At the college essay level, the persuasive essay is used to demonstrate your writing skills and how well you understand a topic.  In the real world, a persuasive essay can be a sales letter, a job application or even a presentation to a group of people.

The persuasive essay is constructed using a title, thesis statement, supporting paragraphs and a conclusion.  Let’s break these down a little further:

1.  Title

The title is straightforward.  What topic are you writing about?  You can be a little descriptive here to give your reader a brief overview of what you are discussing.  For example, your title heading might be “Modern Eco Friendly Housing”.  You haven’t taken a position yet but you are letting your reader know what is to come.

2.  Thesis Statement

This is a statement about what you are trying to convince your readers of.  For example, your thesis statement might be “Housing made from renewable resources have a low carbon footprint compared to traditional construction methods”.  Make your thesis statement a little controversial to emotionally involve your audience.  But only be a little controversial.  If you take the extremist point of view, you risk alienating your readers.

The thesis statement is a bait to hook your readers.  If you need help with how to write your thesis statement, then walk through your local mall or turn on the TV.  You are surrounded by them every day.  Advertising headlines are great examples of thesis statements that capture attention.

3.  Supporting Paragraphs

A persuasive essay will normally have a minimum of three supporting paragraphs.  Start each supporting paragraph with a statement that supports your main thesis.  Back up their statement with facts or testimonials from well known sources.  Facts form the foundation of your argument and allow you to act as an authority on the subject.

The key to your supporting paragraph is to remember that a fact is not debatable.  The statement you make in these paragraphs is an emotional interpretation of these facts to persuade readers.  Marketers know the best way to sell something is to use the Feature-Benefit rule.  First, identify a feature (or a fact) and then draw the reader in with the benefit they will receive by agreeing with you.  Marketers sell the sizzle, not the sausage.

For example, “Good orientation increases the energy efficiency of a home, making it more comfortable to live in and cheaper to run”.  Good orientation and energy efficiency is the feature.  But what does it mean to the house owner?  The benefit to the owner is a house that is comfortable to live in and cheaper to run.

4.  Conclusion

The last part of the persuasive essay is the conclusion.  If you are like most students, you are writing your essay just hours before it is due.  Your writing skills are fading and you just want it done.  Make a mistake here and all your effort is down the drain.  The conclusion is the call to action.  If you are selling something, then this is a real physical action such as clicking on the buy button.  In your essay, the call to action is having your reader agree with you.

Use your conclusion to remind the reader of what your thesis statement is together with your supporting facts.  Next, tell your reader what to.  If you’re selling a product, tell them to buy.  If it’s a job application, ask for the interview.

What happens if your reader does not take action?  It does not mean you have failed, it just means you have not taken into account the objections your readers have.  These are the “No’s” that you must overcome before you can get to a “Yes”.  Persuasive essays use passive argument to overcome objection.  When you first sit down to write, ask yourself what objections will your readers have to your ideas?  Now, what features and benefits can you discuss to overcome these objections?  For example –

Objection: Eco-friendly housing is expensive when compared to other designs.

Feature/Benefit: Savings in heating and cooling will quickly offset the price over just a few years.

In the paragraph above I stated that a persuasive essay uses passive argument.  This is where you focus on the features and benefits of your point of view. You do not actively discuss the opposing view.  If you are in a job interview, you don’t talk about how good the other candidates are for the job, you focus on how you can fill their needs.  If you use an active argument discussing both sides of the topic, then you are writing an argumentative essay.  Both essays are often confused and I will discuss the argumentative essay in my next article.

Looking for something different?  We have over 130 articles and videos of essays on this site.  Use the menu on the right hand side of the page to look for something else that you might be interested in.

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1.  Title
2.  Thesis
3.  Paragraph 1 with supporting facts.
4.  Paragraph 2 with supporting facts.
5.  Paragraph 3 with supporting facts.
6.  Conclusion and summary with call to action.

But try to put this theory into practice and many people stare at a blank page (or computer screen).  How do you get started?  In this article I have a couple of killer tips to write that persuasive essay.

Free Writing

No one expects you to sit down and write perfectly crafted prose on your first attempt.  Putting that expectation on yourself straight up is a sure fire way to bring on writer’s block.  If you are staring at a blank page, try free writing.

Just relax and write.  Write whatever comes into your mind about your chosen topic.  Don’t stop to edit.  Don’t even bother creating whole sentences or separate paragraphs if you don’t want to.  Just keep writing.

You can set a time limit if you want, for example, 10 minutes.  After your initial spurt of activity, read through what you have written for ideas to develop further.  All of the articles I write for this website started out as free writing.   The first few lines of free writing for this post looked like –

Starting to write … daunting process.  Theory is simple.  Title thesis  supporting paragraphs conclusion.  How do you get started … free writing … mind maps …

Your free writing might end up as points to develop further.  It might even be complete paragraphs you can use in your final composition.  If you sit down and free write for just 10 minutes, you will often end up with 300 words of good material.

