What is a persuasive Essay? The Power of Persuasion

W inter is the best season. Disagree Agree

Does anyone know the word for trying to get someone to change their mind about something? PERSUADE

What is a persuasive essay? A persuasive essay states your opinion and tries to persuade readers to agree.

Opinion Argument IntroductionConclusion What’s in a persuasive essay?

Planning a Persuasive Essay Introduction: The first paragraph of your essay is the introduction. This is were you get the reader interested in your topic and state your opinion. This is also known as your position or thesis statement. Opinion: What you think about your topic. You might not be able to prove that your opinion is right, but you have to be able to explain it and support it. Argument: That’s the support you give for your opinion. You want to persuade your audience to agree with you, so your argument will have reasons and facts. Conclusion: That’s the last paragraph. In your conclusion, restate your opinion and sum up your argument.

Why write a Persuasive Essay? You might want to persuade members of the parent teacher organization to sponsor a class trip. Your librarian might post a persuasive essay for people who visit the library. She may want to persuade them to come listen to an author read from her book. An applicant to a special program sometimes has to write a persuasive essay to persuade the program to accept him or her. Turn to your table partner and think of another reason someone might write a persuasive essay.

Good writers always keep their audience in mind as they write.

Let's look at an example!

Help Keep Our Town Clean! By Bob West The annual spring cleanup will take place next Saturday. We will pick up litter in our town’s parks and public places. We also need to pick up the trash along the highway. Everyone in town should plan to help out. The man reason for needing so many people is that the town has a huge amount of litter. Paper, bags, and bottles need to be picked up along the roads. The public boat landing needs to be cleaned up. The litter around Swan Pond is destroying the beauty of the woods and water. The small parks department cannot do all of this work. To do a good job, many people are needed. Teams of four people will be assigned to small sections of highways, parks, and other sites. The cleanup committee is hoping to have a hundred cleanup teams. If we all help, the town won’t have to raise extra money for cleanup. Another reason why everyone should join in is to build community spirit. Teams of people who work together will get to know each other. They will feel needed in their town. Some people will become more aware of the litter problem. Once they know about it, they will discourage littering. They may want to talk about the problem with others. Our town will become a clean place. People who have worked hard to clean up won’t want to see litter in their beautiful town again. We should all gladly help out next Saturday. We have a huge litter problem, and it is up to us to solve it. The people who do the work will also benefit by building community spirit. As Mayor Willis has said “When we take care of our town, we take care of ourselves.”

A good persuasive essay has the following traits Introduction Circle the introduction. Opinion Underline this person’s opinion. Argument Star the paragraphs that show support for the stated opinion. Conclusion Draw a wavy line under the conclusion.

Turn to your table partner and tell them one thing you are excited about when it comes to writing persuasive essays. In the next few days, we will look at more examples of persuasive essay!