Advantages and Disadvantages Essay

The advantages and disadvantage essay is a type of argumentative essay where you enlist both the advantages (positive aspects) and disadvantages (negative aspects) of any topic. However, in this type of essay, you not only present the advantages and disadvantages but also determine your stand and present the stand with clarity.

In this type of essay, there is no right and wrong answer, instead there are multiple perspectives that need to explored. Once these perspectives are explored, you need to evaluate these perspectives and present your unique viewpoint.

While writing an advantages and disadvantages essay, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind.

1. The topic needs to be debatable: The very first step while writing an advantages and disadvantages essay is that you need to choose a topic that is debatable. This would help you to present a balanced number of advantages and disadvantages.

2. Balancing advantages and disadvantages: When you start writing the advantages and disadvantages essay, you  need to provide a balance between the points for advantages and disadvantages. Remember, you aren’t just making a pros essay or a cons essay. Instead, you’re presenting a well-considered analysis of both sides of an argument. In fact, the balance should be such that the reader should not be able to tell which side the author favours from just the advantages and disadvantages.

3. Research your topic: Once you have selected your topic or have been assigned a topic by your teacher, you need to look for reliable sources to develop your essay. It is recommended that you start your research with an open-mind. This means that you should not hold pre-conceived notions about any topic. For example, if you choose a topic, say "having only one language in the world", you would refer to educational websites, journals and even encyclopaedias. Moreover, Google Scholar is also a great source of information for credible academic articles.

4. Brainstorming the advantages and disadvantages: During your research, it is a good practise to categorise your points by advantages or disadvantages. This does not need to be an organised list, but should be freeform writing.

5. Creating an outline: Now that you have all the advantages and disadvantages enlisted, it is now time to create an outline and organise your points. This could be done by sorting all advantages first, followed by all disadvantages, or if your advantages and disadvantages relate to each other, you can sort them that way. Here’s an example:

1. Introduction 

• • Hook
  • Thesis Statement

2. Paragraph 1 - Acting 

• • Pro: Can expand acting career after wrestling

• • Con: May be typecast into physical/action roles

3. Paragraph 2 - Fitness 

• • Pro: Have to stay physically fit

• • Con: Often leads to injuries

4. Paragraph 3 - Fans 

• • Pro: Entertaining the masses

• • Con: Fooling some fans into thinking the drama is real and that stunts are not planned

5. Conclusion

• • Summary

• • Tied-up loose ends

6. Writing an Introductory paragraph: In my example outline, you’ll notice two things under the introduction section—the hook and the thesis statement. The hook gets your readers’ attention and makes them want to learn more. The thesis statement explains your position on the topic and gives a brief preview of your body paragraphs.

7. Fill out the details in your outline: Writing your body paragraphs should be fairly straightforward, to write your body paragraphs all you need is to do is expand the ideas in your outline. This process needs making paragraphs that only flow from sentence to sentence within paragraphs, but also between each paragraph.

8. Write your conclusion: You’re almost there. All you need to do is write your conclusion. A good conclusion will do two things: briefly summarize your main points (without restating the thesis statement) and tie up any loose ends.