Mind Maps

The second trip to getting started is a mind map.  This has helped people chunk down their problems (no, that is not a reference to beer and pizza night gone bad) for decades.  Put simply, a mind map is a diagram linking ideas on a piece of paper and is a fantastic brainstorming tool.

To start, grab a scrap piece of paper.  In the centre, write down the idea you are trying to convince your audience about.

What is the main reason they should believe you?  What benefit do you they get from siding with you?  Draw this in a box off the right and link the two.

Now list 2 or 3 facts that support your first reason.  Discuss them with a few bullet points.  Link these back to your First Reason box.  Now come up with your Second Reason and a Third Reason, each with their own supporting facts.

You know have a diagram that looks like a bit of a pyramid.  One goal, three reasons, 2 or 3 facts per reason.  Now stand back and look at what you have just created.  It might not be art, but it is an outline.  What you are trying to convince people of is your thesis statement.  Each of the reasons are the subjects for your supporting paragraphs.  And each supporting paragraph already has some facts you can use to create authority with your readers.

The essay as a whole can be a little daunting.  But break it down into manageable chunks and you are quickly on your way to writing your persuasive essay.

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You may be asking, “What do you mean by the big brother”?  Let me explain with real world examples.  An example of a persuasive essay is a sales letter or job application.  You are using features and benefits to convince the reader to take action.  It is passive persuasion – you don’t mention your competitor’s product when trying to sell your own.

The argumentative essay differs as it actively takes into account both sides of the argument.  A real life example of an argumentative essay is a lawyer defending you in court.  You need to take into account the opposing views in an argumentative essay and actively counter them.   This focus makes the argumentative essay more detailed than the persuasive essay, hence the analogy of the big brother.

As with the persuasive essay, the argumentative essay is supported by facts.  These facts are common to both sides of the argument and are not debatable.  For example, a bloody knife found at a crime scene is a known fact.  Both sides of the argument draw interpretations from these facts.  It is your role in the argumentative essay to counter the opposing argument and draw alternative conclusions that are better supported by the facts.  Lawyers use expert witnesses to give authority to their argument.   You can do the same in your essay by quoting well known sources or using testimonials.

At what audience do you aim your argumentative essay?  If you are in a court of law, you are convincing the judge or jury.  In an essay, the audience is not so well defined.  The first thing to understand is that you will not persuade everyone with your argument.  You will have the extremes in your audience that will agree or disagree with you regardless of what evidence you are presenting.  This is especially the case if you have chosen an emotive topic.    Science versus religion is a good example of this.  It is the bulk of the people in the centre who may have an opinion but are not certain of their conclusions that you are really aiming for.  What objections to your argument are they likely to have?  You need to address these in your essay to persuade them of your ideas.

In summary, the argumentative essay is the big brother of the persuasive essay as it actively focuses on both sides of the argument.  Instead of simply relying on features and benefits as with the persuasive essay, the argumentative essay is more weighted towards authority and how you can draw more supportive conclusions from the facts.

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Listen closely.  You’re going to have to come closer than that. Closer … Shhh, can you do me a favour and keep a secret?  Don’t tell anyone but I am about to reveal how pro-bloggers never run out of writing ideas!.  How they are constantly overflowing with fresh ideas and stay on the cutting edge.

Okay, enough of the theatrics (hey, I was bored …) – time to get straight to the point..  My top tip for keeping a constant flow of writing ideas for your persuasive essay to is to use Google News and Blogs.

For this exercise, head on over to google.com.  Across the top left hand side of the page you will see a menu.  I can see Web, Images, Maps, News, Video, Gmail and More.  Click on News.

If you have never been here before, this is Google’s news page.  This page will be full of news headlines and is fully customizable.  If you are looking for general writing ideas, this page is packed full of goodies.  But for this exercise I am going to assume you have a rough idea on what you want to write about.  My topic will be solar power.

Enter your chosen topic into the Google search bar and hit Search News.

The page that loads will now have a series of news articles from around the world that relate to your phrase.  By default, the articles are sorted by relevance.  You can sort by date using the choices at the top right of the page.

Scroll down the results.  Do you see anything interesting for your research?  In my results, the first 4 are –

Solar panels – beware of counterfeits (Energy Matters – Australia)
LG announces solar powered mobile (Techradar – UK)
Bharat hot on solar cookers, new energy (Times of India – India)
Dow at work on solar power shingles (Toronto Star – Canada)

It would not take you long to amass several articles that will give you some great ideas.

Another hot source of writing ideas on this page is the Google Blog search.  In the left hand side menu you will find the menu heading Blogs.  Click on this.

