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.

Photo by Umjanedoan

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Tip 1: sound pleasant and conversation like.
If one talks down to their audience and scares them into buying their pitch, the audience will surely be quite turned off. A positive tone is essential to a good persuasive essay.

Tip 2: the essay needs to be backed up by sources proving your point. It is a good idea to say “according to this book or website” to prove a valid point. Without proper sources, your audience may not think you are a credible writer.

Tip 3: pitch the idea to your audience, also known as a “sales pitch”.
The reference to “sales” is to get your point across so your audience would buy your product if you were selling it, metaphorically speaking.

Tip 4: compare it to something else. To be thoroughly persuasive, you may want to compare your idea with another for contrast.
You now should know how to write a persuasive essay.

Conclusion:

Your conclusion is vitally important as it is the ending to your essay and leaves your audience with a summing up of everything you just talked about.

Tip 1: sum up the main points of what you talked about in your essay.

Tip 2: a sentence or two restating why they should do what you want them to do.

Tip 3: make the tone of your conclusion clear and concise, like the rest of your essay.

Tip 4: End the conclusion (as well as your entire paper) with a good, punchy line to wrap it all up.
You also should include a tagline (a sentence of uniqueness), which will help the audience remember your essay. A call of action statement also is appropriate in a conclusion as it gives a justification for everything you are talking about.

Body:

When learning how to write an essay knowing how to write the body is very important. The body of the essay is the bulk of the essay and should be the most detailed.

Tip 1: make each point consistent. All paragraphs in the body should have a clear tone and be equally backed up by sources.

Tip 2: be certain to highlight all points you want to be clear on, which should be almost everything. Any details worth mentioning should be emphasized in great depth.

Tip 3: sources and quotations should be used properly. However, only quote a small part of the content and paraphrase the rest.

Tip 4: Make each paragraph well-thought out to master how to write a persuasive essay. Each paragraph should be the same amount of content as the others in the essay. Edit out unnecessary information if need be.

Source

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“Rhetoric is the art of discovering, in a particular case, the available means of persuasion.”
–Aristotle

Every single human requires the art of persuasion at some point in their lives. As a child, one might use persuasion for the attainment of a toy or as an adult for the acquiring of other objects. A person here might whine, throw tantrums, but this behavior never seems to attain what is wanted by the person and just makes things worst.

What one needs here is persuasion as it is the only method that can be pursued by one to achieve what he wants. According to definition, “Persuasion is a form of influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not only logical) means. It is a problem-solving strategy and relies on “appeals” rather than force”.

Techniques

It is to be noted here that when writing an essay, a person needs to use persuasion so as to make people conform to the ideas that he or she presents in his essay. To write a persuasive essay, first of all the writer needs to have an argument. The argument has to be one-sided and the other side of the argument or the opposite answer is disregarded, but another fact is that a persuasive essay is never related to the pros and cons of the topic, but general facts related to its factuality. According to sources, “It can’t be a fact. If you were to choose as your topic, “Vipers are dangerous,” you wouldn’t have to persuade anyone of that. However, if your topic was, “Vipers should be eliminated from the animal kingdom,” then you would have presented an opinion that could be debated. Your persuasive essay will focus on only one side–your chosen side–of the argument. This will not be a pros-and-cons essay. Also, it won’t be a personal opinion essay. You must be prepared to back up your logic with evidence collected in research that supports your position”.

Persuasion requires technique.  No one would believe anything said by another until and unless he or she is persuaded into believing it. Persuasion can be done by certain methods.

Evidence

First of all evidence is required so as to support the claim made by the writer in the essay. The evidence cannot be general statements but have to be valid with good sources. Apart from evidence, persuasion needs to be sequential with one fact of the topic leading to the other for the betterment of the reader, as this would help him or her in understanding the topic as well as the claim. For example, if one is writing an essay on the above mentioned statement that is, “Vipers should be eliminated from the animal kingdom,” the writer needs to begin by the dangers posed by the vipers and then move on to numerical data as to how much disaster is caused by them and then carry this argument forward.

Introduction of Controversial Issues

In the essay, the writer should also bring forth a general introduction to the issues that are against the topic at hand. This would lead to a negation of the controversial topic and would help the reader into conforming with the arguments as well as to understand the whole topic.

Conclusion

In the light of the above-mentioned statements, we can hereby conclude that persuasion is an art that is used by everyone at some point in their lives. It is necessary to note that persuasion plays a major role in an essay, which is related to a certain debatable argument. Persuasion requires some techniques, which have been mentioned above.

