutor’s legal and ethical responsibilities.”

Others suggest that the Court was protecting individual liberty from abusive prosecutors, much like it was protecting economic liberties from abusive governmental regulation, because wrongful convictions were beginning to get the attention of the public. By exposing prosecutorial misconduct in Berger , the Court might dissuade other prosecutors and encourage lower courts to impose consequences for flagrant prosecutorial misconduct.

The subsequent course of criminal law and procedure reveals an irony in Berger attaining “jurisprudential immortality.” Berger ’s “powerful rhetoric” is cited by courts when reversing convictions due to prosecutorial misconduct; it is used as a “ritualistic incantation” by defense attorneys when discussing fairness in prosecutions; academics use it as a yardstick against which appropriate ethical standards are measured; and it has been cited hundreds of times in law reviews and thousands of times in appellate briefs. It is meant to inspire a prosecutor to adopt a “heroic persona” in an effort to “eschew winning for the nobler goal of serving the cause of justice.” The Hughes Court may have made its declaration because it recognized a darker side to the prosecutor’s motive: the prosecutor wants to win very badly and not always for noble reasons.

The reality is that the prosecutors are “armed with more and better weaponry” than their opponent, exercise “inordinate influence” over the “referee and scorekeeper,” and they can “cheat without getting caught or suffering any penalty.” Prosecutors have honed their craft, finding new ways to “strike foul blows.” Empirical evidence reveals “serious and pervasive misconduct.” Worse, courts, lawmakers, and professional disciplinary bodies have been unable or unwilling to impose meaningful sanctions. Berger elucidated idealism, but its use to impose ritualistic “verbal spankings,” without identifying a requirement to impose any real penalties, “breeds a deplorably cynical attitude towards the judiciary.”

As Justice Brandeis noted in Olmstead v. United States , 277 U.S. 438 (1938) (Brandeis, J., dissenting), “Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for the law ... it breeds anarchy.”

Berger is not often cited directly nowadays, but its philosophy has clearly influenced subsequent precedent. It has served as the foundation for a wide range of rulings meant to increase the constitutional protections for criminal defendants while ensuring a fair process. Justice Sutherland’s oft-cited words essentially remained an abstract concept until Jencks v. United States , 353 U.S. 657 (1957), was decided in 1957. The decision in Jencks would become the familiar “ Jencks Rule” in criminal procedure, later codified as the Jencks Act (18 U.S.C. § 3500). Jencks was a procedural “tipping-point” that looked to harness a court’s supervisory power to ensure prosecutors disclose impeachment evidence found in written reports of government witness statements. Prosecutors had a bad habit of covering up inconsistent statements made by their witnesses, knowing that defense counsel might use these statements to cast doubt on the veracity of a government witness’ testimony.

During the same term as the Berger decision, the Hughes Court decided Mooney v. Holohan , 294 U.S. 103 (1935). The Mooney opinion noted that the “deliberate deception of court and jury by the presentation of testimony known to be perjured” to obtain a conviction at any cost is “inconsistent with the rudimentary demands of justice.” Mooney would become a foundational case to the landmark opinion in Brady v. Maryland , 373 U.S. 83 (1963), which requires prosecutors to disclose to the defense materially exculpatory evidence in the possession of the government. Brady did not cite Berger , but it seems to be a natural extension of the philosophy concerning prosecutorial conduct expressed in Berger . The Brady decision established concrete guidance for prosecutors to turn over “all favorable information” in its possession to the defense. Brady noted that “[s]ociety wins not only when the guilty are convicted but when criminal trials are fair; our system of the administration of justice suffers when any accused is treated unfairly.”

While Berger ’s idealism has been inspiring to many decisions where the constitutional protections afforded defendants are recognized, it has done little to reign in misconduct. It also seems to have led to the harmless error analysis becoming more detrimental to defendants. This may have been the real motive of the Supreme Court to decide Berger . There was a need to examine the “wayward course of harmless error.” Not every appellate judge was as dismissive of claims like Berger ’s, most routinely held that even trivial errors “raised a presumption of prejudice.” Such a presumption often called for automatic reversal. Despite the lofty words of Justice Sutherland, Berger implied that lower courts should ignore “inconsequential” errors if they cause only a “possible impact on the outcome.” The Supreme Court supported those who believed reversals should not be based on “the mere etiquette of trials” or the “minutiae of procedure.” Berger became the first court to apply the harmless error statute to prosecutorial misconduct.

The then-existing harmless error statute, 28 U.S.C. § 391, which later became Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52, stated that “any error, defect, irregularity, or variance that does not affect substantial rights must be disregarded.” It’s troubling that while Berger epitomized the ideal for prosecutorial conduct, it “did not establish meaningful standards” by which a reviewing court is to evaluate misconduct. Berger implied that if evidence is weak, a prosecutor’s misconduct might not be “harmless.” Conversely, prosecutors are free to infer that if there is “strong evidence of guilt,” there is more latitude to engage in “pronounced and persistent” misconduct. A case is unlikely to be reversed, particularly if the judge issues ineffectual in-trial admonitions or curative instructions. Appellate courts are left with a subjective analysis of hypothetical outcomes that might have occurred absent the alleged misconduct. Who can truly say what errors are harmless?

Harmless Error

In 2012,  Alejandro Garcia-Lagunas was charged with trafficking large amounts of cocaine by federal prosecutors in North Carolina. During his trial, defense counsel argued that Garcia-Lagunas was a minor drug user, not a high-level dealer as evidenced by his renting of a small, $350-per-month trailer. United States v. Garcia-Lagunas , 835 F.3d 479 (4th Cir. 2016). The Government recognized that Garcia- Lagunas’ “meager lifestyle was a potential weakness in its case” and invoked racial stereotypes. Absent any corroboration, a detective testified that “Hispanic drug traffickers” send “the majority if not all of the proceeds back to their native countries.” When defense counsel objected, the judge overruled it and turned to tropes of his own, saying “based on his experience most Latins [sic] send money home whether they are drug dealers or not.” The Government repeated this racist rhetoric during closing arguments. Garcia-Lagunas was convicted and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

On appeal, Garcia-Lagunas argued that prosecutors violated his constitutional right to a fair trial by its use of racial stereotypes. The Government even agreed. However, the appellate court upheld the conviction because, it claimed, any “constitutional error” was “harmless.” The judges found that the prosecution’s “heavy reliance” on the racist testimony was “not significant.” The court found that evidence of Garcia-Lagunas’ guilt to be “strong,” so it was “beyond clear” that he would have been convicted regardless of the “improper testimony.”

The doctrine of “harmless error” is a relatively obscure aspect of our American criminal justice system but can result in serious consequences. As a matter of routine, appellate judges will affirm convictions tainted by error as long as they are “confident” the person is guilty. Although harmless error is invoked quite often, it receives little scrutiny. It does, however, have a profound effect on the behavior of prosecutors, judges, and the police.

During an appellate argument in the state of Washington, a prosecutor was asked by the court why he would ask one witness if another was lying when there is a rule clearly prohibiting such conduct. The prosecutor answered quite bluntly, “It’s always been found to be harmless error.” State v. Neidigh , 895 P.2d 423 (Wash. App. 1995). Astonishingly, the prosecutor readily admitted to having no qualms about violating governing legal rules as long as there aren’t any consequences for doing so, and as the court proved, there often aren’t any. In the published opinion, the court rejected the suggestion that courts “wink at intentional and repeated unfair questioning by prosecutors under the rubric of harmless error.” With logic contorted to its breaking point and belying its own protestation, the court concluded that the prosecutor “was correct in relying on the doctrine of harmless error” and affirmed the conviction. You’d have to almost admire the audacity if it weren’t so tragic.

The Appeal, a nonprofit news organization that reports on injustices in the criminal justice system, noted a study found that during a 10-year period, over 90 percent of California death penalty appeals were upheld “even though three-quarters were infected by constitutional error.” Imagine the sense of helplessness and injustice of being convicted in a capital case even though your trial admittedly contained errors of constitutional dimensions, but the unconstitutionality is deemed “harmless.”

In 1967, the Supreme Court in Chapman v. California , 386 U.S. 18 (1967), held that constitutional errors do not automatically require the reversal of a conviction if the government can establish “beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict,” i.e., the error is thus deemed harmless. These are referred to as “trial errors.” An example of a trial error is the admission of illegally seized evidence. In contrast, the Chapman Court recognized that there are some types of error that are not considered harmless beyond a reasonable doubt; such errors came to be referred to as “structural errors.” These include the rights to counsel, jury trial, and an impartial judge. Structural errors are defects affecting the overall framework within which the trial takes place, as opposed to simply an error in the trial process itself.

Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker notes that subsequent courts have “revolutionized the consequences of deeming conduct unconstitutional.” Over the last 50 years, the list of trial errors has ballooned, allowing nearly every error related to allegations of unconstitutional conduct to be subjected to harmless error review. Many of these errors were formerly considered structural errors under Chapman and could never be ruled harmless.

The Justice Collaborative identified multiple issues with the current harmless error doctrine. Using harmless error analysis to affirm convictions tainted by procedural and constitutional violations allows the public to presume there is real comportment with constitutional requirements. It also encourages important constitutional values like dignity, equality, and privacy – unrelated to truth and accountability, but not to be foregone – to be ignored. Focusing on guilt alone, judges ignore the “broader social harms” that are inflicted by an unjust process. Importantly, the doctrine also encourages official misconduct because it makes the remedy for a violation so hard to obtain. A prime example of this is the Washington state prosecutor discussed earlier who told the appellate court that “It’s always been found to be harmless” in response to the court’s inquiry as to why he violated clear rules forbidding the precise behavior in which he had engaged.

Prosecutorial Misconduct

Prosecutorial misconduct is not officially defined but encompasses a variety of bad acts. The two most common forms are improper arguments and failure to disclose exculpatory evidence. In Brady , the Supreme Court ruled that “withholding evidence favorable to the defendant” violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Brady requires prosecutors to share with defense counsel any evidence that is “potentially exculpatory” and “material” to the guilt or innocence of the defendant. In United States v. Bagley , 473 U.S. 667 (1985), the Supreme Court defined material evidence as that for which there is a “reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed,” the outcome of the proceedings would have been different. A prosecutor must make this decision pre-trial.

The Supreme Court has acknowledged that this determination is “often tricky and complex.” But because a Brady violation does not turn on a prosecutor’s intent, they are advised to err on the side of caution. In our adversarial system, one can understand the reluctance of a prosecutor to turn over evidence that could destroy their case. Brady has been settled law for over 50 years, yet noncompliance violations are persistent and continue to plague the criminal justice system. In an empirical study of 5,760 capital conviction exonerations conducted between 1973 and 1995, 16 percent were reversed due to suppression of evidence. Disclosure errors are “uniformly recognized as a contributing factor to erroneous convictions.”

The NRE found that concealment of exculpatory evidence contributed to 44 percent of all identified wrongful convictions, more than any other type of misconduct. Prosecutors committed misconduct in 52 percent of federal wrongful convictions, compared to 29 percent for state prosecutors. Federal prosecutors commit misconduct at a rate (52 percent) more than twice that of police (20 percent); for state prosecutors, it is less (29 percent) than police (36 percent). The rate of concealing evidence varies by crime: murder (61 percent) and child sexual abuse (27 percent) being the two most frequent types; generally, some form of misconduct occurs at a rate of 82 percent in all wrongful convictions.

The rate at which prosecutors engage in misconduct vis-à-vis police will come as a shock to most people. Police misconduct is photogenic and doesn’t need any explanation. Video of a group of police officers beating and kneeling on the back of a handcuffed person begging for air is self-explanatory and provokes outrage at a glance. Consequently, the average person is keenly aware of police misconduct. In contrast, prosecutorial misconduct is basically impossible to capture on video. It’s not photogenic, and thus, most people aren’t aware of it. And even if prosecutorial misconduct were caught on video, it would require a crash course in constitutional law and criminal procedure to explain what viewers are watching. Furthermore, pop culture and the average person derisively refer to prosecutorial misconduct, without a genuine understanding of the range of behaviors it actually entails, by an entirely different term – “legal technicality.” Police misconduct is visceral; whereas, prosecutorial misconduct is esoteric. That’s why the general public is rightfully up in arms about the former, while blissfully unaware of the latter.

Innocence scholars have identified “ Brady violations as a key factor correlated with wrongful convictions.” Brandon Garrett, in “Judging Innocence,” looked at 200 DNA exonerations that revealed 37 percent of all exonerations involved Brady violations. The Preventing Wrongful Convictions Project compared 260 wrongful convictions to 200 “near-misses” – where the defendant was indicted but not convicted – and the primary distinguishing factor in each were Brady violations.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (“DPIC”), prosecutorial misconduct was present in 121 death-row exonerations, with Brady violations a type of misconduct in 35 percent of reversed convictions or sentences and improper arguments in 33 percent of reversed sentences. More than one type of misconduct was found in 16 percent of cases. These types of reversals and exonerations were found in 228 counties, 32 states, and within federal capital proceedings. “The data on wrongful convictions has long shown that prosecutorial misconduct is a significant source of injustice in the criminal legal system,” said executive director of DPIC Robert Dunham. “But this research documents that what some judges have described as an ‘epidemic’ of misconduct is even more pervasive than we had imagined.”

A collaboration between the Northern California Innocence Project and the Santa Clara University School of Law published a report entitled “Preventable Error: A Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct in California 1997-2009” (“PERPMC report”) in 2010. The PERPMC report observed that overall, a “prosecutor’s violation of the obligation to disclose favorable evidence accounts for more miscarriages of justice than any other type of malpractice, but is rarely sanctioned by courts, and almost never by disciplinary bodies.”

There were around 4,000 total state and federal cases in California where prosecutorial misconduct was raised. Only 707 were validated, with 782 combined instances of prosecutorial misconduct found. Of these 782 instances, 444 involved improper arguments and Brady violations were found in 66 cases. Describing the failure of judges, prosecutors, and the California State Bar to monitor and discipline prosecutorial misconduct, the PERPMC report called these failures a “critical problem” that fosters misconduct, undercuts public trust, and impugns honest prosecutors. Between 1997-2009, there were 4,741 public disciplinary actions in the California State Bar Journal – only 10 involved prosecutors and only six of those were in criminal cases. Those six occurred only after the 2004 California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice.

The Quattrone Center at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School examined 5,432 allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in Pennsylvania. The state’s courts found actual misconduct in only 204 cases alleged, a mere 2.8 percent of the total reported. It was determined that Brady violations accounted for 2,114 (39 percent) of the alleged misconduct, while improper arguments were identified in 1,915 (26.6 percent) of them. The “Hidden Hazards” review that examined the cases “found virtually no functional corrective or accountability mechanisms – only four Pennsylvania prosecutors received official public discipline for prosecutorial misconduct during the period studied.”

Wrongful Convictions

With wrongful convictions, jurors and witnesses must face the reality that they unwittingly participated in convicting an innocent person. The tragedies are alarmingly plentiful. These are not just statistics that are being discussed but real people who can never have what they lost returned to them.

In 1980, Kevin Green was wrongfully convicted for assaulting his pregnant wife and murdering their unborn fetus. Green was exonerated in 1996 after prosecutors identified the real perpetrator via a newly created offender DNA database. The DNA match was made from spermatozoa found in Dianna Green. While myopically pursuing and prosecuting Green, Gerald Parker, a.k.a. the “Bludgeon Killer,” who committed five prior murders, was roaming free. While Green languished in prison for crimes he didn’t commit, Parker was free to commit other crimes, including the rape of a 13-year-old girl.

