ing

es is

ringtes

les-

es

he

WRITING THE PERSUASIVE ESSAY

Note: You don’tknow when youressay is going to beread. What if youressay is the first oneof the day? What ifit is the last oneyour reader looksat beforelunchtime? What if

after the best onethe reader haslooked at all day?These are all possi-bilities, and youhave to be preparedto do yottr best nomatter what.

You’ll hear this a lot in high school: "Every piece of writ-ing has a purpose and an audience." This is true, but a lotof students forget it over time. If you are writing a news-paper article, what is your purpose? You want to informpeople about what has happened recently. If you are writ-ing a recipe, who is your audience? You hope that some-one who likes to cook will read your writing. So let’sthink about your task on the ASKS.

[] What is the purpose of the persuasive essay? Youwant to persuade the reader that your point iscorrect.

[] Who is the audience? Individuals who will be read-ing hundreds of essays on the same topic over ashort period is your audience.

Imagine a room full of adults, all of whom have to readhundreds of essays in a short period of time. How mightthese people differ from your English/language artsteacher?

1. They don’t have the time to write notes on youressay the way your teacher does.

2o They’ve never met you, and they don’t know youthe way your teacher does.

3. They’re likely not going to "cut you a break" theway your teacher sometimes does if you do poorlyon an assignment because you lost a game yesterdayor had a fight with your brother this morning.

4. They read your work once and score it based onfirst impression.

ORGANIZATION, ORGANIZATION, ORGANLZATION!!!!Your persuasive essay must be five paragraphs with a clearthesis, introduction, and conclusion.

You hear people use the word thesis all the time, but whatdoes it mean? Are a thesis and a topic sentence the samething? No. They are related, though. Let’s take this onestep at a time. When you are given an essay prompt on theASK8, there is always a hint about what your thesismight be.

An essay prompt is the situation and set of directions thatyou are given to write the persuasive essay. It provides allbackground information needed to write your persuasiveessay. Look at this example:

It is January during midterm exams at your schoolwhen a fire alarm sounds. The entire building is evacuatedimmediately in the freezing temperatures, and the firedepartment does not arrive for twenty minutes, making itclear that this was not a planned fire drill. As everyonefiles back into their classes, many students complain thatthis isn’t fair. They’ve lost thirty minutes off their seventy-five minute exam period. Several students ask their teach-ers what they should do, and teachers advise their studentsto do the best they can in the time remaining. At the endof the exam period, Principal Hart!s voice sounds on the

alarm was pulled as a prank. He then says that unlesssomeone reports the prankster by the beginning of theschool day tomorrow, students will not be granted extratime on their exams.

Write a letter to your principal explaining why you door do not support his disciplinary strategy. Give clear rea-sons for your support or criticism of his ultimatum to thestudents of your school.

Remember that "letter" means essay. A letter has a pur-pose and an audience. How would you go about answer-ing this essay prompt? Use the space on the next page tobrainstorm and prewrite an outline.

Wt~a~ Are Brainstorrnir~g and PrewrRing?Brainstorming is jotting down a list of important ideas ormaking a web or mind map of ideas related to your topic.This gets you thinking about how you’re going to organizeyourself.

Prewriting is outlining your ideas and organizing theminto an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

Lots of people skip these steps, and that is not a wiseidea. You should definitely take the time to brainstormand prewrite. If you do, your essay will be better orga-nized. You won’t forget to include any important, persua-sive arguments. In addition, your points will be presentedin a logical manner. Chances are that you should receive ahigher score than if you didn’t brainstorm and prewrite.

Did you use the space provided to brainstorm and pre-write your own ideas? If not, go back and do it. If youhave, pay close attention to the terms below--thesis,hook, and central idea--which only apply after you havejotted down some ideas.

A thesis is the point you’re proving in your essay and theexamples you use to prove it.

[] The following sentence is NOT a thesis because itdoesn’t provide reasons and examples to support thepoint: Mr. Hart, you should not make the pranksterconfess.

[] This IS a thesis: Mr. Hart, you should not make stu-dents turn in the prankster because it puts studentsin a dilemma, it might not be the actual prankster,and it takes the focus off studying for exams.

[] This IS a thesis: Mr. Hart, you are doing the rightthing because the person should be punished, theprank interfered with exams, and everyone shouldhelp find the person who did this.