Contributing author – Source.  Image shown under creative commons share alike licence – Source.  This photographer is both brilliant and prolific.  If you like photography, check his work out.

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The good news is that principles of writing a persuasive essay are the same as giving a speech.  You still have an introduction, issues about the topic to discuss and a conclusion.  What may be difficult is what topic you will choose to talk about if it is not assigned.  Not only do you have to demonstrate good literary skills, you have to entertain 20 or 30 people.

To make this job a little easier, here are more than 70 topics you can research for your next presentation -

1. Human rights
2. Smoking/drugs
3. Family problems e.g. divorce
4. Freedom of speech
5. Aids
6. Gambling
7. Parental rights
8. Children’s rights
9. Women’s rights
10. Cost of higher education
11. Emigration/relocation
12. Child abuse
13. Marriage as an institution
14. Capital punishment
15. Gay rights
16. Rape
17. Prisons
18. Crime and violence
19. Education
20. The media
21. Racial prejudice
22. Social justice
23. Law and order
24. Prostitution
25. Green movement
26. Endangered species
27. Deforestation
28. Pollution
29. Vivisection (animal abuse)
30. Greenhouse effect
31. Toxic waste
32. Nuclear accidents
33. Zoos
34. Poaching
35. Game parks
36. Overpopulation
37. Pop culture – music, fashion
38. Book reviews
39. Musical instruments
40. Subject matter of music lyrics
41. Musicians
42. Movie stars
43. Award ceremonies
44. Theatre
45. Digital systems e.g. home theatre, photography
46. Music
47. Television programs
48. Movies
49. Dancing
50. Stage
51. Ballet
52. National pride
53. Fairy tales
54. Proverbs
55. Love
56. Marriage
57. Weddings
58. Superstitions
59. Music
60. Poetry
61. Opera
62. Drama
63. Comedy
64. Value of computers in education
65. The Internet – pros and cons
66. Chat lines/newsgroups
67. Bill gates & Microsoft
68. Computers vs. print
69. Terrorism
70. Information super highway
71. Email as a means of communication
72. Computer literacy

These are broad topics to get you started.  First, pick one that interests you and start to narrow it down.  Start with some basic research – is there any current social issues about that topic for you to talk about? Try and find a topic that your audience willl find interesting.  For example, take the topic “terrorism” – you could narrow this down to the question of “What is a terrorist and what is a freedom fighter?”.

Contributing author -Source Image shown under creative commons share alike - Source

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Your could write it.  Or you could type it.

Do you even remember what an 80′s typewriter looked like.  I am going to guess no.  Technology has changed a lot in the last two decades.  You have streaming media, mp4, flash animation … the list goes on.  But there is a downside to have access to technology – you are expected to use it.  Previous generations were expected to hand in 1000 words on white paper.  Today, you are expected to embrace the different forms of media.  Here is a good example how the visual can have as much impact as the written word -

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To illustrate, here is a persuasive video.  It uses the old addage of a picture is worth a thousand words.  It is light on the actual word content, but instead relies on images to generate an emotional response from the viewer.  Some heavy metal music as a background track also highlights the emotional state the author wants you to be in.

I hope this inspires you to learn -

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Brief History Of The Poker Chip

The poker chip has an old and interesting history, almost as interesting as the game itself. It wasn’t an original component of poker, but as the game became very popular and began to spread, the chips were created more out of necessity than anything else, sometime around the 1870s or 1880s. What prompted the introduction of the original clay chips was the need to standardize the way players placed bets and calculated their winnings. There was too much uncertainty when they were able to use random valuables like coins or gold flakes.

However, it wasn’t simply a matter of every player or gambling establishment changing to a uniform type of poker chips right away. Even though chips eventually became the recognized medium of exchange in poker games, they came in literally hundreds of designs and very different materials. Some might have been made of bone or ivory, for example. A player’s custom poker chips could have been as diverse and unique as the player they belonged to. Yet with nothing being uniform, players could sneak their own chips into a game and end up wealthier at the end than their play might have warranted.

Casinos soon took the new chips of clay to another level, custom designing them so that any specific set of chips could only belong to one casino. Before long, each establishment developed its own particular mix of clay and ceramic materials for the chips, and began adding other identifying patterns on the finished product. Casino poker chips became as individualized and specialized as the separate casinos themselves. For about fifty years, straddling the 19th and 20th centuries, the casino-specific poker chip made from these patented formulas held sway.