Andre Hatchett was exonerated after spending 25 years in prison for murder. The investigation into his innocence revealed “rampant police and prosecutorial misconduct.” The egregious misconduct included a Brady violation in the form of a withheld police interview wherein the only eyewitness identified another individual as the perpetrator. The sole witness for the prosecution had at least 20 criminal convictions prior to his involvement with the Hatchett prosecution, and the prosecution dropped charges on his most recent burglary after his cooperation. Neither side presented medical evidence that Hatchett, 24 at that time and with special needs, “was recovering from severe gunshot wounds to his throat and leg. His right leg was in a cast, requiring crutches, on the night of the crime.”

Cedric Dent was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1997. Dent was exonerated after 20 years in prison when the Innocence Project of New Orleans discovered that prosecutors withheld a witness statement that provided a description of the suspect that did not match Dent. Also, prosecutors failed to divulge that the key witness had changed his story “multiple times” before trial. CBS News wrote that: “Cedric Dent is a victim of the failures of every system put in place to protect his rights as a person accused of a crime” and a “district attorney’s office that concealed evidence.” Dent’s uncle, Elvis Brooks, was freed in 2019 after serving 42 years for murder. Documents revealed that prosecutors had withheld “crucial evidence” during his trial as well. Nevertheless, prosecutors required Brooks to plead guilty to manslaughter before they would agree to his release.

Another victim of Louisiana “justice” is Juan Smith. He was convicted at a jury trial of five counts of first-degree murder related to a 1995 armed robbery of a New Orleans home. ABC News reported that “a single eyewitness, Larry Boatner, connected Smith to the killings.” Boatner testified that he had “no doubt” Smith was the guilty party. What prosecutors failed to disclose was that the same eyewitness had told investigators he “could not ID anyone because [he] couldn’t see faces” and “would not know them if [he] saw them.” The Supreme Court held that this Brady violation merited a new trial as these contradictory statements were “plainly material.”

In 2000, David Ayers was convicted of murdering a 76-year-old woman in the apartment complex where he was a security officer. Prosecutors failed to disclose that multiple witnesses had identified other suspects. One stated that a different man had been “banging on apartment doors” the day of the murder and had broken into apartments the previous summer. A girlfriend of an incarcerated man told police that she wanted to talk to them about the murder, but police never followed up. Another witness stated that the deceased woman’s nephew had been stealing from her. Police conducted a polygraph but never followed up with the nephew, either. Ayers served 11 years before being exonerated by DNA evidence. He was awarded $13.2 million due to the detectives’ fabrications and the Brady violations. The award was overturned by the Ohio Supreme Court. In 2020, Ayers sued the city of Cleveland and received a settlement of $4.85 million.

Former U.S. Senator Theodore “Ted” Stevens (Alaska Republican) was prosecuted for criminal ethics violations in 2008. Federal prosecutors withheld evidence that the star witness made pretrial statements that could have served as strong impeachment evidence at trial. Prosecutors hid the contradictory statements, procured new and inconsistent statements from the same witness, knowingly introduced false business records, and never allowed defense counsel access to the grand jury testimony of a witness who made helpful statements about the Senator, claiming they were not material. Senator Stevens lost his re-election, his reputation, and his legacy. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered an investigation and explained, “The government’s ill-gotten verdict not only cost this public official his bid for re-election, [but] the results of the election [also] tipped the balance of power in the United States Senate.” Senator Stevens died in a plane crash before he could clear his name.

Terry Williams spent three decades fighting his death sentence. In 1984, Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in Philadelphia for the murder of a church deacon who had sexually abused teenagers up to and including the rape of Williams. In 2016, it was revealed that prosecutors hid evidence that was material to the jury during the penalty phase. The DPIC reported that “Nearly 30 years after Williams was sentenced to death, and within a week of his scheduled execution, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas heard evidence that prosecutors had presented false testimony from a witness and withheld evidence that it had given favorable treatment to that witness; suppressed evidence that the victim had sexually abused Williams and other boys; and misrepresented to the jury that the victim had been simply a ‘kind man’ who had offered Williams a ride home.”

The case made it to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after prosecutors appealed the overturning of the death penalty in the Court of Common Pleas. Williams’ case was then heard by the U.S. Supreme Court after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the lower court ruling and reinstated Williams’ death sentence. The DPIC reported that “The U.S. Supreme Court held in “Williams v. Pennsylvania [579 U.S. 1 (2016)] that Terry Williams’ due process rights were violated when Pennsylvania’s Chief Justice refused to recuse himself from the case.” The Chief Justice had been the district attorney whose misconduct in 1984 resulted in the original capital conviction.

In 2000, Stanley Mozee and Dennis Allen were wrongfully convicted of murder in Texas. Both men were sentenced to life in prison. In 2019, attorneys with the Innocence Project uncovered evidence in the case files that prosecutor Rick Jackson had hidden. Mozee and Allen would be cleared by DNA testing after a later investigation revealed the misconduct. If the prosecutor’s office had not adopted an “open-file” discovery process years after these men’s trials, the evidence might never have been discovered. Mozee and Allen were declared “actually innocent” by Judge Raquel Jones. “Due to egregious misconduct by the trial prosecutor, these two innocent men spent 15 years of their lives in prison,” said Nina Morrison, senior attorney at the Innocence Project. The New York Times reported in May 2021 that “the former lead prosecutor in the case, Richard E. Jackson, who the State Bar of Texas said had withheld evidence during the trial, has surrendered his law license and effectively been disbarred – a relatively rare consequence in the realm of wrongful convictions.”

Plea Bargains

Any critique of the modern American prosecutor’s power must include discussions of plea bargaining and the “trial penalty.” The sanctioning of plea bargaining has facilitated prosecutorial behavior that is not “misconduct” per se but is clearly abusive by any objective measure. This has led to the diminishment of constitutional protections, punishment for exercising those protections, increased convictions that fuel mass incarceration, and convictions of the innocent. It also incentivizes “snitching” by unreliable jailhouse informants and codefendants seeking leniency or profit. Most importantly, it allows the misconduct of prosecutors to remain hidden from scrutiny.

Founding Father and former President John Adams once said, “Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty.” If true, the criminal justice system today is suffocating. According to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (“NACDL”), the U.S. criminal justice system churns some 11 million people through its courtroom doors every year. Estimates suggest that “every 2 seconds” of each business day a criminal case disposition occurs through plea bargaining.

Justice Kennedy, in Missouri v. Frye , 566 U.S. 134 (2012), observed that 97 percent of federal convictions and 94 percent of state convictions are pleas of guilt. Justice Kennedy then opined that plea bargaining “is not some adjunct to the criminal justice system; it is the criminal justice system.” And it is a well-oiled and efficient machine. According to The Sentencing Project, the number of people in U.S. prisons and jails has increased 500% over the last 40 years, with approximately two million people in 2023 in lock-up. The Project attributes changes in sentencing law and policy to the massive increase, not changes in crime rates.  

The “sub-constitutional procedural law” that is plea bargaining is “driven not by law but by power – the vastly unregulated power of prosecutors,” according to Sklansky. There is a reciprocal nature to unmitigated prosecutorial discretion, exhibited through charging decisions and power. “The more discretion that prosecutors have, the greater will be the concern, generally speaking, about the power they exercise, and vice versa,” noted Sklansky.

Three main types of such bargaining leverage are frequently used. As in our hypothetical methamphetamines arrest example, charge bargaining allows prosecutors to overcharge, hoping to coerce defendants into pleading guilty. In “Prosecutors’ Role in Plea Bargaining,” appearing in the University of Chicago Law Review , author A.W. Auschuler outlined charging options available to prosecutors: “Although most prosecutors condemn overcharging, they define it differently than defense attorneys. To prosecutors, overcharging is accusing the defendant of a crime of which he is clearly innocent to induce a plea to the ‘proper crime.’ Defense counsel identify two types of overcharging, horizontal [and] … vertical. The original charges usually encompass the charge the prosecutor ‘wants’ as a lesser included offense. Defense counsel agree that the charges may be perfectly legal.” Many of the charges would never withstand the scrutiny of the adversarial process. This conduct has been “routinely diagnosed as a major driver of plea bargaining’s pathology.”

Sentence bargaining allows prosecutors to directly leverage the promise of greater or lesser sentences to the same effect. But this form of leverage does “less harm than charge bargaining decisions because sentencing necessarily involves other actors.”

Rights bargaining allows prosecutors to insert one-sided waivers into plea agreements. Defendants have to promise to forego pre-trial motions, Brady material, direct appeals, postconviction appeals, habeas corpus petitions, and other constitutional and statutory rights. “The capacity of prosecutors to construct ever more onerous conditions for a guilty plea cannot be overstated,” noted a NACDL report.”

This power allows prosecutors to control “who goes to prison and for how long.” This is not a new observation. In 1967, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice published “The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society” (“Commission Report”). The Commission Report focused on “two aspects of prosecutorial discretion: charging and plea bargaining.” It found that prosecutorial decisions were often “made hastily and haphazardly, seldom subject to oversight or review,” and the Commission Report noted, “it is surely safe to assume that many mistakes are made.”

Normalization of assembly-line justice we call the plea process has received tremendous assistance from the Supreme Court. Scholars suggest that had the process not been so procedurally entrenched by the time it was reviewed, there is a good chance the Supreme Court would have scuttled the process entirely as unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court had rejected “every guilty plea induced by threats of punishment or promises of leniency” until Brady v. United States , 397 U.S. 742 (1970), and Parker v. North Carolina , 397 U.S. 790 (1970). The Brady and Parker rulings changed the governing law and declared that inducements were no longer unconstitutional. In Chaffin v. Stynchcombe , 412 U.S. 17 (1973), the Supreme Court found that threats may cause some defendants to forego a trial, but “the imposition of these difficult choices [is] an inevitable attribute of any legitimate system which tolerates and encourages the negotiation of pleas.”

In Corbitt v. New Jersey , 439 U.S. 212 (1978), the Supreme Court reviewed a state law that imposed a mandatory life sentence for those convicted of first-degree murder after trial. The law prohibited the entry of guilty pleas but did not prohibit pleas of non vult (no contest), and defendants who pleaded non vult could be sentenced to less than life imprisonment. Corbitt was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury and sentenced to life in prison. He appealed, arguing that the possibility of a sentence of less than life in prison for pleading non vult but no similar sentencing option available for those who went to trial and were convicted placed an unconstitutional burden on defendants’ rights under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The Supreme Court rejected that argument, ruling that the State is permitted to make due allowance for pleas in its sentencing scheme and that the New Jersey sentencing scheme does not violate the Constitution. The Court stated that “not every burden on the exercise of a constitutional right, and not every pressure or encouragement to waive a right, is invalid.”

Charles H. Clarke wrote an Indiana Law Journal article in 1979 denouncing the Corbitt decision. “The Court has authorized the use of trial penalties to erode the trial system of criminal justice without any showing of need, without requiring a rational use of trial penalties and without any protection of the interests of the defendant.” Since the Corbitt decision, the trial rate has dropped from around 20 percent of all criminal cases to today’s approximately three percent rate.

The Trial Penalty

Lewis Hayes was charged with forgery in Kentucky for writing a bad check in the amount of $88.30. Prosecutors offered a plea for a five-year sentence on a charge carrying a 2-to-10-year range. Prosecutors asked Hayes to save them from the “inconvenience and necessity of a trial.” If Hayes refused, prosecutors said they would charge him under the Kentucky Habitual Crime Act. Having two prior felonies, Hayes would be facing a life sentence. Hayes lost at trial. Prosecutors were good on their “promise” (threat), and he received a life sentence.

Hayes ended up before the Supreme Court in 1978. He argued that prosecutors violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights when they re-indicted him for exercising his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. In a 5-4 decision, Hayes’ argument was rejected. Bordenkircher v. Hayes , 434 U.S. 357 (1978). The Court noted that punishing a defendant for doing what “the law plainly allows him to do” is a “due process violation of the most basic sort” but then added that plea bargaining is an “important component of this country’s criminal justice system” and “knowing and voluntary” pleas are not a violation of the Constitution. The Court concluded that Hayes was not being punished but merely offered “difficult choices,” implying that Hayes had chosen incorrectly.

Prosecutors have adopted the position that there is no trial penalty; instead, it’s a “plea discount.” The NACDL elaborated, “While most prosecutors will not acknowledge that defendants should be punished for going to trial, most adopt the attitude that leniency is only for those defendants who admit their guilt before trial which, of course, is the same thing.”

Shalom Weiss was charged with a non-violent, white-collar crime. He rejected a plea and went to trial. His co-defendants accepted pleas and received sentences ranging between 6 and 25 years. Weiss was convicted and received the “longest sentence ever imposed in U.S. history for a white-collar crime.” He was sentenced to 845 years in prison, later reduced to 835 years.

Weiss’s sentence was commuted in 2021 by former President Donald J. Trump after 18 years and $125 million in restitution. The Fifth Circuit stated that plea bargaining “often leads to a more lenient sentence for more culpable defendants who choose to cooperate. This is simply the way that cases against multiple co-defendants are often prosecuted.” A five-year sentence that becomes 835 post-trial is not “just the way” cases are prosecuted; it’s abusive and vindictive.

Andrew C. Kim, professor at Concordia University School of Law, studied data from 207,352 criminal convictions from 2006 to 2008, as compiled by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Kim found that “defendants who go to trial have only a 12 percent chance at being acquitted, but can expect a 64 percent longer sentence if convicted, a poor gamble by any metric.”

When prosecutors utilize the trial penalty to disincentivize the exercise of constitutional rights, it doesn’t just place the misconduct out of sight or prevent it from being examined. It motivates criminal informants to provide any information that may be deemed beneficial. These informants are incentivized to frame innocent parties or place greater culpability on co-defendants for financial gain or to receive a lesser sentence. Prosecutors and informants both benefit, so no one is motivated by a concern about the information’s veracity. One study found that 45.9 percent of wrongful convictions were based on “perjury by the prosecution witness.”

The Korey Wise Innocence Project at the University of Colorado at Boulder puts the number at 60%. The Project points out that “In many wrongful convictions, defendants were not given key information related to the credibility of the incentivized witnesses who testified against them, including the exact benefits received, the witness’s history of cooperating in other cases, and the witness’s criminal history.” Researchers know that when faced with “damning testimony by an informant” many innocent defendants see “no alternative” but to plead guilty in hopes of a lenient sentence themselves. Scholars note that prosecutors have a “tendency” to “exert the most pressure on defendants in weak cases.” This has created the “urgent” and “substantial problem” of a plea “ensnaring the innocent defendant.”

“The decisions of an innocent defendant to plead guilty in return for a low sentence inflicts costs on society, even if the defendant prefers this result, because it undermines the accuracy of the guilt-determining process and public confidence in the meaning of criminal conviction,” wrote Stephen J. Schulhofer in Plea Bargaining as Disaster, published in The Yale Law Journal.

State and federal prosecutors use coercive plea bargaining tactics to scare people into making decisions they otherwise would not have. Prosecutors have also created procedural mechanisms to induce pleas of guilt through the unfulfilled promise of adjudicative deferments or drug and mental health treatment, hoping that their cases go unchallenged. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (“MCAO”) in Maricopa County’s Early Disposition Courts (“EDCs”)  do exactly that on an everyday basis.

