Persuasive Essay

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Persuasive Essay

• Take out a piece of paper and take notes

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What is a persuasive essay?

• The purpose of a persuasive essay is to convince
  or persuade the audience to do something or think
  in a certain way.
• A persuasive essay gives reasons, supported by
  facts and examples, to convince an audience to
  take a specific action.

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Guidelines to follow when writing a persuasive
essay

• State your stance/goal clearly.
• Include at least three strong reasons that
  support the goal.
• Support, or elaborate, each reason with facts and
  examples.
• Anticipate possible objections and answer them
• Arrange your reasons in the most persuasive order
• Use persuasive but polite language
• End by summarizing your reasons and calling your
  audience to action.

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What do we need to think about when writing an
effective Persuasive essay?

• Audience
• Voice
• Introduction
• Supporting Paragraphs
• Conclusion

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Where do we begin?

• Read the topic
• Take a stance
• Brainstorm the issue
• Have facts or supporting details to substantiate
  your stance.

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The Problem

• At the last PTA (Parent Teacher Association)
  meeting, the following issues were discussed
• Illegal activity around our school at night
• Recent shooting near the school
• Recent vandalism of school property

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The Solution

• One way to solve the problem would be to persuade
  community leaders and the Superintendent of CPS
  by writing letters to him asking for money to buy
  the equipment needed to keep our school campus
  safe.
• What equipment do you think our school needs?

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The Prompt

• Recently, there has been an increase in violence
  and vandalism in and around our schools campus.
  Students have reported graffiti on school
  property and neighbors have reported suspicious
  activity brought about by the lack of sufficient
  lighting on the school campus at night. Write a
  persuasive essay asking community leaders to
  provide our school with the necessary tools to
  prevent violence and vandalism in and around our
  schools campus.

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Timeline

• Day 1- Go over prompt in class, brainstorm, begin
  your graphic organizer in class
• Homework Complete graphic organizer
• Day 2- Look over graphic organizer with a partner
  and conference with Ms. Moon or Mrs. Hagy
• Homework Write first draft of your essay
• Day 3- Peer edit draft one
• Homework Write second draft
• Day 4- Conference with Ms. Moon or Mrs. Hagy
• Homework Write final draft
• Day 5- Conference with Ms. Moon or Mrs. Hagy
• Homework Write final draft
• Day 6- Turn in
• Graphic Organizer, draft one, draft two and
  final draft stapled together.

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Now

• In groups, begin brainstorming, you have 10
  minutes
• What did your group come up with?
• Begin working on your graphic organizer

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Do you think people of all ages should exercise?
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Persuasive Paragraph

1. Working with groups of no more than four write a
   persuasive paragraph about why exercise is or is
   not important.
2. Generate a general statement expressing your
   point of view.
3. Include two to three strong reasons to support
   your stance.
4. Wrap it up and share with the class.

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The beginning.

• True or False people who use graphic organizers
  create a better paper. Lets talk about graphic
  organizers.
• True or False people should do additional
  research to further solidify their stance
• True or False students should write a draft,
  come back to it, revise the draft, repeat steps
  until complete.

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Next few slides deal with

• Transition Words
• Introduction
• Conclusion

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Transitional Words/Phrases

• As you proceed through your text you need to use
  transitions and links for coherence.
• Readers expect to move with ease from one
  sentence to the other and from one paragraph to
  the next
• Your document must FLOW.

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What is this?
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• Why reference a grasshopper?
• Do not force readers to grapple with grasshopper
  prose, which jumps suddenly from one idea to
  another without obvious connections.
• Your paper needs to flow.

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• Make your writing coherent, with all the parts
  connecting clearly to one another with
  transitional expressions, context links, and word
  links.

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• Use connecting words like this, that, these, and
  those to refer to something mentioned at the end
  of the previous sentence or paragraph.

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Transitional Expressions

• Adding an idea
• also, in addition, further , furthermore,
  moreover
• Contrasting
• however, nevertheless, nonetheless, on the other
  hand, in contrast, still, rather, conversely

• Showing time order
• later, subsequently, meanwhile, previously,
  finally
• Showing result
• consequently, therefore, thus, hence,
  accordingly, for this reason, as a result

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More of the same

• Affirming
• of course, in fact, certainly, obviously, to be
  sure, undoubtedly, indeed
• Giving Examples
• for example, for instance
• (Google 323,000 hits)

• Adding an aside
• Incidentally, by the way, besides
• Summarizing
• In short, generally, overall, all in all, in
  conclusion

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Last year we mentioned

• Transitional Phrases
• Page 501
• Qualifiers
• Almost, often, usually, some, maybe, most,
  probably in most cases

• Concessions
• even though, while it is true that, I agree that,
  admittedly, I cannot argue with, granted
• Transitional words
• therefore, thus, another, besides, better ,best,
  strongest

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Do not overkill the use of transitions.

• Too many of them, used too often, give writing a
  heavy and mechanical flavor.
• It is all about the flow, organization, and
  integration of your paper.

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The Introduction

• Imagine you are at a party and a random person
  walks up to you and says, Capital punishment
  (death penalty) should be abolished immediately.
  You are surprised. You wonder where this
  position came from and why you are being
  challenged with it. Maybe you think the person
  is strange, pushy, and why in the world did he
  target you.

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• Now imagine a reader picking up a piece of your
  writing.
• Just like people at a party, readers need to know
  about the issue.
• Here are a few key points

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How to Write a Good Introduction

1. Do not assume your reader knows your assigned
   prompt/topic/question.
2. Provide context and background information to set
   up your topic. Lead readers to expect a
   statement of your point of view.

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• Establish the tone from the onset of the paper
  informative, persuasive, serious, personal,
  informal.
• Engage the readers interest provide a hook
  (attention grabber) that will make the readers
  want to continue reading.

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What to Avoid

1. Avoid becoming overly general and telling readers
   the obvious, such as Crime is a big problem or
   In this fast-paced world, TV is a popular form
   of entertainment.
2. Do not refer to your writing intentions In
   this essay, I will. Do not make extravagant
   claims, such as This essay will prove that
   bilingual education works for every student.
3. Do not restate the assigned essay question.

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What is the Hook?

• Surprising statistics
• A pithy quotation
• An unusual fact
• A relevant anecdote

• A challenging question
• Interesting background details
• An intriguing opinion statement.

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Conclusion

• Think of your conclusion as completing a circle.

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• You have taken your readers on a journey from
  the presentation of the topic in your
  introduction, to your thesis, to supporting
  evidence and discussion including specific
  examples.
• Remind readers the purpose of your journey.
  Recall the main idea of the paper and make a
  strong statement about it. Leave the readers
  feeling complete with a full understanding of the
  topic.

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Key Points for a Conclusion

• Include a summary of the points you have made,
  but keep it short and use fresh wording.
• Frame your essay by reminding the reader of
  something you referred to in your introduction
  and by reminding the reader of your topic.

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1. End on a strong note a quotation, a question, a
   suggestion, a reference to an anecdote in the
   introduction, a humorous and insightful comment,
   a call to action, or a look to the future.