What is Persuasive Writing and how can you Teach it in the Classroom?

Use simple steps to understand persuasive writing and facilitate it in your classroom. These tips will make persuasive communication simple.

In Persuasive writing the writer tries to influence action or thought by presenting an opinion and various facts, statements and examples to validate the opinion. The student is encouraged to take a stand on the subject either ‘for or against it’ and present an argument to win over the reader.

Why is it necessary to teach persuasive writing?

Persuasive writing, being analytical in its nature stimulates and improves students’ thinking and writing skills and encourages them to be selective in their word choices. It also teaches how to build a logical argument and summarize it. It develops their researching abilities and demonstrates the influence of an opinion on one’s thoughts or actions. Comprehension of this vital relation can help students understand the amount of persuasive opinions they are subjected to everyday.

Teaching persuasive writing in the classroom

Students can be taught the method of persuasive writing by following these 4 simple steps:

Preparation

Students are instructed to choose their position, understand the audience they are writing for, research and collect evidence that supports their position. They should also plan out the outline for their persuasive essay at this stage.

Typically the essay will contain at least three paragraphs; the first being the Introductory paragraph, introducing the topic and their position. The second paragraph forms the Body in which the argument along with their evidence is stated. As a third paragraph, students are instructed to write a Summary, summarizing the key evidences.

First Draft

While drafting their persuasive writing essay, students should be given this outline in order to aid their writing.

* Introduction: The use of ‘hooks’ in the introductory paragraph grabs the attention of the reader. This is usually a shocking fact or story. It is important to make sure their stance on the topic is made clear towards the end of the introduction paragraph.

* Body: Here it is best to present each new evidence in a new paragraph and use creative methods of introducing them like using analogies, comparisons or hypothesis. Students should assume that the reader’s lack an in-depth knowledge of the topic and thereby provide definitions, descriptions or backgrounds if needed.

* Conclusion: The summary should mention the strongest evidence and urge the reader to take the same stance. A strong closing statement in the form of a request, prediction or a question should be given to stimulate and influence the reader’s actions.

Revising

The third step is revising the draft. This helps students identify if any information is missing, make the necessary changes or add or delete anything. This stage is important in ensuring that the essay or paper is cohesive and presents a clear strong argument.

Once the draft is reviewed for its contents, students can proceed to edit their essay for grammatical and spelling errors. When all is done, the student will make the final draft and turn in their work to the teacher.

More Tips for teaching persuasive writing in the classroom:

* Read aloud other persuasive writing essays to help students understand the concept.

* Introduce a topic as a group activity, pick a prevalent topic easily available in newspapers and instruct students to list at least three evidences. This allows them to brainstorm together and correct their work collectively.

* Help students differentiate between facts and opinions by using a Fact vs. Opinion checklist.

* Use a persuasive prompt: a persuasive statement or topic can help generate student responses.

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