The EDCs were ostensibly created to “divert” defendants into drug or mental health treatment, instead of convictions and lengthy sentences. One deputy attorney with the MCAO wrote that the real “purpose of EDCs is to facilitate speedy resolutions,” otherwise MCAO “must expend significant resources for trial preparation.” Another MCAO attorney said responding to pre-trial defense motions “would bog the entire system down … given the high-volume of cases in EDC.” That is why the MCAO has a policy of including a header on all plea offers that states MCAO “policy dictates that if the defendant rejects this offer, any subsequent offer tendered will be substantially harsher.”

Prosecutors do not just use their power to leverage guilty pleas from individuals. In 2013, federal prosecutors attempted a novel legal theory of liability with respect to two major corporations, UPS and FedEx. Both companies were indicted for conspiring to distribute controlled substances through their delivery of packages from online pharmacies. Neither business had any idea what was in any of the packages. UPS immediately accepted a non-prosecution agreement and agreed to pay a $40 million fine. FedEx demanded a trial. The Government wanted FedEx to pay a $1.6 billion fine after it refused to accept a plea agreement – more than 40 times that of UPS. The judge expressed skepticism over the Government’s theory of the case, and the Government subsequently dismissed the case. Only because FedEx was willing and able to assert its rights and challenge the Government was its overreach stymied and exposed.

The NACDL wrote, “Society pays a price when, inevitably, guilty pleas operate to foreclose litigation that would have exposed government actions or practices,” and this process sidelines judges from their “traditional supervisory role,” reducing them to “rubber-stamping plea bargains.” As trials and hearings vanish, so too does prosecutorial accountability. The NACDL also noted that “mistakes and misconduct are rarely uncovered” while the plea process “can encourage sloppiness, and a diminution of the government’s obligation to fairness.”

The Vera Institute of Justice argues that “only by recording plea bargaining processes and decisions and by making these records available can U.S. courts and prosecutors begin to be held accountable.”

Prosecutors Misbehaving

In South Carolina, Donnie Myers “achieved capital convictions on a scale almost unparalleled in the modern era.” As prosecutor of Lexington County, South Carolina, Myers secured 39 death sentences against 28 defendants over a 40-year career. His county had a death-sentence rate of 6.8 per 100 murders. The next county over had a rate of .53 per 100. Myers said he was motivated by duty. “I believe in enforcing the law and, based on the crime, that justice be served.” Which seems fair, even noble. When asked if he was a little overzealous or ever had any doubts about what he did for a living, Myers said no. He said, “If South Carolina didn’t have a death penalty law, it wouldn’t affect me. If there was the slightest hesitation I wouldn’t go forward. It has to fit within the law.”

During the trial of Robert Northcutt, who was accused of murdering his 4-month-old daughter, there was no limit to Myers’ theatrics. He brought in the child’s actual crib, draped in a large black shroud, and simulated a funeral procession. He “supercharged his address to the jury” by tucking a sheet from his own recently deceased son into the crib and cried 16 times. The jury was told that not opting for a death sentence would be to “kick the baby some more” and declare “open season on babies in Lexington County.”

Northcutt’s initial death sentence would be overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court, which understatedly called Myers’ theatrics “overzealous.”

David Bruck was Northcutt’s trial attorney and described Myers as a “very good lawyer” who knew how to appeal to jurors’ biases. “He worked very hard. There was no trick too dirty,” said Bruck. He compared Myers to a big-game hunter, saying that’s “what death penalty cases were for him – hunting really big human game.”

And Myers had plenty of dirty tricks. In the trial of Joseph Ard, Myers placed screened photographs of a baby’s fetus dressed for a funeral in the courtroom. Ard was convicted for killing his unborn child when he shot his pregnant girlfriend. That conviction was overturned, too; the shooting had been accidental. More than 20 of Myer’s convictions have been overturned.

All across America, prosecutors at the local, state, and federal levels routinely fail to conduct themselves in an ethical manner. There are several types of misconduct, and each inflicts its own unique injury to someone’s constitutional rights. An especially pernicious result of misconduct is one that leads to an innocent person on death row. And while every miscarriage of justice resulting from abuse of power is egregious, some examples of individual prosecutors are particularly noteworthy.

In the New York City area, Brady violations are so commonplace it has almost become a standard operating procedure. For example, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office is known as a breeding ground for prosecutorial misconduct. The New York Times reported in July 2022 that “a group of law professors published new complaints against 17 New York prosecutors highlighting behavior that in many cases sent innocent people to prison … in a push for accountability.”  

During the 30-year period that Harry Connick headed the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, crucial evidence was regularly suppressed, sending innocent men to prison for decades and costing the taxpayers millions of dollars. Connick contributed to the extensive crime problem in the New Orleans area by allowing criminals to remain free while prosecuting innocent people.

According to the Innocence Project New Orleans, records reveal that “favorable evidence was withheld from 9 of 36 (25%) men sentenced to death in Orleans Parish from 1973-2002.” Four were exonerated after serving a collective 43 years on death row. An additional 19 of 25 non-capital cases were determined to involve Brady violations that contributed to the wrongful convictions. Four of these men were serving life and released after serving a collective 70 years. Ten more had convictions reversed. The eight innocent men that Connick’s office helped wrongfully convict by withholding material and exculpatory evidence served a total of 113 years in prison. This cost the state of Louisiana more than $2.1 million.

Mark Sodersten spent 22 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit. In 2007, a California Court of Appeal (“CCA”) determined that prosecutor Philip Cline had improperly withheld audiotapes of interviews of his key witness from Sodersten’s defense attorney. Upon reviewing the tapes, the CCA discovered that the tapes “contained dramatic evidence” of Sodersten’s innocence. The CCA vacated his conviction, but it came too late. Sodersten had died in prison six months earlier. A ruling was issued by the CCA anyway because what happened had “such an impact upon the integrity and fairness” of the system that “continued public confidence … requires us to address the validity” of his conviction, even though relief cannot be provided to him.

Sodersten’s attorney filed a formal complaint with the California State Bar alleging that Cline “asked a jury to kill a man based on a conviction perverted.” Cline was not even reprimanded. The State Bar closed the investigation because “this office has concluded that we could not prove culpability by clear and convincing evidence.” This conclusion is highly questionable as Cline is the one who had conducted the interview on the tapes he withheld.

Like most cases of this kind, there were never any consequences for Cline in sending an innocent person to prison for more than two decades based on an ethically-challenged prosecution. He went on to be re-elected and retired in 2012.

Former Williams County, Texas, district attorney Ken Anderson hid exculpatory evidence that proved Michael Morton did not kill his wife. Anderson concealed the evidence in 1987. Morton was not exonerated until 2010. The state passed an “open-file criminal discovery policy” called the Michael Morton Act in response. Anderson pleaded guilty to a single contempt of court charge and was sentenced to 10 days in jail. He would serve only five days in 2013.

If ever there were a case of the punishment not fitting the crime, this is it. Anderson hid evidence that put an innocent man in prison for decades, and the only consequence was for him to sit in jail for a few days. Undoubtedly, the frequency and seriousness of prosecutorial misconduct would immediately plummet if prosecutors were at risk of serving the same amount of time in prison as the person they helped wrongfully convict through intentional or reckless behavior served. As it stands today, there’s essentially no consequences for prosecutorial misconduct. Prosecutors don’t have to worry about their liberty, career, or financial wellbeing at risk for bad behavior.

More frequently, in a perversion of justice, misconduct by prosecutors can be a career boon for them. Criminal defense attorney and civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate claims it “can often help.” Silverglate says, “Publicity and high conviction rates are a stepping stone to higher office.” Often, prosecutors who make a name for themselves by winning convictions in high-profile cases or by racking up a long list of convictions, even if those wins are tainted by misconduct, land at large law firms where they are paid million-dollar salaries.

Silverglate says this is a common career track, and such prosecutors are not hired to litigate. “They’re being hired to negotiate plea bargains with the friends they still have in the U.S. Attorney’s offices. It’s a huge racket,” observed Silverglate.

This has been a broad discussion concerning the power of the modern American prosecutor – that is, the “imperial prosecutor,” as some observers refer to it – and how that power is regularly abused, resulting in miscarriages of justice by the thousands. The integrity of our criminal justice system rests largely on the shoulders of the most powerful players within the system, viz., state and federal prosecutors. Chillingly, an alarming number of them have seemingly made the conscious decision to cast aside their moral and ethical obligations as members of the criminal justice system who are duty-bound to uphold the law as simply meaningless as they instead embrace a win-at-any-cost ethos.

In his dissenting opinion in Imbler, Justice White explained that the absolute immunity prosecutors enjoy leaves a “genuinely wronged defendant without civil redress against a prosecutor whose malicious or dishonest action deprives them of liberty.” And that is exactly where we find ourselves today. We are so very far from realizing Justice Sutherland’s laudable words in Berger that the prosecutor’s two-fold duty is ensuring “that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer.”

Sources: accountability.org; aclu.org; brennancenter.org; californiainnocenceproject.org; criminallegalnews.org; deathpenaltyinfo.org; doi.org; eji.org; huffpost.com; innocenceproject.org; ipno.org; jstar.org; nacdl.org; law.cornell.edu; nacdl.org; npap.org; nytimes.com; slate.com; theappeal.org; thecrimereport.org; thefederaldocket.com; theguardian.com; themarshallproject.org; umich.edu; vera.org; veritasinitiative.org; washingtonpost.com; wush.edu; Balko, Radley, 2013 The Untouchables: America’s Misbehaving Prosecutors, And The System That Protects Them; Croy, Skylar R., 2019 “When Ministers of Justice Violate Rules of Professional Conduct During Plea Bargaining: Contractual Consequences;” Davis, Angela A., 2017 “The Power and Discretion of the American Prosecutor;” Gersham, Bennet L., 2010 “Hard Strikes and Foul Blows: Berger v. United States 75 Years After;” Gershowitz, Adam M., 2021 “The Race to the Top to Reduce Prosecutorial Misconduct;” Gross, Samuel R. et al., 2020 “Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent: The Role of Prosecutors, Police, and Other Law Enforcement;” Henning, Peter J., 1999 “Prosecutorial Misconduct and Constitutional Remedies;” Joy, Peter, 2006 “The Relationship Between Prosecutorial Misconduct and Wrongful Convictions: Shaping Remedies for a Broken System;” Keenan, David, et al., 2011 “The Myth of Prosecutorial Accountability After Connick v. Thompson: Why Existing Professional Responsibility Measures Cannot Protect Against Prosecutorial Misconduct;” Mitchells, Rebecca A., 1988 “Supervisory Power Meets The Harmless Error Rule In Federal Grand Jury Proceedings;” Ridolf, Kathleen M., et al., 2010 “Preventable Error: A Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct in California 1997-2009;” Sklansky, David A., 2017 “The Problems with Prosecutors”

As a digital subscriber to Criminal Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login

More from this issue:

• After Years of Hard Work and Dedication, Adnan Syed Is Freed by Serendipity , by Jayson Hawkins
• The Power of the Prosecutor in America: Abuse, Misconduct, Unaccountability, and Miscarriages of Justice , by Casey Bastian
• Massachusetts Supreme Court: Probationer’s Due Process Right to Present a Defense Violated Where Denied Opportunity to Call Complainant Who Alleged Sexual Assault as a Witness During Probation Revocation Hearing , by Harold Hempstead
• Fourth Circuit: Immigration Judge’s Failure to Inform Noncitizen of Right to Appeal Deportation Order Was Prejudicial and Invalidated Later Indictment for Illegal Reentry , by Jacob Barrett
• Wyoming Supreme Court Rules Officer’s Conduct Prior to Traffic Stop for Traffic Violation Rendered Stop Unreasonable , by Anthony Accurso
• Eighth Circuit Announces ‘Probable Cause’ Is Proper Standard for Determining Whether Parolee Resides at Third-Party’s Residence for Purposes of Warrantless Searches , by Anthony Accurso
• Minnesota Supreme Court Announces Plain Language of Interference With Privacy of a Minor Statute Requires That Defendant Must Have Known Victim Was Under 18 at Time of Offense , by Jacob Barrett
• 360 Degree Surveillance: How Police Use Public-Private Partnerships to Spy on Americans , by John W. Whitehead, Nisha Whitehead
• Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Adding Felony Counts by Amending Indictment Constitutes Addition of More Offenses , by Douglas Ankney
• California Court of Appeal Holds Phrase ‘From Date of Parole’ Refers to the Start Date of Parole and the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act Does Not Preempt the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act , by Douglas Ankney
• The Mounting Geofencing Threat , by Michael Thompson
• Maryland Court of Appeals: ‘No Objection’ to Introduction of Evidence at Trial That Was the Subject of Denied Motion to Suppress Does Not Waive Right to Appellate Review of Denial , by Harold Hempstead
• Sixth Circuit: Plain View Doctrine Does Not Apply Where Items Inside Vehicle Were Not Immediately and Apparently Incriminating When Viewed by Police Positioned Outside Vehicle , by Anthony Accurso
• New Jersey Supreme Court: Allowing Jury to Hear Defendant’s Invocation of Right to Counsel in Recorded Statement Together With Prosecutor Inferring Guilt Based on Request for Counsel Entitles Defendant to New Trial , by Jacob Barrett
• Sensitive Information in Police Database Vulnerable to Hacking , by Kevin Bliss
• SCOTUS: Arizona Supreme Court’s Interpretation of State Procedural Rule so ‘Novel and Unforeseeable’ It’s Not ‘Adequate’ to Preclude SCOTUS Review of Federal Death-Penalty Claim , by Richard Resch
• Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Exigent Circumstances Exception Does Not Justify Police’s Warrantless Seizure of Suspect’s Blood Sample by Hospital Staff , by Jacob Barrett
• New Jersey Supreme Court Announces Adoption of Daubert-Type Standard for Criminal and Quasi-Criminal Cases in Assessing Admissibility of Expert Evidence Under Rule 702 , by Richard Resch
• An Argument Without Teeth: The Flawed Science of Bite Mark Analysis , by Eike Blohm, MD
• Survivors of Police Shootings Face Daunting Legal, Emotional, and Physical Challenges , by Eike Blohm, MD
• Accused War Criminals Training Cops: What Could Go Wrong? , by Jayson Hawkins
• Time to Find the Key , by Jayson Hawkins
• Study Finds DNA Similarities Among Look-alikes , by Eike Blohm, MD
• Pro-Police Propaganda Dominates the Mainstream Media After Police Abuse and Failure , by Benjamin Tschirhart
• Investigation Delays Let Cops Kill Again , by Jayson Hawkins
• $100 Million Awarded in Federal Grant Money for Recidivism Reduction , by Kevin Bliss
• California Town Pushes Homeless Into the Desert , by Jayson Hawkins
• Law Enforcement Accesses Commercial DNA Databases Without Warrant , by Eike Blohm, MD
• Automatic Speaker-Identification System Performs Better Than Humans , by Michael Thompson
• Corporations Voice Support for Black and Brown People as They Found Cop City , by Carlo Difundo
• TSA Using Facial Recognition at Airports in Pilot Program , by Anthony Accurso
• DNA-Based Computer-Generated Mugshots Put Entire Community on Wanted List , by Eike Blohm, MD
• News in Brief
• Law Enforcement and Mad Men , by Douglas Ankney

More from Casey Bastian:

