Write an outline for your paper. An outline will help you organize your ideas and ensure that they flow logically from one to the other. Tweak your outline a few times as you see which ideas and arguments need to be moved around to make the most sense in your paper.
Begin your paper with an introduction that sets forth your paper's topic and thesis statement as well as tells your readers why they should care about your topic and thesis at all. A thesis is a one-sentence statement of the point you are trying to convey in your paper. For example, if you are writing an argumentative paper on the merits of owning a dog, you might say, "Owning a dog is beneficial to a person's life in many ways, including improving his physical and mental health," and then go on to support this claim in the rest of your paper.
Write your most persuasive argument first, or save it for the last. Write a topic sentence that encompasses the argument in support of your thesis. Use the rest of the paragraph to support the topic sentence with details, statistics, anecdotes or other information that provides credence to your topic sentence argument. Use a transition such as "next" or "likewise" to move into your next argument in support of your thesis.
Use weaker arguments in the middle of your paper. Arguments that are read first or last are more likely to be remembered by a reader than ones that are placed in the middle.
Conclude your paper with a statement that connects your thesis and arguments to the wider world. Instead of rehashing your arguments, connect them in such a way that the reader will see their importance and how they are interwoven. Tell the reader what action he should take now that he has the information you gave in the paper. Avoid giving any new information or arguments in the conclusion as you do not have the room to fully develop either one in the conclusion.