Ironically though, as the game has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, the poker chip has in some ways returned back to a more generic form. With the advent of chip sets for home use, creating individual sets with their own specific molds would be too expensive, so any individualization of these cheaper plastic sets is all done with surface decoration. As things stand now, there’s a branching in the history of poker chips, between home sets and the more custom designed and specialized casino chip. Where the history will go next is anyone’s guess.

This article comes courtesy of Rene Lacape is a seasoned insurance agent and poker lover.

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Sometimes however, I have to shake my head in disbelief at the quality of the work.  No, thats a lie.  The majority get assigned to the trash bin.  But instead of deleting today’s contribution,  I thought Iwould turn it into a test case on what to do if you like to fail.

Here is the article title I recieved -

Why BaByliss Nano Titanium Flat Irons is Good

First, lets chat about the obvious mistake.  Should you use a plural followed by “is”?  Which reads better – Why BaBliss Nano Titanium Flat Irons Is Good … or Why BaBliss Nano Titanium Flat Irons Are Good.

Now English is a language that will let you take many liberties in form and structure.  I know my article here will be packed with them.  But the title is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE in an article.  Get it wrong and your tutor will start warming up the FAIL pen.

What else can you pick up in the title?  I read it and thought – “was the author stoned when he wrote this?”.  Where are the catchy benefits to get me to read?  How about -

Hit 10 Yards Further With BaByliss Nano Titanium Flat Irons

Can BaByliss Nano Titanium Irons Improve Your Game?

After reading the title my mouse pointer was hovering over the delete button as I continued into the first paragraph.  Here it is -

“A flat iron, alternatively known as hair straightener and straightening iron, has come a long way since its start during the late 1800s. In fact, flat irons have now developed the concept of hair styling, and they are more than just a tool to make straight your hair and can be used to test a spectrum of hair styles such as curling, flipping, and creating waves. However, the good functioning of a flat iron depends upon the type of material used for the making of its plates. Best part of the top end flat irons are made from resources such as ceramic and tourmaline. Now there is an advance for ceramic and tourmaline flat irons in the form of Titanium Flat Irons.”

Why does this fail?  Think about it for a second.

Is the article about golfing products or hair straighteners?  I am not too sure as it lacks direction.  The words just aimlessly wander the page.  If the title is the slap in the face to get attention, then the first paragraph sets the scene.  As a reader I want to know what the article is about.  And importantly, what entices me to read the other 4 or 5 paragraphs.  The biggest mistake here is the hero of the article (titanium flat irons) is the last point to be mentioned in the article.  Make it the first.  Grab your readers and let them know what journey they are signing up for.  Sure, create intruige.  But don’t leave it until all your readers have left to do it.

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Techniques

It is to be noted here that when writing an essay, a person needs to use persuasion so as to make people conform to the ideas that he or she presents in his essay. To write a persuasive essay, first of all the writer needs to have an argument. The argument has to be one-sided and the other side of the argument or the opposite answer is disregarded, but another fact is that a persuasive essay is never related to the pros and cons of the topic, but general facts related to its factuality. According to sources, “It can’t be a fact. If you were to choose as your topic, “Vipers are dangerous,” you wouldn’t have to persuade anyone of that. However, if your topic was, “Vipers should be eliminated from the animal kingdom,” then you would have presented an opinion that could be debated. Your persuasive essay will focus on only one side–your chosen side–of the argument. This will not be a pros-and-cons essay. Also, it won’t be a personal opinion essay. You must be prepared to back up your logic with evidence collected in research that supports your position” (Covert, p.1).
Persuasion requires techniques. No one would believe anything said by another until and unless he or she is persuaded into believing it. Persuasion can be done by certain methods.

Evidence

First of all evidence is required so as to support the claim made by the writer in the essay. The evidence cannot be general statements but have to be valid with good sources. Apart from evidence, persuasion needs to be sequential with one fact of the topic leading to the other for the betterment of the reader, as this would help him or her in understanding the topic as well as the claim. For example, if one is writing an essay on the above mentioned statement that is, “Vipers should be eliminated from the animal kingdom,” the writer needs to begin by the dangers posed by the vipers and then move on to numerical data as to how much disaster is caused by them and then carry this argument forward.

Introduction of Controversial Issues

In the essay, the writer should also bring forth a general introduction to the issues that are against the topic at hand. This would lead to a negation of the controversial topic and would help the reader into conforming with the arguments as well as to understand the whole topic.

Conclusion

In the light of the above-mentioned statements, we can hereby conclude that persuasion is an art that is used by everyone at some point in their lives. It is necessary to note that persuasion plays a major role in an essay, which is related to a certain debatable argument. Persuasion requires some techniques, which have been mentioned above.

Article Source.

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