• Demonstrable Remorse, Psychiatric Diagnoses, and Alternatives to Incarceration , Aug. 1, 2024
• Minnesota Sex Offender Program: The Indefinite Detention of the Reviled , Aug. 1, 2024
• The 153 Exonerations in 2023 Include 19 Resulting From Threats or Sentences of Death , July 15, 2024
• Four Dead in One Month in San Bernardino County Jails, $3,232,500 in Settlements Paid So Far , March 1, 2024
• Dangerous Encounters: Interactions Between Autistic Individuals and Law Enforcement , Dec. 15, 2023
• U.S. Sentencing Commission Publishes Compassionate Release Datafile for Fiscal Years 2020-­2022 , Oct. 1, 2023
• Two Dead and $4.675 Million Paid After Deputies’ Alleged Misconduct in California’s Sonoma County , Sept. 15, 2023
• Collaborative Project Between Innocence Project and National Registry of Exonerations Produces Interim Report Reconciling Data Coding Discrepancies , Sept. 1, 2023
• Deceiving Themselves: How Cops’ False Belief in Their Ability to Detect Deception From Nonverbal Cues Leads to Miscarriages of Justice , Aug. 1, 2023
• Bureau of Justice Statistics Releases Latest First Step Act Data , June 15, 2023

More from these topics:

• What Happens When Prosecutors Offer Opposing Versions of the Truth? , April 15, 2024. Prosecutor/Attorney General Misconduct , Commentary/Reviews , Prosecutorial Misconduct , Outrageous Government Misconduct , Evidence - Destruction/Fabrication/Manipulation of .
• ‘Blatant Miscarriage of Justice’: Oklahoma Man Exonerated of Wrongful Conviction After 35 Years Despite Former Prosecutor’s Attempt to Perpetuate Injustice , April 15, 2024. Wrongful Conviction , Prosecutorial Misconduct .
• Oklahoma Prisoner’s Conviction Tossed After Judge’s Affair With Prosecutor Uncovered , Feb. 1, 2024. Prosecutorial Misconduct , Appearance of Justice/Impartiality .
• Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Trial Court Deprived Defendant of Opportunity to Present Complete Defense , June 15, 2023. Appeals/Appellate Jurisdiction , Best Evidence Rule , Evidence - Failure to Disclose , Prosecutorial Misconduct .
• New Commission in Georgia Will Discipline and Remove Prosecutors Who Are Seen as Not Tough Enough on Crime , June 15, 2023. War on Terror , Prosecutorial Vindictiveness , Prosecutorial Misconduct .
• Washington Supreme Court Announces Adoption of ‘Rule of Automatic Reversal’ When Prosecutor Flagrantly Appeals to Racial and Ethnic Bias During Voir Dire , May 15, 2023. Racial/Ethnic Bias/Profiling , Voir Dire , Prosecutorial Misconduct .
• A Quarter-Century of Injustice Ends: Norberto Peets Exonerated in the Bronx , May 9, 2023. Wrongful Conviction , Prosecutorial Misconduct .
• Prosecutorial Misconduct Cause of More Than 550 Death Penalty Reversals and Exonerations , Nov. 15, 2022. Wrongful Conviction , Death Penalty , Prosecutorial Misconduct .
• Death Penalty Reversals Tied to Prosecutor Misconduct in at Least 5% of Cases , Aug. 3, 2022. Reversible Error , Prosecutorial Misconduct .
• Iowa Supreme Court Reverses Conviction Where Prosecutor Allowed to Amend Trial Information at Trial to Charge a ‘Wholly New and Different Offense’ , March 15, 2022. Wholly Unrelated Charges , Prior Convictions - Expungement or Reversal of , Prosecutorial Misconduct .

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• How to write an argumentative essay | Examples & tips

How to Write an Argumentative Essay | Examples & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An argumentative essay expresses an extended argument for a particular thesis statement . The author takes a clearly defined stance on their subject and builds up an evidence-based case for it.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Table of contents

When do you write an argumentative essay, approaches to argumentative essays, introducing your argument, the body: developing your argument, concluding your argument, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about argumentative essays.

You might be assigned an argumentative essay as a writing exercise in high school or in a composition class. The prompt will often ask you to argue for one of two positions, and may include terms like “argue” or “argument.” It will frequently take the form of a question.

The prompt may also be more open-ended in terms of the possible arguments you could make.

Argumentative writing at college level

At university, the vast majority of essays or papers you write will involve some form of argumentation. For example, both rhetorical analysis and literary analysis essays involve making arguments about texts.

In this context, you won’t necessarily be told to write an argumentative essay—but making an evidence-based argument is an essential goal of most academic writing, and this should be your default approach unless you’re told otherwise.

Examples of argumentative essay prompts

At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response.

Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.

• Don’t just list all the effects you can think of.
• Do develop a focused argument about the overall effect and why it matters, backed up by evidence from sources.
• Don’t just provide a selection of data on the measures’ effectiveness.
• Do build up your own argument about which kinds of measures have been most or least effective, and why.
• Don’t just analyze a random selection of doppelgänger characters.
• Do form an argument about specific texts, comparing and contrasting how they express their thematic concerns through doppelgänger characters.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

An argumentative essay should be objective in its approach; your arguments should rely on logic and evidence, not on exaggeration or appeals to emotion.

There are many possible approaches to argumentative essays, but there are two common models that can help you start outlining your arguments: The Toulmin model and the Rogerian model.

Toulmin arguments

The Toulmin model consists of four steps, which may be repeated as many times as necessary for the argument:

• Make a claim
• Provide the grounds (evidence) for the claim
• Explain the warrant (how the grounds support the claim)
• Discuss possible rebuttals to the claim, identifying the limits of the argument and showing that you have considered alternative perspectives

The Toulmin model is a common approach in academic essays. You don’t have to use these specific terms (grounds, warrants, rebuttals), but establishing a clear connection between your claims and the evidence supporting them is crucial in an argumentative essay.

Say you’re making an argument about the effectiveness of workplace anti-discrimination measures. You might:

• Claim that unconscious bias training does not have the desired results, and resources would be better spent on other approaches
• Cite data to support your claim
• Explain how the data indicates that the method is ineffective
• Anticipate objections to your claim based on other data, indicating whether these objections are valid, and if not, why not.

Rogerian arguments

The Rogerian model also consists of four steps you might repeat throughout your essay:

• Discuss what the opposing position gets right and why people might hold this position
• Highlight the problems with this position
• Present your own position , showing how it addresses these problems
• Suggest a possible compromise —what elements of your position would proponents of the opposing position benefit from adopting?

This model builds up a clear picture of both sides of an argument and seeks a compromise. It is particularly useful when people tend to disagree strongly on the issue discussed, allowing you to approach opposing arguments in good faith.

Say you want to argue that the internet has had a positive impact on education. You might:

• Acknowledge that students rely too much on websites like Wikipedia
• Argue that teachers view Wikipedia as more unreliable than it really is
• Suggest that Wikipedia’s system of citations can actually teach students about referencing
• Suggest critical engagement with Wikipedia as a possible assignment for teachers who are skeptical of its usefulness.

You don’t necessarily have to pick one of these models—you may even use elements of both in different parts of your essay—but it’s worth considering them if you struggle to structure your arguments.

Regardless of which approach you take, your essay should always be structured using an introduction , a body , and a conclusion .

Like other academic essays, an argumentative essay begins with an introduction . The introduction serves to capture the reader’s interest, provide background information, present your thesis statement , and (in longer essays) to summarize the structure of the body.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

The body of an argumentative essay is where you develop your arguments in detail. Here you’ll present evidence, analysis, and reasoning to convince the reader that your thesis statement is true.

In the standard five-paragraph format for short essays, the body takes up three of your five paragraphs. In longer essays, it will be more paragraphs, and might be divided into sections with headings.

Each paragraph covers its own topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Each of these topics must contribute to your overall argument; don’t include irrelevant information.

This example paragraph takes a Rogerian approach: It first acknowledges the merits of the opposing position and then highlights problems with that position.

Hover over different parts of the example to see how a body paragraph is constructed.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

• Academic style
• Vague sentences
• Style consistency

See an example

An argumentative essay ends with a conclusion that summarizes and reflects on the arguments made in the body.

No new arguments or evidence appear here, but in longer essays you may discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your argument and suggest topics for future research. In all conclusions, you should stress the relevance and importance of your argument.

Hover over the following example to see the typical elements of a conclusion.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

• Choosing Essay Topic
• Write a College Essay
• Write a Diversity Essay
• College Essay Format & Structure
• Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

 (AI) Tools

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Text Summarizer
• AI Detector
• Plagiarism Checker
• Citation Generator

An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.

In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Argumentative Essay | Examples & Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved August 26, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/argumentative-essay/

Is this article helpful?

Jack Caulfield

Other students also liked, how to write a thesis statement | 4 steps & examples, how to write topic sentences | 4 steps, examples & purpose, how to write an expository essay, what is your plagiarism score.

• Starting a Business

Our Top Picks

• Best Small Business Loans
• Best Business Internet Service
• Best Online Payroll Service
• Best Business Phone Systems

Our In-Depth Reviews

• OnPay Payroll Review
• ADP Payroll Review
• Ooma Office Review
• RingCentral Review

Explore More

• Business Solutions
• Entrepreneurship
• Franchising
• Best Accounting Software
• Best Merchant Services Providers
• Best Credit Card Processors
• Best Mobile Credit Card Processors
• Clover Review
• Merchant One Review
• QuickBooks Online Review
• Xero Accounting Review
• Financial Solutions

Human Resources

• Best Human Resources Outsourcing Services
• Best Time and Attendance Software
• Best PEO Services
• Best Business Employee Retirement Plans
• Bambee Review
• Rippling HR Software Review
• TriNet Review
• Gusto Payroll Review
• HR Solutions

Marketing and Sales

• Best Text Message Marketing Services
• Best CRM Software
• Best Email Marketing Services
• Best Website Builders
• Textedly Review
• Salesforce Review
• EZ Texting Review
• Textline Review
• Business Intelligence
• Marketing Solutions
• Marketing Strategy
• Public Relations
• Social Media
• Best GPS Fleet Management Software
• Best POS Systems
• Best Employee Monitoring Software
• Best Document Management Software
• Verizon Connect Fleet GPS Review
• Zoom Review
• Samsara Review
• Zoho CRM Review
• Technology Solutions

Business Basics

• 4 Simple Steps to Valuing Your Small Business
• How to Write a Business Growth Plan
• 12 Business Skills You Need to Master
• How to Start a One-Person Business
• FreshBooks vs. QuickBooks Comparison
• Salesforce CRM vs. Zoho CRM
• RingCentral vs. Zoom Comparison
• 10 Ways to Generate More Sales Leads

Business.com aims to help business owners make informed decisions to support and grow their companies. We research and recommend products and services suitable for various business types, investing thousands of hours each year in this process.

As a business, we need to generate revenue to sustain our content. We have financial relationships with some companies we cover, earning commissions when readers purchase from our partners or share information about their needs. These relationships do not dictate our advice and recommendations. Our editorial team independently evaluates and recommends products and services based on their research and expertise. Learn more about our process and partners here .

Why Does Power Abuse Persist?

Take a closer look at the psychology behind power abuse in the workplace, signs of power abuse and how to stop it.

Table of Contents

Many professionals have witnessed power abuse in their careers, with 30 percent of United States employees reporting that they experienced bullying on the job, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute . Power abuse is all too common and it leaves a negative impact on both the victim as well as the workplace’s culture . It fosters an environment of toxicity and may decrease employee morale. 

Here’s a look at the psychology behind power abuse, how to detect it in the workplace and why it persists.

What is abuse of power?

Power abuse is an issue that most of us have experienced at some time, whether we acknowledge it publicly or not. Controversy and debate around this subject are gaining ground and interest constantly, especially in the workplace.

Abuse usually stems from someone who holds power, such as a boss, executive or manager. These individuals can apply pressure and bully their employees into difficult or stressful situations . Those who abuse their power may also surround themselves with other powerful people or sycophants, lowering the chance for helpful feedback and behavior callouts.

Abusive people gain and maintain power over their victim with controlling or coercive behavior and proceed to subject that person to psychological, physical, sexual or financial abuse. As we have seen from the media coverage of high-profile cases, this abuse can go on for years, is often ignored and may be encouraged by those surrounding the abuser. Not taking action to stop the abuse is a form of abuse itself.

Examples of power abuse in the workplace

In the workplace, people may abuse their power in several ways:

• Intentionally embarrassing others: A leader who uses any excuse to embarrass others is inappropriately exercising their power. This could include sharing embarrassing stories about the targeted individual, mocking their mistakes or making negative personal remarks against them.
• Being aggressive: Whether it’s under the guise of a joke or chalked up to a bad day, aggressive behaviors are forms of power abuse. These behaviors include shouting at employees, shifting blame, threatening job loss or other harmful actions.
• Seeking vengeance: While it may seem harmless from the outside, abusers often seek revenge through subtle approaches, such as “pranking” victims or messing with their belongings. They may also take a more blatant approach, acting out by conspiring against them or intentionally making them feel upset or hurt.
• Manipulation: Abusers love to exploit peer pressure to coerce others’ support. Aware of the influence they hold, abusers twist situations and manipulate others to put their own interests before the betterment of the staff and company.

Why does abuse of power persist?

While it’s widely recognized, power abuse continues to be a prevalent issue in many workplaces for various reasons.

A lack of confidence or knowledge to report

People don’t always realize they are the subject of power abuse. Sometimes, they assume their experiences are normal and not worth reporting. Other times, there isn’t a clear path to get help. Depending on who the perpetrator is, employees may not feel confident enough to report the problem or they may doubt their ability to “prove” it.

Witnesses, too, often hesitate to get involved when they recognize power abuse in the workplace. Many times, they feel uncertain about their role in the matter or assume that they are misunderstanding the situation, letting the issue persist.

The fear of consequences 

Power abuse victims — and witnesses — are often deterred from coming forward due to the potential repercussions, such as legal issues, fear of being wrongfully blamed or job loss. Especially in instances where victims cannot report the situation anonymously, they may fear workplace ostracization and choose to endure the mistreatment instead. Financial responsibilities can also impact one’s ability to fight back as those with money or positions of power often have greater access to lawyers. 

Victims may also worry that nothing will be done to help them, should they report the situation. If their claims aren’t taken seriously, a lack of consequences could empower the abuser further, leading to worse mistreatment than they’ve experienced already.

An abuser’s psychological predisposition

Understanding the psychology behind an abuser’s actions can help explain — but not excuse — why the abuse may continue and possibly increase.

Individuals who are abusive or have narcissistic tendencies may have a narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Research from the Cleveland Clinic shows that less than 5 percent of the population has NPD. Narcissists need to make themselves look impressive, crave admiration and power, lack empathy and often act arrogantly. When narcissistic behavior exists, you can see an increase in power abuse cases.

Silent supporters and ‘group shun’

Abusers like to have support for their cause. Often, they can garner this support from subordinates and those in the workplace who are weak enough to fear that if they don’t join in, they will be the next victims. This approach can lead to a “group shun,” where an individual is gradually ostracized by others in the workplace. This slow, subtle tactic is hard for those on the outside to recognize, leading targeted individuals to feel isolated. Over time, this isolation can result in feelings of paranoia or delusion.

The group shun enables the abuser and helps them avoid blame. It pushes individuals to become accomplices, whether or not they agree, to avoid rocking the boat and protect their jobs.

What are the effects of power abuse in the workplace?

In a working environment, the abuse of power against staff can manifest in various harmful ways.

Decreased productivity and job performance

Employees are less likely to be productive and engaged in the workplace when they’re constantly anxious over how their bully will treat them. Power abuse can greatly impact an employee’s mental energy, leading to a loss of time and motivation to get work done — or to do it well. It can also result in more absenteeism and overall disconnection from the workplace as victims find themselves feeling isolated or lacking support from those around them.