The Blog search is similar to the News search, but this shows recent blog entries from the web.  I can see blog entries on DIY solar and cutting coal use with solar power.  News will give you some good factual information while blogs can be more opinionated.  Both are great places to start your search.

Warning – News feeds and blogs are great places to do research.  Don’t copy what you find here as your own work.  Duplicate content filters will spot that in the blink of an eye.  What you can do is use the research as guidance.  What is your opinion on what you have read?  Write about that instead.

Photo by Terje Skjerdal

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According to Google, people just like you searched for “writing ideas” an incredible 74000 times world wide last month.  That’s a staggering number and means they ended up at Google because they have absolutely no idea what to write about.  Stuck for ideas?  Come on, it’s not that hard.  I am about to share with you my best tip for finding socially interesting topics to write about that will save you hours of agony.

Open your browser and head over to www.digg.com  Now, if you are under 30 and know how to turn a computer on, then there is a good chance you don’t need me to explain what social bookmarking is.  So just slip on the ipod headphones for a minute while I give a short and simple definition for the rest of my readers.

For everyone else, www.digg.com is what we call a social bookmarking site.  Have you ever found a site that interests you and added it to your favorites in Internet Explorer?*  It makes it easy to come back to because you like the site.

Well, the internet is a global community.  If you like the site, then do you think other people might want to know about it too? Instead of adding it to your favorites on your computer, you can do it on a social bookmarking site so other people can see it.  If they agree and like it too, they can vote on the article.  Go to www.digg.com and you can see the most popular stories at the moment.

Just about any article on the front page is a good place to start your search for writing ideas.  Scroll down and see what interests you.  At the time of writing, I can see –

Samsung launches solar-powered phone.
Man gets 20 weeks in jail for whistling.
Casinos on alert for card counters using iPhones
NASA’s 10 greatest achievements

If you are free to write about anything, then it will only take a few seconds for some great ideas.  If you have a range of topics to keep to, use the search function at the top of the page.

Want some extra credit?  Remember it is the controversial topics that get attention.  Scroll down the front page articles.  What has the most comments?  If an article has 800 diggs (votes) and 30 comments, then it may be a little conservative.  If it has 600 diggs and 400 comments, then that is a hot topic to write about.

* Now don’t send me hate mail because I mentioned Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, Flock etc etc.  If someone does not know what social bookmarking is, then I would bet 99% of the time they are using IE.

Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Persuasive-Essay-Guide/137034543039232

If you find it useful, just hit the Like button to say thanks when you are there.

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The link to grab the guide is here.

If the link does not work, then just type in www.persuasiveessayguide.com/dl/map.pdf into your browser.

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As your child grows through the years, there are several critical learning landmarks.  The first few are learning to speak and learning to walk.  Next, they will learn to read.  The last critical landmark in learning through early childhood is learning to write. Whilst your child becomes more aware of the world around him, and begins to learn the basics of expressing one’s self in society, writing forms an integral part of the education process, and must be encouraged throughout your child’s ongoing development to promote intellectual stimulation and a thirst for knowledge. In this article we will look at some of the most effective methods to teach and enhance your child’s writing abilities, and the impact this can have on future development.

Learning to write is an important first step in encouraging creativity amongst children. Creativity is immensely important in education, as the parent of innovation and quick thinking. By providing a means to channel the creativity necessary to breed intelligence, i.e. writing, you are giving your child an immensely valuable problem solving tool, and allowing expression and natural intellectual development to take its course. Through promoting a culture of writing, and importantly writing correctly both grammatically and spelling-wise, your child will become more proficient at reading, which again is essential to breed an intelligent and rational thought process with an understanding of concepts and ideas throughout the process of education.

One of the main ways to encourage your child to write is to combine it with the process of learning to read. As you teach your child to read and pronounce the written word, encourage him or her also to pick up a pencil and form the letters and shapes she is reading. By linking the two together, you can build bridges between the various aspects of intelligence required for each to create a more rounded picture of the fundamentals of education. This should allow your child to progress more steadily through both disciplines, to the benefit of his overall education.

Another good way of teaching your child through the learning to write process is by making writing a game. Call out words and ask the child to write the phonetically. Go through with your child afterwards and discuss each word, getting the child to read it back. Then, provide your child with the correct spelling of the word and explain the sounds to him. Play the game again with the same words and offer rewards and praise for each correct answer. By doing this kind of routine with your child, you can provide structured learning for long term progress through learning to write and read.

Teaching your child how to write is the first step in encouraging independent thought and learning. It is important to understand that the quicker your child embraces literacy in all forms, the more able he or she will be to adapt within an education environment to new concepts and new ideas, progressively as they become more complex and in-depth. By allowing your child to develop the means to express themselves, you create channels for creativity and learning that will stay with your child throughout their life, to the benefit of their intellectual development.

Contributing author – Source.   Image shown under creative commons share alike licence – Source.