The second and third bullet points are good thesisstatements because they provide very clear examples toargue their points. You should always include three exam-ples to make an argument. You may often hear people say,"Give me three good reasons 7why...." This is a verycommon method of organization in writing and in life.When you make an argument, one reason is usually notenough, two reasons make the argument a little stronger,but three reasons really pack the punch. So any time youare writing an essay on a test, always think of three sepa-rate reasons that will support your argument.

The thesis should never be the very first sentence of apersuasive essay/]ettero

Don’t ever write the thesis as your first sentence. Whetheryou are writing an essay or a letter, you have to take thefollowing approach. Start with a good hook. Then branchinto your central idea. Finally, state your thesis with theexamples.

THE HOOKA hook is a general idea that is well phrased and getspeople interested in reading more. Some examples of goodhooks include a famous quote, a statistic, a shocking state-ment, a greeting (in the case of the prompt requiring youto write a letter), or a question. In this case, a good hookwould be:

Dear Principal Hart,

Should law-abiding students be punished for the negligenceof one bad student? i am writing to share my opinion with youabout the recent fire drill issue.

Why is this a good hook?

1. It is a question that already implies the opinion ofthe writer.

2. It introduces the general topic.3. It can then be followed by information learned

from the prompt and details to support the writer’sposition.

The central idea is related to the general idea, but it ismore specific. The central idea links the hook togetherwith the thesis. In this case, use information from theprompt to be more specific. Here is an example of aneffective general idea:

Even though I know that the guilty student must be pun-ished, I don’t believe that the approach you are taking is fair.

Dear Principal Hart,

Should law-abiding students be punished for the negligenceof one bad student? i am writing to share my opinion with youabout the recent fire drill issue. Even though I know that theguilty student must be punished, I don’t believe that theapproach you are taking is fain Mr. Hart, you should not makestudents turn in the prankster because it puts students in adilemma, it might not be the actual prankster, and it takesthe focus away from studying for exams.

Your introduction paragraph is a road map for the restof your essay. What does that mean? Well, by looking atyour introduction, your reader should see exactly whereyou are going to go in the essay. This introduction makesit very clear to the reader what the next three bodyparagraphs are about. Can you see what the three bodyparagraph topics are going to be about?

1o Putting students in a dilemma2. Possibly not finding the actual prankster3. Taking the focus off exams

Each of these reasons supports your thesis. Each one willbe discussed in a separate paragraph with a separate topicsentence.

The Topic SentenceA topic sentence is the first sentence of a body paragraphand differs from your thesis. A topic sentence representsone of the three supporting ideas in your thesis. It must besupported by three more examples in the body paragraph.Look below at each of the three topic sentences. What doyou notice?

[] Firstly, Mr. Hart, by asking us to snitch on a class-mate, you are putting us in a social dilemma.

[] In addition to my first point, consider that the per-son accused might not be the prankster at all.

[] Lastly, it is not fair to have students focus on thisproblem when we should be studying for our exams.

Each one of these topic sentences introduces the main ideaof the paragraph. In addition, each one uses a transitionalword or phrase to establish where the paragraph is placedin the essay.

A transitional word or phrase is a tool that the writer usestO-help show the reader where he or she is going. Forexample, you have likely been tahght that when you writea conclusion, you use the words in conclusion to start offyour body paragraph. There are lots of other transitionalwords and phrases to use in a conclusion: to close, to sum"l), to reflect, and finally are some good ones.

However, transitional words should be used throughoutyour essay, and especially in your topic sentences. Noticethat the words "Firstly," "In addition," and "Lastly"establish each of your three examples. The introductoryparagraph includes the phrase "even though." How is thisdifferent from "Firstly," "In addition," and "Lastly" ?Well, "even though" indicates that there are two opposingideas. In this case, the idea of the principal and the idea ofthe student. Below is a basic list of transitional phrases touse. Get into the habit of using them in your persuasivewriting, and make sure to ask your teacher if you areusing them correctly.