Reduced mental and physical well-being

Power abuse can create a hostile work environment where employees are uncomfortable expressing themselves or speaking out when they witness wrongdoings. This lack of open communication can lead to severe stress and reduce employees’ physical and mental well-being.

Over time, this stressful environment can take a toll on an employee’s health. Victims may begin to experience medical issues including mental health challenges, weakened immune systems and sleep disorders — all of which can lead to increased healthcare costs for employers.

Increased turnover

Reduced morale and a lack of employee well-being due to power abuse can drive many to search for new jobs. Especially in situations where the abuser stays in power, people may choose to quit rather than continue to endure the abuse, aware that the company isn’t implementing meaningful changes.

On top of potentially losing key employees, this increased turnover comes with associated costs that can negatively affect a business’s profitability. Companies face financial burdens from offboarding and onboarding expenses when hiring replacements for departing staff.

Legal ramifications

Depending on the situation at hand, a wrongfully treated employee may choose to sue. Pursuing legal action will depend on what happened and whether the company did anything about it. For example, an employer cannot be blamed for the abuse if they weren’t made aware of the situation. However, an employee may take legal action if they can prove the company ignored their situation and that the abuse targeted a protected characteristic, including disabilities, sexual orientation or race.

How can you stop abuse of power in the workplace?

Stopping power abuse and bullying in the workplace means implementing education and enacting support systems at an organizational level. Simply having a policy in place doesn’t always help ― where policies do exist, they are often ignored or ineffective.

Consider the following tools to stop the abuse of power in the workplace:

• Intervention levels: Have operations systems that allow space for employees to discuss conflicts , grievances or abuses with executive staff or human resources (HR).
• Code of conduct: Develop manuals and handbooks alongside an HR team to best protect the rights, boundaries and health of employees.
• Disciplinary measures: When preventative solutions are no longer protecting employees, have steps in place to stop and confront workplace abuses.
• Support systems: Create spaces where employees can safely share their experiences. This can be in the form of affinity groups, HR, staff surveys and more.

When regulation fails, we need to revert to character and herein lies the ethical challenge. Character is borne out of moral virtue, courage and honor. In this case, we need to ensure we are building employees of character ― those who dare to stand up for others and themselves and courage from organizations to reward those who do.

The culture of an organization must have systems in place to encourage employees to be aware of behaviors or influences that may not be acceptable as well as speak up about those behaviors. Organizational leaders, regulators and business schools need to step up, enforce policies, be aware and understand the implications and risks of what is going on in their own organizations and the liabilities that they face. Individuals need to show courage not to participate, to call out bad behavior and when faced with the situation themselves, have the language to articulate what is going on clearly.

Petrina Coventry contributed to this article.

Get Weekly 5-Minute Business Advice

B. newsletter is your digest of bite-sized news, thought & brand leadership, and entertainment. All in one email.

Our mission is to help you take your team, your business and your career to the next level. Whether you're here for product recommendations, research or career advice, we're happy you're here!

How to Write an Argumentative Essay: 101 Guide [+ Examples]

An argumentative essay is a genre of academic writing that investigates different sides of a particular issue. Its central purpose is to inform the readers rather than expressively persuade them. Thus, it is crucial to differentiate between argumentative and persuasive essays.

While composing an argumentative essay, the students have to demonstrate their research and analytical skills. The secret of a successful paper lies behind strong arguments and counterarguments. So, the writer should focus on facts and data rather than personal values and beliefs.

Besides, a good argumentative essay should be structured appropriately:

• The introduction and conclusion have to create a frame for the entire essay.
• The body paragraphs are supposed to cover the essential points.
• Supporting evidence should make a paper more professional and reputable.

Are you still wondering what an argumentative essay is and how to write it? Check out the sections below prepared by our experts . Here, you can find the most valuable info, helpful tips, and useful examples.

📜 Classic Strategy

📋 toulmin strategy, 🗣️ rogerian strategy, ✒️ fill in the blanks, 🔍 edit and proofread, 🔗 references, 📌 argumentative essay in a nutshell.

Are you trying to figure out what an argumentative essay is? It’s a type of academic paper that covers both sides of a given issue. An author can decide whether they aim to present both sides equally or support one side more dynamically.

One of the mistakes among students is the confusion of argumentative and persuasive essays . Do you want to figure out the differences? Take a look at the following table.

Before writing an argument essay, it would be helpful to choose an appropriate model to rely on. There are three strategies to consider: Classical, Toulmin, and Rogerian.

Look at the following sections and choose the most suitable one for you.

Are you wondering how to write an argumentative essay? Consider using the classical approach. It is the most popular way of composing an argumentative paper.

Under the classical strategy, the author has to follow these rules:

• research the issue;
• present both sides;
• express own opinion;
• prove the reader the validity of the conclusion.

It is up to the audience to decide whether your position is right or wrong. Yet, you should try to convince the readers of the effectiveness of your opinion.

Usually, the classical argument paper is structured in the following way:

• Introduction . Use the hook to catch the readers’ attention. State the problem and explain why your topic is relatable to the audience.
• General background. Introduce the general info and several facts about your issue.
• Thesis statement . State your position clearly and concisely.
• The central argument. Provide valid evidence and appropriate examples to support your position. Refer only to reliable sources.
• Rebuttal . Include a counter paragraph in your essay, presenting the opposing arguments. Provide specific examples to make the reader understand your position. Also, explain to the audience why the counterclaims are incorrect.
• Conclusion . Synthesize your arguments and counterarguments. Give the readers a question for further investigation of your problem. To make your essay more impressive, compose a memorable concluding sentence.

Toulmin strategy is the most suitable for the discussion of controversial issues. This model aims to find common ground through clear logic and valid evidence. Besides, the Toulmin strategy eliminates unnecessary things and limits the points to agree upon.

An argumentative essay written by the Toulmin model includes the following elements:

• Claim . A viewpoint that the author aims to prove.
• Evidence . Supportive facts from reliable resources that highlight the significance of the claim.
• Warrant . An element that connects the claim and that evidence.
• Backing . Additional reasoning that underlines the warrant’s validity.
• Rebuttal . Counterarguments that contradict the author’s position.
• Qualifier . An additional element (usually, a word or a short phrase) that narrows the claim’s capacity. Several examples of qualifiers: “typically,” “usually,” “occasionally,” etc.
• Exceptions . Specific limitations that indicate the cases where that claim may not be valid.

Like the Toulmin approach, Rogerian strategy attempts to find common ground between two sides of one issue. However, the technique is slightly different.

The Rogerian model is often used in highly controversial debates when the parties do not accept each other’s position. Thus, the given strategy focuses on finding the agreement by proving the validity of the opposing arguments.

Below, you can find the primary outline for the Rogerian argumentative essay:

• Introduce the problem. Present the issue clearly and explain why it is worth the readers’ attention.
• Summarize and analyze the counterarguments. Take into consideration all the possible counterpoints and look at them from different perspectives. Discuss the cases in which the opposing claims could be valid. Demonstrate your open-mindedness. This will make the opposite party more loyal to you.
• Present your position. After discussing the counterpoints, state your opinion. Convince the audience about the validity of your points.
• Prove the advantages of your position. Explain to the opposite party how the acceptance and adoption of your points will benefit them.

🧐 How to Write an Argumentative Essay

Before working on your essay, carefully read the assignment. Make sure you understand all the instructor’s requirements and the purpose of the paper.

• Pay enough attention to the task. Did your professor assign you a topic? Or do you need to choose it yourself ? Make sure you have an idea that will turn into an outstanding essay.
• Select the strategy you are going to apply. An argumentative essay format will depend on the model you choose to compose your paper. Analyze the issue you will arise and decide what strategy is the most suitable. Is it the Classical model, the Toulmin, or the Rogerian one?

After that, start composing your argumentative essay. Check out the following sections. We have a lot of insightful info to share with you!

📚 Research the Topic

The first step of writing an argumentative paper is an in-depth investigation of the topic. To validate your arguments, you have to refer to credible resources. The essay will look more professional if you use reliable sources in it.

To research like a professional , do the following:

• Use only credible sources. You can refer to the books, research articles, materials from academic databases, or Google Scholar. Webpages registered as governmental or educational institutions (.gov, .edu.) and widely-known news websites (New York Times, BBC, CNBC) are also considered appropriate. Avoid using blog posts, outdated materials, and any other data from unreliable sources. You may get into huge trouble, taking information from random websites, since it may be invalid.
• Pay attention to the publishing date . You may be required to use the sources released no later than five years ago. Yet, it is not always the case, especially when you’re dealing with historical documents. Thus, double-check your instructions regarding recommended sources.
• Keep your topic in mind. Concentrate on what you are writing about and select the sources for your exact issue. Avoid sources that provide too general information and look for more limited ones. If your idea is World War II’s economic consequences, the history book from ancient times to modern days will not be the best option.
• Become an expert. Take enough time to investigate the issue you are writing about. Read numerous articles, compare and contrast the scientists’ opinions. Prove your reader that you are a reliable person who selected the best sources.

📝 Outline Your Essay

The majority of students tend to underestimate the power of outlining. Don’t do this! An argumentative essay outline is a helpful tool for planning, structuring, and composing.

Firstly , a well-developed outline helps the writer to put all their thoughts in an appropriate order. None of the essential points will be lost if the student plans the essay before writing.

Secondly , it lets the writer figure out what evidence suits what argument most. Before writing, draft your essay first. Put examples, facts, etc. in the right parts of the paper. Then, write the entire text.

Thirdly , an outline provides a perfect opportunity to change the essay’s parts without rewriting the paper. Are you unsure of specific details? Not a problem. Change them in the outline without ruining the text.

There are essential elements that your outline should contain. Check out the following section to see them.

Introduction

How to start an argumentative essay? First and foremost, include an argumentative essay introduction in your outline.

This part should grab the readers’ attention from the first words. Thus, put enough effort into composing a compelling hook . What can it be? An impressive statistic or an exciting fact? Be creative – decide yourself! But make sure that your intro is catchy enough.

After the hook, introduce your topic’s general background . Prove the readers the significance of your issue and gradually come to the thesis statement .

The concept of studying abroad is becoming increasingly popular in both developed and developing countries. Students around the globe strive to explore the world and broaden their minds, and studying in a foreign country is an excellent opportunity to do so. Such experience may be extremely beneficial because meeting new people and discovering foreign cultures help students to gain valuable knowledge and see the world from a new perspective. However, while presenting significant opportunities for personal growth, it may also bring about some challenges.

Thesis Statement

A thesis is an essential part of your argumentative essay. It should state your position regarding the issue clearly and concisely. Avoid general statements, vague words, and be as specific and possible. Your thesis statement should guide the readers throughout the main points of the paper.

The location of the thesis in the essay plays a crucial role. The most appropriate place for it is the last sentence of the introductory paragraph.

Although students face difficulties such as loneliness while studying abroad, it is a worthy experience to introduce them to new knowledge, people, and culture and promote their independence.

Body Paragraphs

The body of your paper is supposed to develop your position, provide valid evidence and examples. Each paragraph has to focus only on one idea. This will ensure the logical structure of your argumentative essay.

A body paragraph should start from the topic sentence and end with the concluding sentence . Such a frame around every section will make your readers stay concentrated on your ideas and get your opinion.

• The topic sentence is the first sentence of the passage. It should reflect its point and correspond to the thesis statement.
• The concluding sentence aims to wrap up the author’s thoughts. Thus, make sure that the last sentence of a paragraph is insightful enough.

Each body paragraph should include an argument (or a counterargument) with supporting evidence. Get your proof from credible sources and ensure that it directly corresponds to the point.

An example of a topic sentence :

The benefits of education abroad are almost innumerable, prominent examples being gaining new knowledge, making friends with people who have different mindsets, and discovering new cultures.

An example of a concluding sentence:

Participants of student exchange programs usually return more driven and eager to develop both themselves and their country.

A conclusion plays a critical role in understanding the entire paper. It summarizes the body and leaves the final impression. Besides, it may push the readers on further investigation of the issue.

• To make your argumentative essay conclusion powerful, it is not enough just to summarize the arguments. It has to synthesize your ideas and show the connection between them. In other words, your points should be summarized and analyzed.
• Moreover, a conclusion refers to the thesis statement . A mere restatement of the central idea is not the most successful way of finishing your paper. You should try to develop it to demonstrate the reason you’ve written the previous paragraphs.

One more tip:

• Give the audience an incentive to explore the topic more in-depth. Insert the questions for further investigation at the end of your essay. It would play a significant role in making an impressive conclusion.

To sum up, studying abroad is beneficial as it helps a person evolve and perceive a world from new perspectives. It is an opportunity for a participant to explore the world, meet new people, gain valuable knowledge and experience, and broaden their horizons. Education abroad might pose problems like homesickness, loneliness, and trouble with getting accustomed to a new environment. However, all of them can be easily overcome if a student is flexible and eager to become autonomous and independent.

The list of references is a crucial part of any argumentative essay. It should contain all the sources the writer uses in the paper.

Before organizing your reference list , double-check your argumentative essay format. Is it written in MLA, APA, or maybe in Chicago style? How many references does the professor expect you to include? What kind of sources are you required to use?

After figuring out these issues, move to the format requirements of the writing style you use for your paper. The most popular ones are APA (7th edition), MLA, and ChicagoAD (author-date) styles. Below, you can find the examples of a reference for the same book in different formatting styles.

Did you develop a good outline? Congratulations! You are almost done with the essay. Now, you need to fill in the blanks and create a final version of your paper. Here is where you need to demonstrate a high level of your writing skills.

• Make sure your paper has no logical fallacies. Information from an untrustworthy source, a hasty generalization, or a false conclusion may put your reliability as an author under threat. So double-check all the data you include in your essay. Moreover, make sure all your statements are well-developed and supported by valid evidence.
• Check your argumentative essay structure . All the arguments should refer to the thesis statement and must be presented in the logical sequence. The supporting evidence and examples have to be inserted in the text logically, according to the arguments.
• Pay enough attention to the citations. References and in-text citations are incredibly tricky. Always check every detail according to your essay format. If you are unsure of specific issues, refer to a citation guide and make your paper free of formatting mistakes.
• Ensure the coherence of your argumentative essay. Often, the paper’s material seems raw only because it is presented without a logical connection. To ensure a smooth connection between the ideas, use transitions between the paragraphs and linking words inside them. Insert them in the text to connect the points. As a result, you will have a coherent essay with the logical flow of the arguments.

The final step of your writing process is editing and proofreading. Although it is not that energy and time consuming, it still plays a critical role in the work’s success.

While writing your argumentative paper, plan your time accordingly. This will provide you with an opportunity to polish your essay before submitting it. And take a look at our checklist and always use it to improve your papers:

• NO first and second person. Use only the third person in your argumentative essay. It is a general requirement for any kind of academic paper.
• NO slang. The word choice is an essential part of the essay writing process. Ensure you use only formal vocabulary and avoid using informal language (jargon, slang, etc.).
• NO unchecked words. Sometimes, words can raise questions and lead to misunderstandings. If you are unsure whether the term is used appropriately, double-check its meaning or replace it with another.
• NO plagiarism. While proofreading, make sure your citations are either properly paraphrased or taken in quotation marks. You can change the sentence structure to avoid plagiarism.
• NO minor mistakes. Grammar, spelling, punctuation play a crucial role. Want to make your paper look professional? Make sure it is free of minor mistakes then.

