Persuasive Essay
You’re going to write a persuasive essay. That means you’re going to try and convince me that your side of an argument is the correct side. This is meant to function as practice for the next essay, which is argumentative in nature.
Your topic needs to be something that you can actually argue about. My examples below all have at least two sides/opinions, and some have many more. The point of this essay is to not be wishy-washy. Pick something you know you’re right about, and tell me why you’re right. I want to see research. Please use the internet to find other people that agree with what you’re saying. Find some charts and graphs. Find some data. And you’ll need to find people that disagree with you so you can tell me why they’re wrong. This is meant to be quick and dirty practice/introduction for the research-based essays we have coming up.
Examples (and feel free to use any one of these):
Are cuss words really bad?
___________ is the best musician/rapper/singer.
___________ is the best at the GOAT at their sport.
Should we have school uniforms?
Is the ACT a fair way to judge whether or not someone is prepared for college?
Should college be free everyone?
Should health care be free for everyone?
You can use a different topic if you want. Here is a website with several other options. https://blog.prepscholar.com/persuasive-essay-topicsLinks to an external site.
Below is a formula you should copy and paste into a Word document to help you write the essay.
Intro: 5-7 sentences (including thesis statement)
Body paragraphs: 7+ sentences
Conclusion: 3-4 sentences Intro paragraph–here you grab my attention (a “hook”) and tell me what your topic is and what are the two or more sides of the argument (background info). Do not start this off by saying “My topic is yadda yadda” or “In this essay, I will talk about yadda yadda.” Do something interesting: a cool quote or fact, a provocative question or opinion, etc. Type intro here:
Thesis–this is where you tell me which side of the argument you believe is correct and, very briefly, give your reasoning why you believe that. More or less, you need to do something like this: _________________ is right/the best/the worst/unnecessary/should be free/should cost more because _____________________________________.
Type thesis here: Body paragraph 1–now you want to give me your first reason for believing your side of the argument. Use some kind of evidence or reasoning to help prove yourself correct. This should follow the “Claim-Evidence-Reasoning” principle. Give me a topic sentence that tells me what you’ll be talking about in the paragraph and what your opinion or answer might be. Follow that with evidence (from outside sources). Then explain the evidence–why did you include it, what does it mean, how does it help prove your thesis. Then do more evidences and more reasonings.
Type body paragraph 1 here:
Body paragraph 2–now you want to give me your second reason for believing your side of the argument. Use some kind of evidence or reasoning to help prove yourself correct. Type body paragraph 2 here:
Body paragraph 3–now you want to give me your third reason for believing your side of the argument. Use some kind of evidence or reasoning to help prove yourself correct. Type body paragraph 3 here:
Body paragraph 4–here you want to give me the opposing viewpoint. This is called a counterclaim. Why might somebody say you’re wrong? Give a reason or two, but then you’ll need to prove that their reason for thinking you’re wrong is, in fact, wrong. Take their words and use them against them. Type body paragraph 4 here: Conclusion: almost done. Restate and reinforce your argument. Briefly summarize what you’ve said. Type conclusion here: