English 7 Miller Junior High

Spring Break Persuasive Project

The Prompt. A prompt is the explanation or directions of what you being asked to write about.

17th Grade EnglishMiller Junior HighSpring Break Visit Project

Crabbing in Westport

Your prompt:

Write a multi-paragraph letter to a friend, relative, or stranger persuading them to visit a Western/Central Washington Destina-tion during the Spring or Spring Break. Explain what you could do while they visit. Be

sure to include at-least 3 activities that are interesting and entertaining that are close in proximity (within a few minutes, but not any further than a few miles from one-another).

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Seattle Space NeedleSeattle Center, WA

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Things to think about:

* Before you write your letter, you are making an advertise-ment or commercial to help you think of what to write about.

* Who will you try to convince? Are they an adult or some-one your age?

* Multi-paragraph letters should be at least 4-5 but no more than 6 paragraphs.

* Each of your paragraphs should focus on reasons to visit.

* Each of your reasons should focus on things to do.

* You cannot just hang out at your house. You need to ex-plain places you can take them.

* Remember to use persuasive strategies like expert opin-ions, emotional descriptions, facts, and dates to prove that the visit will be fun.

Creating an Advertisement

2 Great Wolf LodgeGrand Mound, WA

Brochure Advertisement or

iMovie Commercial

To help you think of ideas of what to write about you are creat-ing a brochure or an iMovie.

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Your Brochure or iMovie should include...

* A creative title using figurative lan-guage.

* A hook at the beginning to grab the viewers’ attention posing a question or anecdote.

* A topic (destination) that ties all the ac-tivities together. For example, the name of the region, city, or place you are going visit.

* 3 or more activities explained with short facts and descriptive details.

*At least 7-10 images that persuade the viewer to to visit your destination.

* At least two sources cited to show that you researched to explain the place.

* A colorful, organized, and logical lay-out in which the important ideas are easily located.

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Research

Ask before you use others. Always re-member while researching webpages, you may find inappropriate sites. Practice the 5 Steps to Internet Safety.

Experience Washington Travel

http://www.experiencewa.com/

Western Washington Attractions

http://www.seattlesouthside.com/

Travel Washington

http://www.travel-in-wa.com/outdoor/ski.html

Grays Harbor Chamber of Commerce

http://www.graysharbor.org/

Scenic Washington State

http://scenicwa.com/listing/main/places-to-go

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Mt. Rainier. White Pass Ski Area

Here are some sites to explore.

Grays Harbor The Puget Sound

Lake Quinault Tacoma

Aberdeen Hood Canal

Westport Bellingham

Ocean Shores San Juan Islands

The Olympic Peninsula The Cascade Mountains

Hurricane Ridge Leavenworth

Forks/Twilight Tour Spring Snow Sports

Seattle (Downtown, City Center, the Waterfront)

Here are some ideas to get you started.

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Lake Quinault The Hoh Rainforest

Persuasive Writing:How Do I Start?

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Cascade

Mountain Resort

How to Write an Introduction. The first paragraph.

Creating a creative introduction is key to an effective persuasive paper, advertise-ment, or commercial.

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Spring Skiing

Creating the Hook.

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Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Introductions are key to good persuasive writing.

A good introduction (first paragraph) has a creative hook.

Here are some examples of creative hooks about a different topic than the one you are writing about.

Tell an Anecdote, Story, or Scenario.

An anecdote is a short story. It can be a story about your own experience.

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“New Rule Has Kids Scared.” Those are the headlines from The Daily World. The new rule is like a disease spreading across our state and making children cry. No late work has a devastating affect on students and it needs to be stopped.

The beginning is a scenario going on around the state and the underlined part is the statement of their claim (the topic sentence).

Ask a Good Thoughtful or Rhetorical Question.

A rhetorical question is a statement in the form of a question. You ask a rhetorical question to make a point, not to get an answer.

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Dear Principal, “Three strikes you’re out!” That is what everyone says, but really, doesn’t every-body deserve a second chance? In baseball you get three chances to bat, so why can’t you have just two at school? What if you had an emergency at home or you got really sick? Shouldn’t you get a second chance if you didn’t get your homework in? I think that teachers should accept late work be-cause you at least tried to turn it in.

Share an Interesting or Surprising Fact or Statistic.

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Dear Mr. Johnson, Did you know that a recent district sur-vey showed that four out of five school kids do not have passing grades because they do not turn in their work on time? This could be changed by no longer allowing late work. Late work should not be accepted at Grant Middle School.

Which strategy can you use?

Start with an anecdote story, or scenario.

Or

Start with a thoughtful or rhetorical question.

Or

Start with an interesting or surprising fact or statistic, or quote.

Now think about your topic. What is your claim/opinion? Try to introduce it using one of these

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Wildflowers on Mt. Rainier

How do you organize a persuasive essay?

4.

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In a persuasive essay, staying focused on your point is very important.

Thinking about about HOW you present and explain your points is just as important.

There are many ways to organize an essay, but this chapter focuses on just a few; Order of Importance and Causal Chain.

SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST...

