An argumentative essay

 addressing the following topic:
Avolio, Walumbwa and Weber’s (2009) review article brings to light a vast number of gaps in our knowledge of leadership. They submit that even the most basic questions remain unanswered such as whether a leader is born or made. They cite biological studies in support of the notion that leaders are born. They propose that “life context” is more important than genes and they also find that studies addressing the latter fail to differentiate a born leader from a taught one because all leaders involved in the interventions they reviewed showed improvement.
In light of this and other evidence, are we asking the wrong questions about leadership? Is there a case for leaders being self-made or even emergent?
Using the above article as the basis for your essay, along with relevant theory and concepts relating to leadership development in other articles/texts, you are required to argue for or against the belief that leaders are born or self-made.
The specific stance that you take must be supported with refernces to academic literature and research. You should refer to these sources using the Harvard Referencing style.
An argumentative essay requires you to develop a perspective on a topic and defend it. Usually there is no right or wrong answer so the ability to argue your viewpoint becomes critical to your mark. You are required to use research to define your thesis statement and present the facts in an orderly fashion as you see them - all of which lead to an inevitable
conclusion (as you would want the reader to come to).
Argumentative essays need to be written in “third person” – to appear objective you need to take yourself, as the author, and also the reader out of the equation, this means not using “I”, “me” (or first person) and “us”, “we” (or second person). Another reason for following this convention is some readers may so object to being openly co-opted or coerced to your point of view, that in the end they express their displeasure at your presumption by disagreeing with your viewpoint entirely.
Structure
The introduction in an argumentative essay should have links between the topic and an outcome; could contain a question; should state a counter-argument to your viewpoint and contain your viewpoint. It should not have supporting evidence for your viewpoint nor a solution.
The body of the essay should address key issues and provide supporting evidence (i.e. references to academic articles; research theory). Where a key issue and evidence can run over a few paragraphs, one paragraph should not contain more than one issue or provide supporting evidence for more than one issue. It is a good idea to re-state your position throughout the essay as it is easy for readers to forget your particular position or argumentative stance.
The conclusion should mirror the introduction, re-state key issues raised in the body, and offer a solution or suggestion.