Writing%20Workshop%20Writing%20a%20Persuasive%20Essay

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Writing WorkshopWriting a Persuasive Essay
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Assignment Prewriting Choose an Issue Write an
Opinion Statement Consider Your Purpose and
Audience Gather Support for Your Position Plan
Your Draft Practice and Apply
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Writing a Persuasive Essay
Assignment Write a persuasive essay on a topic
about which you have a strong opinion.
Do you ever hear yourself saying, I dont think
thats right or I agree or Id like to see
that change? You probably express your opinion
on one issue or another almost every day. Which
issues do you care about the most? To share your
views and convince others to agree with you, try
writing a persuasive essay.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Choose an
Issue
What situations make you and other people angry,
sad, or enthusiastic? What issues do you feel
strongly about?

• Talk with friends and family members.

• Look in the editorial section of your local
  newspaper.

• Think about whats going on in your community and
  in your school.

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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Choose an
Issue
Youve probably come up with a number of good
ideas. Now, choose one issue for your essay
topic. Make sure it meets the following criteria

1. You have strong views about the issue.

1. You can gather enough evidence about it to defend
   your position.

1. Other people find the issue interesting or have
   strong feelings about it.

Essay Length
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Write an
Opinion Statement
Where do you stand on your issue? Share your
perspective, or point of view, by drafting an
opinion statement. Clearly state both the issue
and your position, or opinion, on it.
Clear Opinion Statements
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Consider
Your Purpose and Audience
Purpose In a persuasive essay your purpose is to
convince readers to share your opinion or to take
the action you suggest.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Consider
Your Purpose and Audience
Audience To persuade your audience, you must
first understand them. Ask yourself
What will make my audience care about this issue?
Put yourself in your readers shoes. Think about
ways in which this issue affects their lives.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Consider
Your Purpose and Audience
What concerns might my audience have?
Consider how the issue looks from their point of
view, or bias. Some readers may already have
opinions about your topic. Take any objections,
or counterclaims, into account.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Consider
Your Purpose and Audience
What will my audience expect from my essay?
Readers will expect you to provide the
information they need in order to make an
informed decision. Provide background information
if necessary.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Gather
Support for Your Position
Give at least three strong reasons to support
your opinion statement. Your reasons may include
rhetorical devices

• logical appealsspeak to readers common sense
  and logic

• emotional appealsspeak to emotions such as fear,
  love, and pride

• ethical appealsaddress readers sense of right
  and wrong

Making Appeals
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Gather
Support for Your Position
Make a chart with your opinion statement and at
least three reasons to support it.
Opinion Statement Spay-neuter programs are the best way to reduce the number of homeless pets.
Reasons Spaying and neutering attack the problem at its source. (logical appeal) The suffering and death of thousands of animals each year could easily be prevented. (emotional appeal) Humans domesticated cats and dogs, and it is our responsibility to care for them properly. (ethical appeal)
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Gather
Support for Your Position
Provide at least two pieces of evidence to
support each of your reasons. Make sure your
evidence is relevant, or clearly related to your
issue.
Evidence for Persuasive Appeals
Analogies Comparisons that show similarities between otherwise unrelated facts or ideas
Neglecting to spay and neuter our pets is as irresponsible as leaving a fire unattended.
Citing Sources
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Gather
Support for Your Position
Evidence for Persuasive Appeals
Anecdotes Personal examples or stories that illustrate a point
When my friends cat had kittens, his parents tried very hard to find homes for them all, but two of the kittens had to go to the shelter.
Case studies Examples from scientific research
Researchers studied one town that implemented a spay-neuter program. They noted a one-third reduction in the number of homeless pets over just five years.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Gather
Support for Your Position
Evidence for Persuasive Appeals
Commonly accepted beliefs Ideas that most people share
Most people would like to see the problem of pet overpopulation solved.
Examples Specific instances or illustrations of a general idea
For example, a spayed female dog will never get uterine or ovarian cancer and is also far less likely to develop breast cancer.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Gather
Support for Your Position
Evidence for Persuasive Appeals
Expert opinions Statements made by recognized authorities on a subject
According to Joshua Manning of the Prevent-a-Litter Foundation, Widespread spay-neuter programs are the only way to bring pet overpopulation under control.
Facts Statements that can be proved true facts often take the form of statistics, or numerical information
One female cat and her young can conceivably produce up to 420,000 kittens in just seven years.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Plan Your
Draft
Organize your essay so that it moves smoothly
and logically from one idea to the next.
Body Paragraph 1second-strongestreason
Body Paragraph 2another good reason
Readers tend to remember ideas presented at the
beginning and end of an essay. Try putting your
two strongest reasons in the first and final
body paragraphs of your paper.
Body Paragraph 3strongest reason
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Practice
and Apply
Choose an issue for your persuasive essay,
write an opinion statement, and gather and
organize reasons and evidence to support your
opinion.
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The End
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Choose an
Issue
Essay Length Keep in mind that your essay should
be at least 1,500 words. Choose an issue that is
interesting enough to hold your readers
attention in a paper of that length.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Write an
Opinion Statement
Clear Opinion Statements Beware of writing vague
or general opinion statements. Make sure your
position is clear and well-defined.
vague and general
It would be a good thing to have more bike paths
in the city.
clear and specific
Adding bike paths in the city would make
bicycling safer and would help reduce motor
vehicle traffic and emissions.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Consider
Your Purpose and Audience
Counterclaims There are at least two sides to
every issue. Try to anticipate any counterclaims,
or counterarguments, your audience might have.
Counterclaim Support for My Position
Spay-neuter programs are too expensive. Spay-neuter programs save money by reducing the number of animals that end up in shelters.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Gather
Support for Your Position
Making Appeals Keep in mind that your teacher may
want you to present more logical appeals than
emotional and ethical appeals.
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Writing a Persuasive EssayPrewriting Gather
Support for Your Position
Citing Sources When you use information or
quotations from outside sources, give credit by
citing sources in the body of your essay. Include
a list of your sources at the end of your paper.