The Subject Persuasive writing usually deals with a topic that can easily divide opinion. There are always going to be two sides to every argument. Understanding the reasons or arguments that make up the opposing opinion are as important as understanding your own reasons. Brainstorming or listing reasons for or against an idea is an excellent starting point for your pre-writing activities.

Pre-writing Activities Pre-writing is a very important step in writing and should never be skipped, rushed or made trivial. The more thought you put into this part of the writing the better your product will be. Let’s walk through the pre-writing process for the following prompt: “Should animals be used in laboratory research?” This is obviously a topic that will have opinions on both sides. We will list the arguments (reasons) both for and against.

Pre-writing Activities For:  Research on animals can lead to treatments that can save lives.  This kind of research cannot be done on humans.  Research animals are well taken care of and that care is regulated.  Animals can be bred for this very purpose and do not have to be taken from the wild.  Animal rights groups should spend their time trying to save endangered animals. Against: AAnimals are made to suffer with horrible diseases. AAnimals don’t understand what is happening to them. IIt’s wrong to think that we are superior to all other living things. RResults of the research do not usually benefit animals. TThere are numerous cases of animals not being well cared for in research facilities. WWhere do we draw the line?

Pre-writing Activities If you haven’t already done so, now is a good time to choose your position. This is something you have to do for yourself, but it may be helpful to review the arguments for or against and see which ones you agree with most strongly. We will choose to support the use of animals in research (just as an example) and proceed with the next steps in the process. This would be the time where you may want to do some outside research (if needed), or share your ideas with classmates (if it is a group activity).

Pre-writing Activities If possible now would be a good time to choose the three reasons or arguments that we think are most important. If we are unable to choose just three we can always do this after the next section. We now need to come up with the details (or facts) that support our reasons. You can do this a number of different ways (outline form, a T chart or use a web. This can be done on scratch paper, but again it is an important step and should not be skipped.

The basic form of a web is illustrated below:  The basic form is illustrated below: Reason or Argument Supporting detail or fact.