Today let’s take a look at some ways we can develop an argument.
I’m not talking about arguing, mind you. 😉
What I mean is showing and defending your ideas.
This can be useful both in writing and speaking.
1. Sharing your own opinion.
You can start talking about what you think by saying “In my opinion”, but here are a few alternatives:
1) As far as I’m concerned…
We can start with as far as I’m concerned when people ask us how we feel about the situation or a certain someone. It’s a signal that our opinion could be different from other people’s opinions.
2) The way I see it
Similarly to in my opinion, we use the way I see it to indicate that this is just an opinion of ours.
2. Using reason
When we want to say what exactly made us do something, we can use
That’s the reason I…
When I started teaching English, I didn’t think that so many people had problems with it, but after seeing how people struggled with it I wanted to help them. That’s the reason I started making my own materials.
When writing about an issue, another way to support your ideas is by giving reasons for this issue.
There are several reasons for this: 1) … 2) … 3) …
Or, if you only have one reason, here’s another way to express yourself:
The main reason for this is…
3. Using argue
Yes, I remember that I said we weren’t going to argue, but if you talk or write about something and want to present an idea that not everybody supports, one way to do that is to start with:
Some people argue that…
If this idea is something you don’t agree with as well, you can give reasons why it’s wrong by using but or however (in writing).
Alternatively, you can change people to it:
It is argued that…
Let’s see if this is easy to understand by doing a few exercises:
I left a few questions for you in the second activity.
I hope you’ll share your opinion with us in the comments section and I’ll see you next week! 🙂