Writing a Persuasive Essay
The
purpose of a persuasive
essay is to convince readers to agree with your viewpoint or to accept your
recommendations. You want to persuade your readers that you are trustworthy,
that you are knowledgeable about your topic, that you are certain of your position,
and that they should be certain of your position, too. With a persuasive essay,
you may be asking readers to reconsider their own beliefs, and that may take
some convincing.
How
to be convincing:
•
Believe in what you write. Especially when
writing a persuasive essay, it is important to take the time to put some thought
into your topic. If you don't believe it, your audience will probably sense
that you don't believe it. If you are genuinely enthusiastic about a subject,
your audience will sense that, too, and be more inclined to follow where you
lead.
•
Make your readers think that you know more about the subject than they do. To
do this, you need to dive into research. Use reliable, responsible sources to
learn more about your topic and pass on what you learn to your readers. If you
aren't well-informed about your subject, your audience will have no reason to
trust your opinion about it, and persuasion is built on trust.
•
Bring on the facts. Establishing facts to support your argument will convince
your readers that you have taken the time to do the research. Using statistics
and quotes from experts on your topic will inspire your readers to believe in
your knowledge. Providing examples will make ideas concrete and clarify your
meaning. Prove that your sources are reliable by citing them for your readers.
•
Consider the opposing view. Part of being convincing is being reasonable. There
are always at least two sides to every story, so it's best to acknowledge that
your viewpoint is not the only one. Once you have done this, then you can point
out why your viewpoint is the best one.Understand
the opposing viewpoint so that you can counter it with evidence. Think about
the concerns or questions that your readers may have about you topic, and respond
to these points with evidence that shows why your view is superior.
•
Be pleasant. Nobody wants to agree with a nasty person. Rely on a calm, logical
presentation of facts to deliver your point. Persuasion often involves emotion,
but be careful that your argument relies more on facts than on feelings.
More
writing tips:
•
As with most essays, your persuasive essay should present a thesis that encompasses
all of the main points developed in the body of the essay. Organize your essay
so that readers can easily follow your argument and logic. If the essay is disorganized,
the reader will think that your logic is, too.
•
Each paragraph should have a topic sentence, and each topic sentence should
serve to support your thesis. Stay focused on your position, and don't run off
on tangents that have little or nothing to do with your argument. The topic
sentences should present the main claim that you will prove in the paragraph.
Don't begin the paragraph with a fact, but rather give yourselft something to
prove with the topic sentence at the beginning of the paragraph, and use facts
and statistics in the body of the paragraph to support your topic sentence.
•
Your conclusion should return to the thesis statement and give the readers a
summary of what they have learned in your essay. Make the readers think about
the importance of your viewpoint. Restate the main ideas and demonstrate in
your conclusion that your argument has followed a logical path to its conclusion.
•
As with any paper, leave plenty of time for revising and editing. Especially
when writing persuasive papers, sometimes writers are very close to their topics
and arguments. It is easy to lose perspective after working on a paper for hours.
Make time to be able to put your writing aside for a day or two so that you
can return to it with fresh eyes and the ability to locate gaps in your logic.
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