Want to know how to write a persuasive essay, so you can convince your audience to change their attitudes, values, or beliefs to match your own?
If you need help writing an essay from real academic experts, we asked our friends from WriteMyPaperHub to share some tips to show you how to master writing a persuasive essay.
Every persuasive essay has to persuade someone. But they don’t all try to persuade the same people. You want to make sure you know who you are writing for, so you can tailor your argument to their interests, needs, and values.
With this in mind, you need to evaluate your sources. You want to make sure you are using sources that your audience will find trustworthy and believable.
How to Write a Persuasive Essay: Step-by-Step Guide
You don’t want to start writing only to discover that halfway through you arrived at a dead end or discovered a fact that completely negates your point of view. Have the facts at hand before you begin so you can make an informed choice as you write your thesis statement.
Ask yourself whether your thesis would make you want to know more. If the answer is “no,” you need to revise more.
Let’s take a look at a few of the ways you can develop strong persuasive writing skills.
If you’re a writer, you need to be able to use persuasive writing techniques.
Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath Aristotle developed his own philosophy on the best way to beat an opponent using words. He called this rhetoric.
The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.
In this blog post, I outline a step-by-step approach to using persuasive writing techniques.
PEEL: Point, Evidence, Evaluation, Link
Want to show your point of view is the correct one? Use reason. Want to motivate your audience to take action? Use emotion. Trying to get your audience to care? Use beliefs and values.
Finally, link your point to the point you’ll make in the next paragraph.
Rhetoric, Aristotle said, is “the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion.”
The following skills are evaluated when grading an argumentative essay:
Here are some good argumentative essay topics to get you started:
Some students may struggle when it comes to creating an argumentative essay because it might seem too complex and multilayered. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you. Argumentative essays are usually assigned to students on SAT, ACT, IELTS, and TOEFL tests. This type of paper can also be assigned as coursework.
This type of paper is assigned to train a student’s ability to debate. It can therefore greatly influence the public speaking skills of a person later on in their life. When writing an argumentative essay, it is important to focus on facts and information rather than personal ideas or preferences. The author may present arguments equally, or support one in favour of others. Regardless, the thesis must include all of the primary points (and counterpoints) that will appear in the essay. It is almost like a political debate with oneself.
Elements of an Argumentative Essay
Just like with all other essay types, here are a ton of topics to choose from. The main criteria should be the following:
- coherency and relativity to your studied subject
This approach works best if the topic of your argumentative essay is highly polemical or is a potential seed for different discussions. For instance, such issues as causes of global warming, gender identification problems, and philosophical problems work best if the Rogerian approach is applied. There is no specific structure that needs to be followed in the Rogerian approach. It’s more about how you present the information: be sympathetic to both sides of the argument. It’s important to concede that the opposing side may also be valid. So, the more wide-scoped view of a subject you take, the better. You don't have to solve the issue, it's more important to explore the compromise between the two sides to arrive at a solution to a pressing problem.
However, if your essay is 1,000 words, don’t spend more than four or five paragraphs on the introduction.
You’re staring at a blank document. The cursor is blinking. Your mind’s been blank for the last thirty minutes. You oscillate between writing and erasing. You look at the watch - your argumentative essay is due in the next 24 hours.
By doing this, you waste precious word count on not-so-important aspects of the paper which could have been used to justify your arguments/claims with supporting evidence and examples.
- Specific
- Debatable
- Logical
- Crisp
3. Weak thesis statement
Are you touching upon an underlying issue, problem or phenomenon? What is the objective of the essay? By the end of this portion, readers need to be convinced about the significance of your topic.
Doing this ensures you’ve covered all points and your ideas flow in logically.
After writing an enticing hook, you need to go on to introduce your topic which includes what you’re going to be writing about.
- Historical
- Cultural
- Economic
- Political
- Social
- Physical or Geographical
- Philosophical
Having seized your reader’s attention, you will need to define who that reader should be. Make the definition of your intended audience clear, whether that’s your teacher, your fellow students, cat owners, fans of Star Wars, or Pokémon collectors.
You may have also heard of argumentative essays and wonder what the difference is from a persuasive essay. Simply put, an argumentative essay must be based on cold hard facts which have been researched and are verifiable. It must be an essay devoted to the arguments in favour of a particular topic.
Once you’ve made your thesis statement you can continue onward and write the body of your essay.
However, a persuasive essay has a wider range of resources available, as its only goal is to persuade the reader of the thesis. You can use appeals to emotion, social validation, stories and anecdotes, as well as of course facts and logic to persuade your audience. Think of the difference between a politician trying to persuade people to vote for him or her versus a scientist laying out the evidence they have gathered.
Persuasive vs. argumentative essay
But how do you write a 5 paragraph persuasive essay which will get you that coveted high grade? Your teacher or professor will be using a specific rubric to set your grades for these kinds of assignments. Let’s take a look.
Your essay’s body is the meat of the essay. It’s where you do the actual persuading to convince people to believe in your thesis. You should have at least three paragraphs’ worth of evidence for your argument, and if you do not, it’s likely that your thesis isn’t strong enough. If that’s the case, take a step back, and come up with ideas for a statement you feel strongly about, and take your topic from there.
A persuasive essay is an important tool in an Australian student’s repertoire. It will be useful not only for your assignments, but sets a good foundation for your life outside of high school, VET, or university as well, when you may have to negotiate with bosses, persuade customers to purchase your amazing goods, or even calm down an upset child.