To begin withFirstly/secondly/thirdly

FinallyIn addition

AlsoAnother example of this

Even thoughWhile

AlthoughInspite of the fact that

On the other hand

NonethelessNeverthelessRegardless of

Instead

ClearlyAs it has been proven

EvidentlyTruly

In factFor all of these reasons

UndoubtedlyUnquestionably

Below is a series of blanks for the essay, but only a topicsentence is provided for each paragraph. You are to com-plete each paragraph, using at least three transitionalwords or phrases from the lists on page 57 in each of yourthree paragraphs. You may repeat some, but try to use avariety of them°

Firstly, k4~. Hart, by asking us to snitch on a classmate,you are puttin~j us in ~ social dilemma.

in addition to my first point, consider that the personaccused might not be the prankster at all.

Lastly, it is not fair to have students focus o~ this problemwhen we should be studying for our exams.

Now that you have had some time to practice, look atthe three sample body paragraphs below. On each one ofthem, mark where you see a transitional word or phrase.

Firstly, Mr. ~flart, by asking us to snitch on a classmate, youare putting us in a social dilemma, As far as I know, the personwho pulled the alarm is not a friend of mine. If it was, however, idon’t thinL ! would be able to tell on him or her. A true friend isa person who can forgive someone’s mistaLes. A real friendwould give up the good grade to protect his friend from gettingpunished. Also, let’s be realistic, Who would really want to tell onsomeone to the principal? !’d lose all my friends if I did that.

In addition to my first point, consider that the personaccused might not be the prankster at all, In fact, woutdn’t itbe possible for someone to lie and get someone else in trouble?Suppose i had just had a fight with my friend this morning anddecided to report him as the prankster. You would get thename of the person, but it wouldn’t be the -truth. A situationliLe this gives people the opportunity to cause trouble insteadof solving the problem.

Lastly, it is not fair to have students focus on this problemwhen we should be studying for our exams. Now, everyone will beon AQL Instant Messenger tonight tailing about how unfairof this is. Instead of studying, we’ll afl be complaining abouthow unfair this is, As a result, everyone will do poorly on twoexams instead of just one. Your idea puts more pressure on uswhen we’re already stressed enough.

Do you see any similarities between your paragraphsand these sample ones? How are they similar? How arethey different?

g

II

Most people don’t like writing a conclusion. Many stu-dents say it is repetitive. However, a good conclusion willdo two things:

1. Restate the thesis (not copied and pasted, though!)by restating your opinion, summarizing your reasons,and,

2o Put closure on the essay by reinforcing your point

Look at the example below:

Clearly, you can see that I am opposed to your strategyfor finding out who pulled the fire alarm, it puts us in a socialdilemma, it opens the door to more potential mischief, and itmakes us focus on the wrong thing during an important time.For a!l of these reasons, I sincerely hope that you reconsideryour disciplinary style.

Now that you have a clear idea of how to organize thepersuasive essay, you are going to try writing this essayfrom the opposite perspective. You are going to make theargument from the other side now. Below is a template foryour five-paragraph, persuasive letter/essay. Included inthe template are only the thesis and topic sentences. Therest is up to you to fill in. Don’t forget to use transitionalwords and phrases as you develop your ideas!

Mr, t~art, you are doing the right thing because the personshould be punished, the prank interfered with exams andeveryone should help find the person who did this.

To begin with, the prankster should definitely be punishedfor what he or she has done.

Also, this prank interfered with our midterm exams, whichare extremely important academically.

Finally, I agree with your point that everyone shouldresponsible for finding the person who did this,

Now it’s time to do some more practice exercises.On the pages that follow, you will see four practice essayprompts. Use the white space below each prompt tobrainstorm, web, or outline the ideas for your essay.Following each of the prompts will be an example essaythat responds to the prompt. You should consider theseessays to be model essays that ~vould receive scores of a5 or 6. Look very closely at how they are organized andwhat the writer does well Keep the scoring rubric locatedin the appendix of this book in mind as you write youressay and read the sample essays.

~ss~y Promp~ # IRecently, a student in your school was suspended for carrying a knife in hisbackpack. The knife was discovered when he left the back pocket openduring class and a teacher saw it sticking out of the bag. As a result of thisevent, your school’s administration is considering doing spot checks ofbackpacks and lockers periodically. They believe that these spot checks willensure school safety.

Write a letter to your principal explaining why you do or do not supportthe practice of randomly spot-checking backpacks and lockers. Give clearreasons for your support or criticism of this possible school policy. Makesure to develop each of your reasons fully and completely. You have 45minutes to complete this essay.

Prewriting/Planning Space