argument

Reasons offered to support a claim.

An argument is a set of statements in which one or more of them (the premises) are intended to support another (the conclusion). A passage counts as an argument because of what it is trying to do, even if its reasons are poor.

Examples

"The roads are icy, so the buses will run late" is an argument.
"The buses ran late because the roads were icy" is usually an explanation, not an argument.