What is Persuasive Writing?

What is persuasive writing?

Persuasive writing is a written form of an oral debate and can be a fun and interesting style of writing for students.

Persuasive writing is used to convince or persuade a reader that the writer’s opinion of a topic or cause is correct. When writing persuasive essays students need to be well versed in word selection, framing logical arguments and creating a strong cohesive closing argument.

Why is persuasive writing important?

For students, persuasive writing can be a wonderful means of expressing their views about a subject. It is a way to tap into what students are passionate about and give them the opportunity to do research on subjects that they are interested in. This helps students be more involved in their class work.

Engaging in persuasive writing also helps students improve skills such as different styles of writing, writing structure, doing research, and forming evidence based logical conclusions, opinions and arguments.

Teaching persuasive writing

Teachers can introduce this form of writing in the classroom by first teaching the fundamentals of persuasive writing. Teachers can provide examples of persuasive writing such as excerpts from newspapers or audio-clips of speeches or lectures. Encourage students to engage in debates or speeches to understand the internal techniques they use when persuading an audience. Teachers should also teach students key elements and the format for writing a persuasive argument such as:

• Using Persuasive Words: These include words and phrases that are used for persuading the reader. Examples include- “for this reason, because, I believe, as evidence shows” etc. Have a list of these words and phrases displayed so that students can easily use them when writing persuasive essays.
• Including the Elements of Persuasive Writing: The entire writing is broken down into basic elements which include:

1. An Introduction: This is an opening statement or paragraph that clearly states the position of the writer on a certain topic.
2. Body: This forms the volume of the persuasion and includes an argument along with at least three evidences supporting each argument.
3. Conclusion: This is a strong and cohesive summary restating the topic and position as well as summarizing the arguments.

Persuasive writing assignment

Choose a topic:

Once the basic elements of persuasive writing have been taught, identify a topic or create guidelines for students to choose their own topic.Allowing them to choose their topic will help increase students’ passion for arguing the case.

Brainstorm:

Give students time to brainstorm and think about their opinion on their subject before they research. Students can be given a Persuasion Map (a pictorial representation of the elements- introduction, evidence 1,2,3 with examples, facts or data and conclusion) to organize their ideas before writing. Once they brainstorm they should also be given ample time to research their topic and gather information to support their opinion or argument.

Write:

Students can be given stages to complete their writing. For example the first assignment could be to create a persuasion map. The next assignment could be to create an outline and so on. Once the final draft is finished the students could be paired with a partner for peer review. This gives students the opportunity to analyze another student’s work while also learning about another topic or issue.

Persuasive writing can therefore help students understand the power of the written word and practice using their voice to influence positive change around them.

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