The premises of an argument must be stated before the conclusion. A prose argument can be stated in many ways. Only standardized arguments must have the conclusion at the end. There is no difference between an explanation and an argument. Explanations assume the truth of the 'conclusion,' while arguments do not.
Every argument contains a statement.
An argument cannot make any claims if it does not contain an argument. These arguments may be stated as rhetorical questions, but they are really statements. Arguments with wide scope must have high certainty. Scope and certainty are independent. In general, the conclusion of an argument should have lower scope and certainty than the premises, but arguments may have any degree of scope or certainty.