Argumentative Essay Topics

• Should student-athletes benefit from sports?
• Do celebrities really have influence on people behavior?
• Will decriminalization of drugs increase drug menace?
• Does social and environmental reporting promote organizations’ financial success? 
• Should online learning be promoted?
• Can space exploration resolve human problems?
• Is success really the outcome of hard work?
• Is there discrimination against women in sports?
• Will banning tobacco sales promote public health?
• Is euthanasia a clemency?  
• Should college education be free and accessible for every student?
• Should football be banned for being too dangerous? 
• Is it time to change social norms?
• Should public servants’ strikes be prohibited?
• Does media create a negative image of ageing and older people?
• Is capitalism the best economic system?  
• Can children under 18 make an appropriate decision on getting tattoo ?
• Should net neutrality be protected? 
• Can an improper use of social media provoke a family crisis?
• Is it right to use animals in biomedical research?  
• Does the climate change affect our indoor environment?
• Are children’s crimes a result of poor parenting?
• Should health care be universal?
• Does the increased use of technology hurt students’ efficiency?
• Is transformative education a key to the system modernization?
• Why should patients have access to truthful information? 
• How does language barrier affect health care access?
• Would allowing adoption by same-sex couples benefit the country’s child welfare system?
• Is spanking children a proper way to improve their behavior?
• Does gun control law lowers crime rates?
• Will ban on spamming improve users’ internet experience?  
• Should behavior be made illegal because it’s immoral?
• Is globalization really a progress?  
• Does aid to developing countries bring more harm than good?
• Can parents improve children mental health by restricting internet use ?
• Is trusting our senses the best way to get the truth?
• Why parents should not have the right to choose their children based on genetics. 
• Is college education really worth it?
• Will wearing a body camera by police officer enhance public trust?    
• Immigration: a benefit or a threat?  
• Is it a duty of adult children to take care of their elderly parents?
• Should abortions be legal?
• Are agents an integral part of professional sports?
• Will ban of cellphones while driving decrease the car accident rates?
• Should marijuana be legal for medical use?  
• Is veganism diet universally beneficial?  
• Should museums return artefacts?
• Is water birth beneficial for women’s health?
• Will paying people to stay healthy benefit the nation in the long-term perspective?  
• Is obesity a disease or a choice?

It is up to you to decide how many parts to include in your essay. However, the 5 paragraph structure is the most appropriate model for an argumentative paper. So, write an introduction, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs.

The pronoun “you” is acceptable for informal writing. Yet, in academic papers, avoid using the second person. The same situation is with the first person. Generally, academic papers require the use of the third person.

A hook aims to grab the readers’ attention. Thus, you could start your essay with an interesting fact about your issue. Another way to create a catchy hook is to prove the audience the relatability of your topic. Make the readers want to explore your essay by demonstrating the significance of your issue.

Yes, you can. A question might become a compelling hook. Just make sure that it is profound, thought-provocative, and concise. A too broad or complicated question will only confuse your readers.

A title is an essential part of the essay since it causes the first impression. While selecting a heading, take into consideration the following points:

1. The title must be catchy.

2. It has to be not too long (5-12 words).

3. The title has to reflect the topic of the paper.

4. It should not be too complicated: the simpler – the better.

Thank you for visiting our page! We hope the information was helpful and insightful. Do you have friends who seek help with writing an argumentative essay? Share our article with them. And don’t forget to leave your comments!

• Sample Argument Essays: Mesa Community College
• Argument: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Tips on How to Write an Argumentative Essay: Grace Fleming, ThoughtCo
• Tips for Organizing an Argumentative Essay: Judith L., Beumer Writing Center, Valparaiso University
• Argumentative Essay: Oya Ozagac, Bogazici University, Online Writing Lab
• Argumentative Essays: Purdue Online Writing Lab, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University
• How to Write an Argumentative Essay Step by Step: Virginia Kearney, Owlcation
• Counterargument: Gordon Harvey for the Writing Center at Harvard University
• Basic Steps in the Research Process: North Hennepin Community College, Minnesota
• How to Recognize Plagiarism, Overview: School of Education, Indiana University Bloomington
• 15 Steps to Good Research: Georgetown University Library
• Share to Facebook
• Share to LinkedIn
• Share to email

It’s not a secret that the reader notices an essay title first. No catchy hook or colorful examples attract more attention from a quick glance. Composing a creative title for your essay is essential if you strive to succeed, as it: Thus, how you name your paper is of the...

The conclusion is the last paragraph in your paper that draws the ideas and reasoning together. However, its purpose does not end there. A definite essay conclusion accomplishes several goals: Therefore, a conclusion usually consists of: Our experts prepared this guide, where you will find great tips on how to...

A five-paragraph essay is one of the most common academic assignments a student may face. It has a well-defined structure: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Writing an introduction can be the most challenging part of the entire piece. It aims to introduce the main ideas and present...

Exemplification essays, also called illustration essays, are one of the easiest papers to write. However, even the simplest tasks require experience and practice. It is a good idea to find and analyze free exemplification essay examples. You can also ask your teacher to give you some sample exemplification essays from...

During their school years, students may not always have the opportunity to select a topic for their essay or research paper. Instructors tend to assign one or offer a list of ideas that might not seem engaging. Moreover, even the topic that you choose yourself can sometimes end up being...

Sorry to disappoint you, but if you think that your high scores and grades would be enough to get accepted into the university of your dreams, you’re wrong… The best colleges worldwide, such as the Ivy League schools receive applications from thousands and thousands of talented students. You gotta stand...

Often when you’re completing academic writing, especially essays, you need to use pronouns. In academic writing, the use of the word you is unacceptable. You can find yourself in a sticky situation, deciding upon gender-neutral pronouns in your academic writing. How can students deal with it? In most situations today,...

A divorce is a life-changing experience that affects spouses and their children (if there are any). Since divorce rates are relatively high in modern society, more and more people face this problem nowadays. When you are assigned to compose an argumentative essay about divorce, you should be as careful as...

Corruption is an abuse of power that was entrusted to a person or group of people for personal gain. It can appear in various settings and affect different social classes, leading to unemployment and other economic issues. This is why writing an essay on corruption can become a challenge. One...

Do you have to write an essay for the first time? Or maybe you’ve only written essays with less than 1000 words? Someone might think that writing a 1000-word essay is a rather complicated and time-consuming assignment. Others have no idea how difficult thousand-word essays can be. Well, we have...

To write an engaging “If I Could Change the World” essay, you have to get a few crucial elements: Let us help you a bit and give recommendations for “If I Could Change the World” essays with examples. And bookmark our writing company website for excellent academic assistance and study...

Why do you want to be a pharmacist? An essay on this topic can be challenging, even when you know the answer. The most popular reasons to pursue this profession are the following:

Essay on Abuse Of Power

Students are often asked to write an essay on Abuse Of Power in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Abuse Of Power

Understanding power abuse.

Power abuse means when a person who has authority uses it in the wrong way. This can be a boss, a teacher, a police officer, or even a parent. They use their position to control or harm others. This is not fair or right.

Types of Power Abuse

There are many types of power abuse. Some people use their power to scare others. Some use it to get things they want, like money or favors. And some use it to hurt people, physically or emotionally. All these are forms of power abuse.

Effects of Power Abuse

Power abuse can hurt people in many ways. It can make them feel scared, sad, or angry. It can also make them feel powerless and lose their self-confidence. In some cases, it can even lead to physical harm.

Stopping Power Abuse

Stopping power abuse is not easy, but it is possible. People need to speak up when they see it happening. And those in power need to be held accountable for their actions. This means they should face consequences if they abuse their power.

Power Abuse and Society

250 words essay on abuse of power.

Power abuse is when someone in a position of authority uses their power wrongly. This can be in a school, a workplace, or even in a country. It happens when the person in charge uses their power to make others do things they don’t want to do or to get what they want without thinking about the effects on others.

There are many types of power abuse. One common type is bullying, where someone uses their power to hurt or scare others. Another type is corruption, where someone uses their power to gain money or goods unfairly. Discrimination is also a type of power abuse, where people are treated badly because of their race, gender, or other factors.

Power abuse can cause a lot of harm. It can make people feel scared, sad, or angry. It can also lead to people not trusting each other or the person in power. In extreme cases, power abuse can even lead to violence or war.

Preventing Power Abuse

To stop power abuse, we need to make sure that people in power are held accountable for their actions. This means that they should be punished if they abuse their power. We also need to educate people about power abuse so they can recognize it and stand up against it.

In conclusion, power abuse is a serious problem that can cause a lot of harm. But by holding people accountable and educating others, we can help to prevent it.

500 Words Essay on Abuse Of Power

Understanding power, what is abuse of power.

Abuse of power happens when someone uses their power in a bad way. This can mean making choices that help themselves instead of others. It can also mean using their power to hurt or control people. For example, if a boss threatens to fire an employee unless they do something they’re not comfortable with, that’s an abuse of power.

Examples of Power Abuse

Abuse of power can be seen in many places. In schools, a teacher might pick on a student because they don’t like them. In the workplace, a boss might give all the good tasks to their favorite employees. In politics, a leader might use their power to make laws that only benefit them and their friends.

How to Stop Power Abuse

Stopping abuse of power is not easy, but there are ways to do it. One way is to make sure everyone knows what abuse of power looks like. Education is a powerful tool against abuse. Another way is to have rules that stop people from abusing their power. For example, a school could have rules against teachers picking on students. Lastly, people can stand up against power abuse. If you see someone abusing their power, you can speak up or report it.

Abuse of power is a problem that can happen anywhere. It can hurt people and make them feel scared or unhappy. But by knowing what it looks like and how to stop it, we can make our world a fairer place. Remember, power is a tool, and like any tool, it should be used with care.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Developing Strong Thesis Statements

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The thesis statement or main claim must be debatable

An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must begin with a debatable thesis or claim. In other words, the thesis must be something that people could reasonably have differing opinions on. If your thesis is something that is generally agreed upon or accepted as fact then there is no reason to try to persuade people.

Example of a non-debatable thesis statement:

This thesis statement is not debatable. First, the word pollution implies that something is bad or negative in some way. Furthermore, all studies agree that pollution is a problem; they simply disagree on the impact it will have or the scope of the problem. No one could reasonably argue that pollution is unambiguously good.

Example of a debatable thesis statement:

This is an example of a debatable thesis because reasonable people could disagree with it. Some people might think that this is how we should spend the nation's money. Others might feel that we should be spending more money on education. Still others could argue that corporations, not the government, should be paying to limit pollution.

Another example of a debatable thesis statement:

In this example there is also room for disagreement between rational individuals. Some citizens might think focusing on recycling programs rather than private automobiles is the most effective strategy.

The thesis needs to be narrow

Although the scope of your paper might seem overwhelming at the start, generally the narrower the thesis the more effective your argument will be. Your thesis or claim must be supported by evidence. The broader your claim is, the more evidence you will need to convince readers that your position is right.

Example of a thesis that is too broad:

There are several reasons this statement is too broad to argue. First, what is included in the category "drugs"? Is the author talking about illegal drug use, recreational drug use (which might include alcohol and cigarettes), or all uses of medication in general? Second, in what ways are drugs detrimental? Is drug use causing deaths (and is the author equating deaths from overdoses and deaths from drug related violence)? Is drug use changing the moral climate or causing the economy to decline? Finally, what does the author mean by "society"? Is the author referring only to America or to the global population? Does the author make any distinction between the effects on children and adults? There are just too many questions that the claim leaves open. The author could not cover all of the topics listed above, yet the generality of the claim leaves all of these possibilities open to debate.

Example of a narrow or focused thesis:

In this example the topic of drugs has been narrowed down to illegal drugs and the detriment has been narrowed down to gang violence. This is a much more manageable topic.

We could narrow each debatable thesis from the previous examples in the following way:

Narrowed debatable thesis 1:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just the amount of money used but also how the money could actually help to control pollution.

Narrowed debatable thesis 2:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just what the focus of a national anti-pollution campaign should be but also why this is the appropriate focus.

Qualifiers such as " typically ," " generally ," " usually ," or " on average " also help to limit the scope of your claim by allowing for the almost inevitable exception to the rule.

Types of claims

Claims typically fall into one of four categories. Thinking about how you want to approach your topic, or, in other words, what type of claim you want to make, is one way to focus your thesis on one particular aspect of your broader topic.

Claims of fact or definition: These claims argue about what the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact. Example:

Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that one person, thing, or event caused another thing or event to occur. Example:

Claims about value: These are claims made of what something is worth, whether we value it or not, how we would rate or categorize something. Example:

Claims about solutions or policies: These are claims that argue for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem. Example:

Which type of claim is right for your argument? Which type of thesis or claim you use for your argument will depend on your position and knowledge of the topic, your audience, and the context of your paper. You might want to think about where you imagine your audience to be on this topic and pinpoint where you think the biggest difference in viewpoints might be. Even if you start with one type of claim you probably will be using several within the paper. Regardless of the type of claim you choose to utilize it is key to identify the controversy or debate you are addressing and to define your position early on in the paper.

Argumentative Essay Examples to Inspire You (+ Free Formula)

Table of contents

Meredith Sell

Have you ever been asked to explain your opinion on a controversial issue? 

• Maybe your family got into a discussion about chemical pesticides
• Someone at work argues against investing resources into your project
• Your partner thinks intermittent fasting is the best way to lose weight and you disagree

Proving your point in an argumentative essay can be challenging, unless you are using a proven formula.

Argumentative essay formula & example

In the image below, you can see a recommended structure for argumentative essays. It starts with the topic sentence, which establishes the main idea of the essay. Next, this hypothesis is developed in the development stage. Then, the rebuttal, or the refutal of the main counter argument or arguments. Then, again, development of the rebuttal. This is followed by an example, and ends with a summary. This is a very basic structure, but it gives you a bird-eye-view of how a proper argumentative essay can be built.

Writing an argumentative essay (for a class, a news outlet, or just for fun) can help you improve your understanding of an issue and sharpen your thinking on the matter. Using researched facts and data, you can explain why you or others think the way you do, even while other reasonable people disagree.

What Is an Argumentative Essay?

An argumentative essay is an explanatory essay that takes a side.

Instead of appealing to emotion and personal experience to change the reader’s mind, an argumentative essay uses logic and well-researched factual information to explain why the thesis in question is the most reasonable opinion on the matter.  

Over several paragraphs or pages, the author systematically walks through:

• The opposition (and supporting evidence)
• The chosen thesis (and its supporting evidence)

At the end, the author leaves the decision up to the reader, trusting that the case they’ve made will do the work of changing the reader’s mind. Even if the reader’s opinion doesn’t change, they come away from the essay with a greater understanding of the perspective presented — and perhaps a better understanding of their original opinion.

All of that might make it seem like writing an argumentative essay is way harder than an emotionally-driven persuasive essay — but if you’re like me and much more comfortable spouting facts and figures than making impassioned pleas, you may find that an argumentative essay is easier to write. 

Plus, the process of researching an argumentative essay means you can check your assumptions and develop an opinion that’s more based in reality than what you originally thought. I know for sure that my opinions need to be fact checked — don’t yours?

So how exactly do we write the argumentative essay?

How do you start an argumentative essay

First, gain a clear understanding of what exactly an argumentative essay is. To formulate a proper topic sentence, you have to be clear on your topic, and to explore it through research.

Students have difficulty starting an essay because the whole task seems intimidating, and they are afraid of spending too much time on the topic sentence. Experienced writers, however, know that there is no set time to spend on figuring out your topic. It's a real exploration that is based to a large extent on intuition.