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A reflective essay as its name suggests,  focuses on reflection and gentle consideration of the topic.  This is a form of essay writing in which you put down your thoughts. It is quite a flexible form of writing, but there are some general rules that you should stick to. You will have a general layout for your essay, which includes an introduction, a main body and a conclusion. An interesting aspect of reflective essay writing is that you and your reader may benefit by what you reflect on.

Your reflective essay may discuss a course taught at college. Your teacher will read whatever you put down. This can be advantageous to you as well as your teacher because you can express your positive and negative thoughts about what you have learned and the manner in which it was taught. In your essay, some of your thoughts may include your descriptions of what you enjoyed in a course along with descriptions of your teacher’s teaching style. You can also include the parts that you did not find interesting. Your teacher will take note of this area. Perhaps some solution could be achieved through this, as your teacher might work to make a less interesting area of a course more stimulating in future. Therefore, future students of the same course will benefit from what you write.

Reflective essay writing is something that you will do throughout your education. If you happen to become a teacher, you will need to write many more essays. This is because reflective essay writing is an important self-assessment tool for students as well as teachers. Through this form of writing you come to know a lot more about how much you have gained through your course work.

When you get down to writing your essay, there are few points you need to keep in mind. You should remember that your introduction is used for describing or explaining the background of your course. You also need to mention your role in the course you describe, along with the reasons you had for selecting it. If your essay is based on a project you have worked on, you need to mention your goals for further developing the project.

In your reflective essay body paragraphs, you will need to describe the process you used for working on your project. You need to describe this process from its starting point to the end stages. Your essay should reveal detail about strong and weak points in your coursework or project. You also need to share your positive and negative experiences, as well as your feelings about working with others.

For concluding your essay, there are few important points you need to consider. You need to determine whether or not you have achieved your goals. You also need to think about what you would like to change in your course work or project. Maybe you will not benefit from this change, but other students will have a chance to do so. In your conclusion, you should think about the expertise you have gained and how you would apply it in your professional life.

Contributing Author – Source.  Image (creative commons share alike) – Source.

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It’s the title.

A title is like a flashing neon sign.  They have to grab attention.  Think about it – in the digital age there is so much information competing for attention.  Your article does not get special preference – it has to compete just as hard to be read.

When asked this question, author Steve Gillman said that digital article titles have to do more than those in the print world. In a print magazine, you just need to catch the attention of the reader. The title doesn’t really even have to tell the reader what the article is about, since the magazine it is in will be on a specific subject area. Readers know that if it is in a fishing magazine it about a fishing-related topic.

In an online article, on the other hand, the title has to tell the potential reader what the article is about. He may see nothing but the title in the search engine results, and if he doesn’t know what it’s about, he’s likely to just click on the next link. Online article titles have to be found in the search engines as well, meaning they have to have keywords in them that people are looking for. Of course, just like print articles, they should also catch the reader’s attention.

My Best Article Titles

Sometimes you can do all three of these things pretty well in one article. An example is my article titled “Cheap Homes In Nice Towns.” You know what the article is about, it is okay as an attention grabber (not great), and “cheap homes” is a keyword that many people search for each month. At one of the article directories I have submitted it to, it has been read over 17,000 times – more than double the traffic of any of the other 550 articles I have there (many have been read only a couple hundred times).

However, in checking the number of times my various articles have been viewed at this directory, I have often been surprised – enough so to remind me that “rules” are only guidelines. For example, two of the most-read articles I have there are “Remove Permanent Marker From Carpet,” and “How To Get Candle Wax Out Of Carpet” (about 6,000 times each).

These are not attention-grabbing titles, but they are also not topics covered well on the Internet. Obviously there is something to be said for utilitarian articles with good keywords that are not too competitive. Add easy-to-compete-for keywords to the list of things to try for in an article title.

In the top five for visits are the article titles, “Really Cheap Plane Tickets,” (6,400) and “Cheap International Plane Tickets” (10,050). A promise of a way to save money seems to be a good bet. My article “Worry – Five Ways To Eliminate It,” has been viewed 3,300 times, but it is fairly new, making it the most views per month by far. I suppose worry is a common enough problem that people need a solution to.

Article titles that promise to help with a problem work, then. So do those that promise to teach the reader something new, and those that are directly targeting the keywords they are searching. What else can make for a good article title?

- Ask a question: “Do You Make This Writing Mistake?”

- Tell them they can do something: “You Can Write A Better Title Today”

- Promise some value: “Ten Ways You Can Make More Money”

- Use the words “how to”: “How To Overcome Writer’s Block”

- Involve them with a story: “You Quit Your Job – Now What?”

Watch the reports (at the article directories and on your web sites) and try to learn from them. Of course those statistics for “views” I mention above only tell me how many times people started to read my articles. Did they finish the articles? Did they then click through to my web sites? There is more to good online writing than good article titles.

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