Organization Structure:

Order of Importance.

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Order of importance means that you save your best reason (activity) for the last body-paragraph. You share that reason right be-fore the conclusion.

Organization Structure

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Whale Watching

Cause and Effect (Causal Chain)

A causal chain is when each paragraph is connected to the paragraph before through cause and effect.

For example: “If you give us more time for a break, we will get more homework done. Our grades will improve and our parents will be proud.”

In the example above each sentence is an effect of the one before. You can use this to explain ideas or to connect a paragraph to the one be-fore.

Here is another example: If you have a paragraph about an activity, that activity may make the reader hungry, so a paragraph about a place to eat could easily follow.

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How to explain your reasons?

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An easy way to add explanation is to write a concession rebuttal for your second body paragraph.

Here is how a concession rebuttal paragraph works....

1. You think of a reason AGAINST your opinion (for example many people don’t like to visit Washington because it rains a lot).

2. In the first sentence concede (agree) that the con is true. FOR EXAMPLE: “You might be thinking that it rains a lot in Washington, and really, it does.

3. However you DON’T EXPLAIN the reason any more after that. After you concede (agree), you solve the con or prove why the con could actually be good. FOR EXAMPLE: Even though we have a lot of rain, all that water makes the trees grow which provides great hunting and fishing.

Concession/Rebuttal

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So here is how a concession rebuttal works when you put it all together.

The example below is about a different topic; this person is trying to prove why late work should not be allowed at school.

You may be thinking that it is mean to not accept late work, but some of us turn in our work on time everyday. I want all the icky procrastinators to get no credit be-cause they did not do the work and I did. I am all for fairness and fairness makes a great school, but some people need to take up the reins and learn responsibility.

If you are not sure how to start a concession rebuttal paragraph here are some words to help you start.

*It is true that... however

*Certainly... but... in short

*Admittedly... on the other hand... so

*Of course... however... finally

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Figurative language is a fancy way of describing some-thing. Below are some types of figurative language that writers your age can use well.

1. Similes and Metaphors

example: His hair was like peach fuzz.

Karen was a ray of sunshine.

2. Specific and Descriptive Details (Verbs and Adjectives)

example: My boyfriend sits in the second row from the left in the third seat behind John.

3. Repetition or Alliteration

example: An old-fashioned trolley in tropical hues pulls up to The Pier - five stories of fun, food, and shopping.

4. Onomatopoeia

Words whose sounds imitate the sounds of what they describe, such as hiss, growl, honk, buzz, woof, etc...

5. Personification example: The moon-lit evenings seem to smile down at us while the flames danced about in our campfire.

Describe Using Figurative Language

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Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Using Persuasive Strategies to Explain

Don’t forget that persuasive strategies are another great way to explain your reasons.

Remember to...

Ethos (Ethical/Moral Appeal)

*Use emotions: Tell a funny or happy memory of a time when you visited one of these places

Logos (Reason/Logical Appeal)

*Use logic: Add facts, numbers, dates, or statis-tics about the place related to how much it costs or how long ago it was built. Be sure to use numbers that would make someone want to visit.

Pathos (Emotional Appeal)

*Use authority: Are there any quotes you can find in your research that you can share that prove why this place is good to visit? Add those to your para-graphs. Famous people, lawmakers, scientists who would support your point of view.

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West-coastClam Digging

How to Write a Persuasive Conclusion

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Writing a strong piece from beginning to end is extremely important in persuasive writing.

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The last paragraph in any essay or letter is a conclusion. Even though it is the last paragraph, it is still important to end with a strong idea.

Persuasive conclusions should...

*connect the whole letter, essay, or speech together.

*have a call to action or a prediction.

*leave the reader with something to think about.

Here is an example

Now do you see why it’s not right to say that teachers should not ac-cept late work? Not everyone is perfect and sometimes students make mis-takes. But isn’t that how we learn? Only you have the power to choose be-tween becoming a dictator or the president of a proud school. Say no to late work.

A persuasive conclusion needs a call to action

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2.Name the things that are fun that is associated with activity. (Is it a place to eat, shop, hike, sight-see, etc...)

1. Name the activity you can do at this destina-tion. (Restate the topic in your response.

4. What important dates, numbers, statistics can you find about the place? For ex-ample, the date it opened, the number of visitors, the cost of food or attractions.

5. Name any other interest-ing information you can share about this place that would make someone want to visit.

Write two websites used to gather this information:______________________________________Why did you choose this site?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cornell Notes: Research for Spring Break Name:___________ Per:_______Purpose: To Write Persuasively. Date: __________

Topic: Research a Western/Central Washington Destination_____________________________

3. Describe in detail what this activity would look like, feel like, things heard, smelled, or tasted. Use strong verbs and adjectives.(Use your packet with verbs and Adjectives.)

Bibliography7

Sources Cited:Writing Instructional Modules. Washington Office

of Public Instruction. N.p., 2007. Web. 08 Mar.

2013.

Freeman, Marcia S. Listen to This. Developing an

Ear for Expository. Gainesville, FL: Maupin

House, 1997. Print.

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