persuasive essay tips

persuasive essay tips

Effective Strategies for Writing a Persuasive Essay

1. Introduction to Persuasive Writing

There are four main strategies to use when writing a persuasive essay. These are background knowledge, emotional appeals, logic, and evidence. Your background knowledge will also play a major role in the examples you use to persuade the reader to agree with your point of view. Collect as many ideas and examples as you can in order to leave readers wondering whether you could be wrong. That way, you can turn their potential doubt into a point in your favor. Although feelings are considered to be the foundation for any form of persuasion, logic and evidence can help you build a stronger case. The integrity of an argument is built around what is true. Therefore, it is good to develop your self-truth, which then becomes truth for everyone else. Through the use of evidence, your readers will naturally want more. For example, if you can show that both Joe and Tom, two separate people, say that you are five feet tall, you’d better be five feet tall!

We all have opinions. Some we keep to ourselves, while others we share with those around us. Whether it’s a TV advertisement, a political speech, or a magazine article, the “right” words can convince the toughest of critics to change their minds. When you write a persuasive essay, you are creating a paper that will prove a point in order to convince the reader of its truth. A persuasive essay will rely heavily on emotional appeals to get and hold the reader’s attention.

2. Crafting a Compelling Thesis Statement

Here are a few tips on how to craft the perfect thesis statement for your reflective essay. Choose a format. After brainstorming, choose the best ideas and create a thesis. Come up with a short and concise sentence to answer it and emphasize its importance. Keep in mind that your thesis should not drone on and on. It should not explain a general fact. Keep it at 1-2 sentences and use keywords such as ‘because,’ ‘if,’ ‘when,’ ‘what,’ and ‘since’ to lead into your major points. Use at least one controversial statement that would give you a chance to follow up the reflection with facts and evidence.

Developing a thesis statement that illustrates the major points of your reflection can give readers a preview of the content without giving too many of the details away. A thesis statement should be specific and debatable, and an introduction should be engaging and informative. A thesis statement comes closer to the end of your introduction paragraph and allows the writer to lead the readers to the provided evidence in the body of the essay. It is necessary to learn how to write a good thesis statement because it is the beginning of your reflection. It should provide previous experience and appropriate research. Keep in mind a strong thesis reflects the main idea of your essay. Aside from stating a fact and drawing a great conclusion, it has to be debatable. It has to add value and lead readers to understand why the argument is significant. It is a good opportunity to tell readers more about what makes this argument important and appealing to think about. Creating a thesis that is to inform the reader but might not raise many questions in the reader’s mind is not a good thesis.

3. Building Strong Arguments and Evidence

Key to your Persuasive Essay: Once you have thoroughly and thoughtfully explored your issue, you will want to think about how you are going to support your position. There are four beefy strategies: Using authority, Making reasons, Presenting your argument effectively, and Sticking to the point. The first thing to ask yourself is how you might draw upon recognized and established authorities or experts in the field to help you make your argument. Try to find and quote the respected opinions of established experts in support of the claims that you are making. Using quotations signals to your readers that you are well-informed and, more importantly, not just “shooting from the hip.” Have faith in your ability to make an effective argument. With some common sense organizing and lots of facts and evidence, you can develop a well-supported persuasive essay.

Now that you have fully experienced the persuasive writing process and have had a chance to further develop your own persuasive writing strategies, you are ready to explore the four keys to writing an effective persuasive essay: 1) “Being convincing,” 2) “Supporting your argument with evidence,” 3) “Being clear and solid,” and 4) “Presenting your argument effectively.” Over the next few pages, you will read amplifying information on each of the four keys. You will also be given the chance to “test drive” your further developed writing strategies through useful exercises.

4. Engaging the Audience with Persuasive Language and Rhetorical Devices

Throughout the essay, the writer should identify and resolve inconsistent and misused modifiers. In addition, the writer should be in possession of great control of the conventions of standard written English. Occasionally, a writer must look back at their essay and ask, “Is it a comprehensive and unified discussion?” With this self-evaluation from the writer, they would effectively convince and ultimately receive a positive response from the audience. With the writer accommodating an effective audience, they can assuredly achieve a high score and possibly persuade a reader into accepting their thoughts.

First up, this essay’s audience, who keeps in mind; readers will be examining the quality of the writer’s thought process and their ability to think about issues concerning readers. With effective paragraphs, a reader would be captivated from one paragraph to the next. Vast evidence to prove their opinion should be deployed strategically throughout the essay. Consequently, the writer should make use of both a variety of specific examples, such as relevant experiences, and statistics to support any logical assertion that is reflected by the readers.

5. Concluding with Impact: Summarizing Key Points and Call to Action

In order for the conclusion to work, the author must feel the passion of the persuasive essay. A good conclusion will not only restate the main points of the argument but also highlight the evidence that was used. It will also demonstrate that the argument that was made is strong, compelling and relevant to a decision. Do not introduce new information in the conclusion, just summarize the main points and restate the thesis. The conclusion needs to balance the essay, leaving the reader with a powerful and compelling feeling. The goal is to end the argument in a way that is memorable and impactful.

The conclusion is the last paragraph in the persuasive essay. A good conclusion will not only restate the main points of the argument but also highlight the evidence that has been presented. It will revisit the thesis statement and connect to the attention-grabber that was used in the introduction. The conclusion should be written with the intent to help an advocate understand where the reader is coming from and try to make significant change together.