6 Steps to Write an Argumentative Essay (Persuasion Formula)

Use this checklist to tackle your essay one step at a time:

1. Research an issue with an arguable question

To start, you need to identify an issue that well-informed people have varying opinions on. Here, it’s helpful to think of one core topic and how it intersects with another (or several other) issues. That intersection is where hot takes and reasonable (or unreasonable) opinions abound. 

I find it helpful to stage the issue as a question.

For example: 

Is it better to legislate the minimum size of chicken enclosures or to outlaw the sale of eggs from chickens who don’t have enough space?

Should snow removal policies focus more on effectively keeping roads clear for traffic or the environmental impacts of snow removal methods?

Once you have your arguable question ready, start researching the basic facts and specific opinions and arguments on the issue. Do your best to stay focused on gathering information that is directly relevant to your topic. Depending on what your essay is for, you may reference academic studies, government reports, or newspaper articles.

‍ Research your opposition and the facts that support their viewpoint as much as you research your own position . You’ll need to address your opposition in your essay, so you’ll want to know their argument from the inside out.

2. Choose a side based on your research

You likely started with an inclination toward one side or the other, but your research should ultimately shape your perspective. So once you’ve completed the research, nail down your opinion and start articulating the what and why of your take. 

What: I think it’s better to outlaw selling eggs from chickens whose enclosures are too small.

Why: Because if you regulate the enclosure size directly, egg producers outside of the government’s jurisdiction could ship eggs into your territory and put nearby egg producers out of business by offering better prices because they don’t have the added cost of larger enclosures.

This is an early form of your thesis and the basic logic of your argument. You’ll want to iterate on this a few times and develop a one-sentence statement that sums up the thesis of your essay.

Thesis: Outlawing the sale of eggs from chickens with cramped living spaces is better for business than regulating the size of chicken enclosures.

Now that you’ve articulated your thesis , spell out the counterargument(s) as well. Putting your opposition’s take into words will help you throughout the rest of the essay-writing process. (You can start by choosing the counter argument option with Wordtune Spices .)

Counter argument:

There may be one main counterargument to articulate, or several. Write them all out and start thinking about how you’ll use evidence to address each of them or show why your argument is still the best option.

3. Organize the evidence — for your side and the opposition

You did all of that research for a reason. Now’s the time to use it. 

Hopefully, you kept detailed notes in a document, complete with links and titles of all your source material. Go through your research document and copy the evidence for your argument and your opposition’s into another document.

List the main points of your argument. Then, below each point, paste the evidence that backs them up.

If you’re writing about chicken enclosures, maybe you found evidence that shows the spread of disease among birds kept in close quarters is worse than among birds who have more space. Or maybe you found information that says eggs from free-range chickens are more flavorful or nutritious. Put that information next to the appropriate part of your argument. 

Repeat the process with your opposition’s argument: What information did you find that supports your opposition? Paste it beside your opposition’s argument.

You could also put information here that refutes your opposition, but organize it in a way that clearly tells you — at a glance — that the information disproves their point.

Counterargument: Outlawing the sale of eggs from chickens with too small enclosures will negatively affect prices and sales.

BUT: Sicknesses like avian flu spread more easily through small enclosures and could cause a shortage that would drive up egg prices naturally, so ensuring larger enclosures is still a better policy for consumers over the long term.

As you organize your research and see the evidence all together, start thinking through the best way to order your points.  

Will it be better to present your argument all at once or to break it up with opposition claims you can quickly refute? Would some points set up other points well? Does a more complicated point require that the reader understands a simpler point first?

Play around and rearrange your notes to see how your essay might flow one way or another.

4. Freewrite or outline to think through your argument

Is your brain buzzing yet? At this point in the process, it can be helpful to take out a notebook or open a fresh document and dump whatever you’re thinking on the page.

Where should your essay start? What ground-level information do you need to provide your readers before you can dive into the issue?

Use your organized evidence document from step 3 to think through your argument from beginning to end, and determine the structure of your essay.

There are three typical structures for argumentative essays:

• Make your argument and tackle opposition claims one by one, as they come up in relation to the points of your argument - In this approach, the whole essay — from beginning to end — focuses on your argument, but as you make each point, you address the relevant opposition claims individually. This approach works well if your opposition’s views can be quickly explained and refuted and if they directly relate to specific points in your argument.
• Make the bulk of your argument, and then address the opposition all at once in a paragraph (or a few) - This approach puts the opposition in its own section, separate from your main argument. After you’ve made your case, with ample evidence to convince your readers, you write about the opposition, explaining their viewpoint and supporting evidence — and showing readers why the opposition’s argument is unconvincing. Once you’ve addressed the opposition, you write a conclusion that sums up why your argument is the better one.
• Open your essay by talking about the opposition and where it falls short. Build your entire argument to show how it is superior to that opposition - With this structure, you’re showing your readers “a better way” to address the issue. After opening your piece by showing how your opposition’s approaches fail, you launch into your argument, providing readers with ample evidence that backs you up.

As you think through your argument and examine your evidence document, consider which structure will serve your argument best. Sketch out an outline to give yourself a map to follow in the writing process. You could also rearrange your evidence document again to match your outline, so it will be easy to find what you need when you start writing.

5. Write your first draft

You have an outline and an organized document with all your points and evidence lined up and ready. Now you just have to write your essay.

In your first draft, focus on getting your ideas on the page. Your wording may not be perfect (whose is?), but you know what you’re trying to say — so even if you’re overly wordy and taking too much space to say what you need to say, put those words on the page.

Follow your outline, and draw from that evidence document to flesh out each point of your argument. Explain what the evidence means for your argument and your opposition. Connect the dots for your readers so they can follow you, point by point, and understand what you’re trying to say.

As you write, be sure to include:

1. Any background information your reader needs in order to understand the issue in question.

2. Evidence for both your argument and the counterargument(s). This shows that you’ve done your homework and builds trust with your reader, while also setting you up to make a more convincing argument. (If you find gaps in your research while you’re writing, Wordtune can help.

3. A conclusion that sums up your overall argument and evidence — and leaves the reader with an understanding of the issue and its significance. This sort of conclusion brings your essay to a strong ending that doesn’t waste readers’ time, but actually adds value to your case.

6. Revise (with Wordtune)

The hard work is done: you have a first draft. Now, let’s fine tune your writing.

I like to step away from what I’ve written for a day (or at least a night of sleep) before attempting to revise. It helps me approach clunky phrases and rough transitions with fresh eyes. If you don’t have that luxury, just get away from your computer for a few minutes — use the bathroom, do some jumping jacks, eat an apple — and then come back and read through your piece.

As you revise, make sure you …

• Get the facts right. An argument with false evidence falls apart pretty quickly, so check your facts to make yours rock solid.
• Don’t misrepresent the opposition or their evidence. If someone who holds the opposing view reads your essay, they should affirm how you explain their side — even if they disagree with your rebuttal.
• Present a case that builds over the course of your essay, makes sense, and ends on a strong note. One point should naturally lead to the next. Your readers shouldn’t feel like you’re constantly changing subjects. You’re making a variety of points, but your argument should feel like a cohesive whole.
• Paraphrase sources and cite them appropriately. Did you skip citations when writing your first draft? No worries — you can add them now. And check that you don’t overly rely on quotations. (Need help paraphrasing? Wordtune can help. Simply highlight the sentence or phrase you want to adjust and sort through Wordtune’s suggestions.)
• Tighten up overly wordy explanations and sharpen any convoluted ideas. Wordtune makes a great sidekick for this too 😉

Words to start an argumentative essay

The best way to introduce a convincing argument is to provide a strong thesis statement . These are the words I usually use to start an argumentative essay:

• It is indisputable that the world today is facing a multitude of issues
• With the rise of ____, the potential to make a positive difference has never been more accessible
• It is essential that we take action now and tackle these issues head-on
• it is critical to understand the underlying causes of the problems standing before us
• Opponents of this idea claim
• Those who are against these ideas may say
• Some people may disagree with this idea
• Some people may say that ____, however

When refuting an opposing concept, use:

• These researchers have a point in thinking
• To a certain extent they are right
• After seeing this evidence, there is no way one can agree with this idea
• This argument is irrelevant to the topic

Are you convinced by your own argument yet? Ready to brave the next get-together where everyone’s talking like they know something about intermittent fasting , chicken enclosures , or snow removal policies? 

Now if someone asks you to explain your evidence-based but controversial opinion, you can hand them your essay and ask them to report back after they’ve read it.

Share This Article:

8 Tips for E-commerce Copywriting Success (with Examples!)

The Brand Strategy Deck You Need to Drive Social Media Results + 5 Examples

Grammarly Alternatives: Which Writing Assistant is the Best Choice for You?

Looking for fresh content, thank you your submission has been received.

Essays on Abuse Of Power

Abuse of power in modern day society .

Antigone, a play by Sophocles includes many controversial topics. Even though this play was written numerous years ago the controversial topics are still evident in today’s society. One of the controversial topics that is discussed in Antigone that is still evident in today’s society is the abuse of power from leaders. This can be seen […]

Police: Brutality and Abuse of Power

Have police changed from one decade to the next? Police brutality has only changed in the way the abuse is viewed, but not in the way that it is committed or the motivation behind it. In the Martin Luther King era, there was acceptable police brutality in which African American citizens were blatantly assaulted, mistreated, […]

Our editors will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Abuse of Official Position

Abuse of official position refers to misconduct performed by a person in their official capacity for personal gains. Such an action can result from disloyalty. It can take many forms such as taking advantage of employees below those in power, gaining access, and using confidential information for personal gains and also manipulation of junior employees […]

Abuse of Any Kind Has a Tremendous Impact on Victims

Abuse has many definitions, but the one almost everyone’s mind goes directly towards is “cruel and violent treatment of a person or animal”. The dictionary makes abuse seem black and white, nothing but one thing, when in reality there are so many different shades of grey. Abuse is not defined by one common definition. It […]

Abuse of Power Essay

The willingness in CIA agents, the average working person, students and everyone in between to abuse their power given the situation is a shocking fact to most. Although, most people feel they could never hurt others or abuse their power, time and time again both science and history tell us otherwise. The things people are […]

Foxcatcher: Power Abuse and Unhealthy Bonds

Abusive relationships are no laughing matter and can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health, but not often do the conversations about abuse stray far from significant others or family members. One such relationship that gets widely less coverage is that of an athlete and their coaches/management. In the movie “Foxcatcher” we see an […]

Warning Signs of Abuse

Anybody could be using domestic violence , but not knowing that they are using it . Despite both men and women can be abusive, there are mostly men that are doing the abusing . Those who use violence often refuse to accept control for the abuse and attempt to explain or blame the other person […]

Police Abuse and Power

There are many people who are aware of the police brutality that is going on. Police brutality is an act of misconduct done by a member of law enforcement. They use an extreme amount of force to physically, mentally, or emotionally attack a member of society. This is a ruthless act that goes on in […]

Ethical Implications of Workplace Abuse Directed Towards

In this paper the ethical implications of culture abuse in the workplace is explored. Helen and Martin’s (2018) description of these harmful and intentional behaviors that are identified as abuse is discussed. Abuse goes beyond harassment and discrimination because the actions are unyielding and meant to intimidate and are done in a very malicious and […]

Power Is Abused in Society

Othello by William Shakespeare and Lord of the flies by William Golding are two works of fiction that both effectively demonstrate the impact on the population when power is abused in society. Othello is a respected general in the Venetian army, and his officer Iago is his ambitious comrade. Othello promotes Michael Cassio to the […]

Psychological Abuse Essay

“It is not the bruise on the body that hurts. It is the wounds of the scars on the mind”, Aisha Mirza, writer and counselor, talked this insightful statement to clarify the groundbreaking harm that mental maltreatment hangs on the human mind. Psychological abuse has numerous structures, including verbal abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, and […]

Animal Abuse and Its Role

Every day, an animal somewhere around the world is experiencing abuse. Abuse can come in the forms of verbal, physical or emotional abuse. As of 2013, a vast majority of the people in the around the world own or have owned a pet. There are approximately 75 million dogs and 80 million cats held as […]

“Trail of Tears” – a Deadly Journey

On millions of acres in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida is where over 100,000 Natives American would call home in the early 1830s. Due to white settlers who wanted to harvest cotton where the Natives were settled, the federal government would soon force Native Americans to travel thousands of miles across the Mississippi […]

When Verbal Abuse Turns Physical

Verbal abuse is one of the most dangerous types of abuse, leaving lasting emotional damage and having the potential of turning into physical violence on victims in unhealthy relationships without the means of leaving or seeking legal help. Rather than discussing a form of abuse with no obvious damage, the media prefers to show physical […]

Trauma: Childhood Sexual Abuse

Susanne Babbel, a licensed psychotherapist who practices with a trauma specialty, states that sexual abuse leads to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This continues into adulthood. In addition to this, she states that children abused at an early age often become hyper-sexualized and are more likely to abuse substances in the future. Babbel also states that children […]

Abusive Behavior at Home

Women are more at risk from violence at home than in the street. It is important to shine a spotlight on domestic violence globally and treat it as a major public health issue. Challenging the social norms that the social norms that condone and therefore perpetuate violence against women is a responsibility for us all. […]

• Link to facebook
• Link to linkedin
• Link to twitter
• Link to youtube
• Writing Tips

How to Write an Argumentative Essay

4-minute read

• 30th April 2022

An argumentative essay is a structured, compelling piece of writing where an author clearly defines their stance on a specific topic. This is a very popular style of writing assigned to students at schools, colleges, and universities. Learn the steps to researching, structuring, and writing an effective argumentative essay below.

Requirements of an Argumentative Essay

To effectively achieve its purpose, an argumentative essay must contain:

●  A concise thesis statement that introduces readers to the central argument of the essay

●  A clear, logical, argument that engages readers

●  Ample research and evidence that supports your argument

Approaches to Use in Your Argumentative Essay

1.   classical.

●  Clearly present the central argument.

●  Outline your opinion.

●  Provide enough evidence to support your theory.

2.   Toulmin

●  State your claim.

●  Supply the evidence for your stance.

●  Explain how these findings support the argument.

●  Include and discuss any limitations of your belief.

3.   Rogerian

●  Explain the opposing stance of your argument.

●  Discuss the problems with adopting this viewpoint.

●  Offer your position on the matter.

●  Provide reasons for why yours is the more beneficial stance.

●  Include a potential compromise for the topic at hand.

Tips for Writing a Well-Written Argumentative Essay

●  Introduce your topic in a bold, direct, and engaging manner to captivate your readers and encourage them to keep reading.

●  Provide sufficient evidence to justify your argument and convince readers to adopt this point of view.

●  Consider, include, and fairly present all sides of the topic.

●  Structure your argument in a clear, logical manner that helps your readers to understand your thought process.

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

●  Discuss any counterarguments that might be posed.

●  Use persuasive writing that’s appropriate for your target audience and motivates them to agree with you.

Steps to Write an Argumentative Essay

Follow these basic steps to write a powerful and meaningful argumentative essay :

Step 1: Choose a topic that you’re passionate about

If you’ve already been given a topic to write about, pick a stance that resonates deeply with you. This will shine through in your writing, make the research process easier, and positively influence the outcome of your argument.

Step 2: Conduct ample research to prove the validity of your argument

To write an emotive argumentative essay , finding enough research to support your theory is a must. You’ll need solid evidence to convince readers to agree with your take on the matter. You’ll also need to logically organize the research so that it naturally convinces readers of your viewpoint and leaves no room for questioning.

Step 3: Follow a simple, easy-to-follow structure and compile your essay

A good structure to ensure a well-written and effective argumentative essay includes:

Introduction

●  Introduce your topic.

●  Offer background information on the claim.

●  Discuss the evidence you’ll present to support your argument.

●  State your thesis statement, a one-to-two sentence summary of your claim.

●  This is the section where you’ll develop and expand on your argument.

●  It should be split into three or four coherent paragraphs, with each one presenting its own idea.

●  Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that indicates why readers should adopt your belief or stance.

●  Include your research, statistics, citations, and other supporting evidence.

●  Discuss opposing viewpoints and why they’re invalid.

●  This part typically consists of one paragraph.

●  Summarize your research and the findings that were presented.

●  Emphasize your initial thesis statement.

●  Persuade readers to agree with your stance.

We certainly hope that you feel inspired to use these tips when writing your next argumentative essay . And, if you’re currently elbow-deep in writing one, consider submitting a free sample to us once it’s completed. Our expert team of editors can help ensure that it’s concise, error-free, and effective!

Share this article:

Post A New Comment

Got content that needs a quick turnaround? Let us polish your work. Explore our editorial business services.

5-minute read

Free Email Newsletter Template (2024)

Promoting a brand means sharing valuable insights to connect more deeply with your audience, and...

6-minute read

How to Write a Nonprofit Grant Proposal

If you’re seeking funding to support your charitable endeavors as a nonprofit organization, you’ll need...

9-minute read

How to Use Infographics to Boost Your Presentation

Is your content getting noticed? Capturing and maintaining an audience’s attention is a challenge when...

8-minute read

Why Interactive PDFs Are Better for Engagement

Are you looking to enhance engagement and captivate your audience through your professional documents? Interactive...

7-minute read

Seven Key Strategies for Voice Search Optimization

Voice search optimization is rapidly shaping the digital landscape, requiring content professionals to adapt their...

Five Creative Ways to Showcase Your Digital Portfolio

Are you a creative freelancer looking to make a lasting impression on potential clients or...

Make sure your writing is the best it can be with our expert English proofreading and editing.

8 Effective Strategies to Write Argumentative Essays

In a bustling university town, there lived a student named Alex. Popular for creativity and wit, one challenge seemed insurmountable for Alex– the dreaded argumentative essay!

One gloomy afternoon, as the rain tapped against the window pane, Alex sat at his cluttered desk, staring at a blank document on the computer screen. The assignment loomed large: a 350-600-word argumentative essay on a topic of their choice . With a sigh, he decided to seek help of mentor, Professor Mitchell, who was known for his passion for writing.

Entering Professor Mitchell’s office was like stepping into a treasure of knowledge. Bookshelves lined every wall, faint aroma of old manuscripts in the air and sticky notes over the wall. Alex took a deep breath and knocked on his door.

“Ah, Alex,” Professor Mitchell greeted with a warm smile. “What brings you here today?”

Alex confessed his struggles with the argumentative essay. After hearing his concerns, Professor Mitchell said, “Ah, the argumentative essay! Don’t worry, Let’s take a look at it together.” As he guided Alex to the corner shelf, Alex asked,

Table of Contents

“What is an Argumentative Essay?”

The professor replied, “An argumentative essay is a type of academic writing that presents a clear argument or a firm position on a contentious issue. Unlike other forms of essays, such as descriptive or narrative essays, these essays require you to take a stance, present evidence, and convince your audience of the validity of your viewpoint with supporting evidence. A well-crafted argumentative essay relies on concrete facts and supporting evidence rather than merely expressing the author’s personal opinions . Furthermore, these essays demand comprehensive research on the chosen topic and typically follows a structured format consisting of three primary sections: an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.”

He continued, “Argumentative essays are written in a wide range of subject areas, reflecting their applicability across disciplines. They are written in different subject areas like literature and philosophy, history, science and technology, political science, psychology, economics and so on.

Alex asked,

“When is an Argumentative Essay Written?”

The professor answered, “Argumentative essays are often assigned in academic settings, but they can also be written for various other purposes, such as editorials, opinion pieces, or blog posts. Some situations to write argumentative essays include:

1. Academic assignments

In school or college, teachers may assign argumentative essays as part of coursework. It help students to develop critical thinking and persuasive writing skills .

2. Debates and discussions

Argumentative essays can serve as the basis for debates or discussions in academic or competitive settings. Moreover, they provide a structured way to present and defend your viewpoint.

3. Opinion pieces

Newspapers, magazines, and online publications often feature opinion pieces that present an argument on a current issue or topic to influence public opinion.

4. Policy proposals

In government and policy-related fields, argumentative essays are used to propose and defend specific policy changes or solutions to societal problems.

5. Persuasive speeches

Before delivering a persuasive speech, it’s common to prepare an argumentative essay as a foundation for your presentation.

Regardless of the context, an argumentative essay should present a clear thesis statement , provide evidence and reasoning to support your position, address counterarguments, and conclude with a compelling summary of your main points. The goal is to persuade readers or listeners to accept your viewpoint or at least consider it seriously.”

Handing over a book, the professor continued, “Take a look on the elements or structure of an argumentative essay.”

Elements of an Argumentative Essay

An argumentative essay comprises five essential components:

Claim in argumentative writing is the central argument or viewpoint that the writer aims to establish and defend throughout the essay. A claim must assert your position on an issue and must be arguable. It can guide the entire argument.

2. Evidence

Evidence must consist of factual information, data, examples, or expert opinions that support the claim. Also, it lends credibility by strengthening the writer’s position.

3. Counterarguments

Presenting a counterclaim demonstrates fairness and awareness of alternative perspectives.

4. Rebuttal

After presenting the counterclaim, the writer refutes it by offering counterarguments or providing evidence that weakens the opposing viewpoint. It shows that the writer has considered multiple perspectives and is prepared to defend their position.

The format of an argumentative essay typically follows the structure to ensure clarity and effectiveness in presenting an argument.

How to Write An Argumentative Essay

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to write an argumentative essay:

1. Introduction

• Begin with a compelling sentence or question to grab the reader’s attention.
• Provide context for the issue, including relevant facts, statistics, or historical background.
• Provide a concise thesis statement to present your position on the topic.

2. Body Paragraphs (usually three or more)

• Start each paragraph with a clear and focused topic sentence that relates to your thesis statement.
• Furthermore, provide evidence and explain the facts, statistics, examples, expert opinions, and quotations from credible sources that supports your thesis.
• Use transition sentences to smoothly move from one point to the next.

3. Counterargument and Rebuttal

• Acknowledge opposing viewpoints or potential objections to your argument.
• Also, address these counterarguments with evidence and explain why they do not weaken your position.

4. Conclusion

• Restate your thesis statement and summarize the key points you’ve made in the body of the essay.
• Leave the reader with a final thought, call to action, or broader implication related to the topic.

5. Citations and References

• Properly cite all the sources you use in your essay using a consistent citation style.
• Also, include a bibliography or works cited at the end of your essay.

6. Formatting and Style

• Follow any specific formatting guidelines provided by your instructor or institution.
• Use a professional and academic tone in your writing and edit your essay to avoid content, spelling and grammar mistakes .

Remember that the specific requirements for formatting an argumentative essay may vary depending on your instructor’s guidelines or the citation style you’re using (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago). Always check the assignment instructions or style guide for any additional requirements or variations in formatting.

Did you understand what Prof. Mitchell explained Alex? Check it now!

Fill the Details to Check Your Score

Prof. Mitchell continued, “An argumentative essay can adopt various approaches when dealing with opposing perspectives. It may offer a balanced presentation of both sides, providing equal weight to each, or it may advocate more strongly for one side while still acknowledging the existence of opposing views.” As Alex listened carefully to the Professor’s thoughts, his eyes fell on a page with examples of argumentative essay.

Example of an Argumentative Essay

Alex picked the book and read the example. It helped him to understand the concept. Furthermore, he could now connect better to the elements and steps of the essay which Prof. Mitchell had mentioned earlier. Aren’t you keen to know how an argumentative essay should be like? Here is an example of a well-crafted argumentative essay , which was read by Alex. After Alex finished reading the example, the professor turned the page and continued, “Check this page to know the importance of writing an argumentative essay in developing skills of an individual.”

Importance of an Argumentative Essay

After understanding the benefits, Alex was convinced by the ability of the argumentative essays in advocating one’s beliefs and favor the author’s position. Alex asked,

“How are argumentative essays different from the other types?”

Prof. Mitchell answered, “Argumentative essays differ from other types of essays primarily in their purpose, structure, and approach in presenting information. Unlike expository essays, argumentative essays persuade the reader to adopt a particular point of view or take a specific action on a controversial issue. Furthermore, they differ from descriptive essays by not focusing vividly on describing a topic. Also, they are less engaging through storytelling as compared to the narrative essays.

Alex said, “Given the direct and persuasive nature of argumentative essays, can you suggest some strategies to write an effective argumentative essay?

Turning the pages of the book, Prof. Mitchell replied, “Sure! You can check this infographic to get some tips for writing an argumentative essay.”

Effective Strategies to Write an Argumentative Essay

As days turned into weeks, Alex diligently worked on his essay. He researched, gathered evidence, and refined his thesis. It was a long and challenging journey, filled with countless drafts and revisions.

Finally, the day arrived when Alex submitted their essay. As he clicked the “Submit” button, a sense of accomplishment washed over him. He realized that the argumentative essay, while challenging, had improved his critical thinking and transformed him into a more confident writer. Furthermore, Alex received feedback from his professor, a mix of praise and constructive criticism. It was a humbling experience, a reminder that every journey has its obstacles and opportunities for growth.

Frequently Asked Questions

An argumentative essay can be written as follows- 1. Choose a Topic 2. Research and Collect Evidences 3. Develop a Clear Thesis Statement 4. Outline Your Essay- Introduction, Body Paragraphs and Conclusion 5. Revise and Edit 6. Format and Cite Sources 7. Final Review

One must choose a clear, concise and specific statement as a claim. It must be debatable and establish your position. Avoid using ambiguous or unclear while making a claim. To strengthen your claim, address potential counterarguments or opposing viewpoints. Additionally, use persuasive language and rhetoric to make your claim more compelling

Starting an argument essay effectively is crucial to engage your readers and establish the context for your argument. Here’s how you can start an argument essay are: 1. Begin With an Engaging Hook 2. Provide Background Information 3. Present Your Thesis Statement 4. Briefly Outline Your Main 5. Establish Your Credibility

The key features of an argumentative essay are: 1. Clear and Specific Thesis Statement 2. Credible Evidence 3. Counterarguments 4. Structured Body Paragraph 5. Logical Flow 6. Use of Persuasive Techniques 7. Formal Language

An argumentative essay typically consists of the following main parts or sections: 1. Introduction 2. Body Paragraphs 3. Counterargument and Rebuttal 4. Conclusion 5. References (if applicable)

The main purpose of an argumentative essay is to persuade the reader to accept or agree with a particular viewpoint or position on a controversial or debatable topic. In other words, the primary goal of an argumentative essay is to convince the audience that the author's argument or thesis statement is valid, logical, and well-supported by evidence and reasoning.

Great article! The topic is simplified well! Keep up the good work

Excellent article! provides comprehensive and practical guidance for crafting compelling arguments. The emphasis on thorough research and clear thesis statements is particularly valuable. To further enhance your strategies, consider recommending the use of a counterargument paragraph. Addressing and refuting opposing viewpoints can strengthen your position and show a well-rounded understanding of the topic. Additionally, engaging with a community like ATReads, a writers’ social media, can provide valuable feedback and support from fellow writers. Thanks for sharing these insightful tips!

wow incredible ! keep up the good work

I love it thanks for the guidelines

Rate this article Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Enago Academy's Most Popular Articles

• Career Corner

Academic Webinars: Transforming knowledge dissemination in the digital age

Digitization has transformed several areas of our lives, including the teaching and learning process. During…

• Manuscripts & Grants
• Reporting Research

Mastering Research Grant Writing in 2024: Navigating new policies and funder demands

Entering the world of grants and government funding can leave you confused; especially when trying…

How to Create a Poster That Stands Out: Tips for a smooth poster presentation

It was the conference season. Judy was excited to present her first poster! She had…

• Diversity and Inclusion
• Industry News

6 Reasons Why There is a Decline in Higher Education Enrollment: Action plan to overcome this crisis

Over the past decade, colleges and universities across the globe have witnessed a concerning trend…

Academic Essay Writing Made Simple: 4 types and tips

The pen is mightier than the sword, they say, and nowhere is this more evident…

How to Effectively Cite a PDF (APA, MLA, AMA, and Chicago Style)

Sign-up to read more

Subscribe for free to get unrestricted access to all our resources on research writing and academic publishing including:

• 2000+ blog articles
• 50+ Webinars
• 10+ Expert podcasts
• 50+ Infographics
• 10+ Checklists
• Research Guides

We hate spam too. We promise to protect your privacy and never spam you.

• Publishing Research
• AI in Academia
• Promoting Research
• Infographics
• Expert Video Library
• Other Resources
• Enago Learn
• Upcoming & On-Demand Webinars
• Peer Review Week 2024
• Open Access Week 2023
• Conference Videos
• Enago Report
• Journal Finder
• Enago Plagiarism & AI Grammar Check
• Editing Services
• Publication Support Services
• Research Impact
• Translation Services
• Publication solutions
• AI-Based Solutions
• Thought Leadership
• Call for Articles
• Call for Speakers
• Author Training
• Edit Profile

I am looking for Editing/ Proofreading services for my manuscript Tentative date of next journal submission:

In your opinion, what is the most effective way to improve integrity in the peer review process?

Home — Essay Samples — History — Abigail Williams — Abuse of Power in “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller

Abuse of Power in "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller

• Categories: Abigail Williams Arthur Miller The Crucible

About this sample

Words: 1469 |

Published: Sep 1, 2020

Words: 1469 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, examples of abuse of power in the crucible: abigail.

• Budick, E. M. (1985). History and other spectres in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Modern Drama, 28(4), 535-552. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/498714/summary)
• Popkin, H. (1964). Arthur Miller's" The Crucible". College English, 26(2), 139-146. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/373665)
• Gerstle, G. (2017). American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400883097/html#APA)
• Curtis, P. (1965). The Crucible. Critical Review, 8, 45. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/5dd8ecd8022057c725bea9b694347a10/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1817655)
• Bonnet, J. M. (1982). Society vs. the individual in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. English Studies, 63(1), 32-36. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00138388208598155?journalCode=nest20)

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: History Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1177 words

3 pages / 1225 words

2 pages / 686 words

1 pages / 1537 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Abigail Williams

Abigail Williams is one of the most notorious characters in Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. As the play's main antagonist, Abigail brings chaos and destruction to the community of Salem during the infamous witch trials. [...]

In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a group of teenage girls begin accusing people of witchcraft. Abigail Williams, the girl who is in charge, likes the popularity that she gains from her accusing and she is willing to [...]

Arthur Miller's timeless play, The Crucible, presents a harrowing depiction of the Salem witch trials, exploring themes of hysteria, power, and manipulation. Central to the narrative is Abigail Williams, a character whose [...]

The character of Abigail Williams is central to the plot and serves as a catalyst for the events that unfold. Abigail is a complex and dynamic character who exhibits a range of emotions and behaviors throughout the play. This [...]

“Does this dress make me look fat?” It’s a common conception; women tell each other to wear black because the contrast is slimming. Politicians run attack ads on components to make themselves look better in comparison. The [...]

In the time period of 1692, when the Puritans came to this country for religious freedom, they had a strict moral code which everyone in the village lived by. Religion was especially important. The state was founded on religion, [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free