Notes on a Persuasive Essay

 

 

       I.            Prewriting

 

A.     Choose a situation

                                                               i.    Become a “Change Agent”

a)    take action to change a situation

b)   find a possible topic

1.      Real Issue

2.      Topic is important to you

c)    “If X occurred, then what would happen?”

 

B.     Consider Purpose, Audience,  and Tone:

                                                               i.    Purpose:  The purpose of your essay is both expository and persuasive

a)    Explain the cause and effects of a situation to your readers in order to…

b)   Convince them (your readers) to take action

                                                             ii.    Audience:  Understand who your audience is and what they need or want to know about your topic.  Ask yourself,

a)    “How much do my readers already know about the situation?”

b)   “What are my readers’ concerns or biases about the situation?”

c)    “What might be my audiences’ counterclaims?”

                                                            iii.    Tone:  Your choice of words, details and sentence structure express the tone of your writing.

a)    What is your attitude toward your subject and your audience?

b)   For most audiences a formal tone will help your audience take your ideas seriously.

 

C.     Analyze the Cause and Effect

                                                               i.    Cause:  What happened and why is it important?

a)      Has the situation been caused by some previous action or decision?

b)      What is the initial cause of the situation you have chosen?

c)      What caused this issue and why does this situation or problem exist in the first place?

                                                             ii.    Effect:  Gain support from you audience.

a)      You want your readers to agree that the situation you’re describing needs to be changed.

b)      Think about the two or three most significant effects resulting from your situation.

1.      Those effects are probably negative ones; that’s why there is a need for change.

 

D.    Gather and Evaluate Evidence

                                                               i.    A successful persuasive essay will provide precise and relevant evidence that supports your explanation.

a)      Evidence provides the proof your reader needs to accept your opinion.

1.      Think “Concrete Detail,” CD

b)      The following guide shows kind of supporting evidence you can use in you essay.

 

KINDS OF SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

Expert opinions are statements made by an authority on a subject.

Quotations present a person’s word-for-word statement on a topic.

Facts are statements that can be prove true; statistics are facts in number form.

Anecdotes are brief stories that illustrate general ideas.

Commonly held beliefs are ideas that most people share.

A case study is an individual example used as the basis for generalizations.

An analogy is an explanation of something that readers do not know in terms of something familiar to them.

 

c)      Student Example:

1.      Effect: Heavy backpacks will cause health problems

2.      Evidence:  A local chiropractor reports an increase in the number of students complaining of back and shoulder pain due to backpacks.  (expert opinion)

                                                             ii.      A Matter of Appeal (note these effective rhetorical devices):

a)      Logical Appeal: Logical appeal is the strategic use of logic, claims, and evidence to convince an audience of a certain point.

Student Example: Statistics showing the weight of a student’s backpack and the resulting muscle strain.

b)      Emotional Appeal: Not surprisingly, emotional appeals target the emotions of the reader to create some kind of connection with the writer. Since humans are in many ways emotional creatures, pathos can be a very powerful strategy in argument. For this same reason, however, emotional appeal is often misused...sometimes to intentionally mislead readers or to hide an argument that is weak in logical appeal. A lot of visual appeal is emotional in nature (think of advertisements, with their powerful imagery, colors, fonts, and symbols).

1.      Student Example: Description of a student’s chronic back pain from heavy backpacks.

c)      Ethical Appeal: Ethical appeal is used to establish the writer as fair, open-minded, honest, and knowledgeable about the subject matter. The writer creates a sense of him or herself as trustworthy and credible.

1.      Student Example: Statement about the school’s responsibility to maintain the physical well-being of the student in areas besides sports.

 

A.     Decide on a Call to Action

                                                               i.    After explaining the cause and effects of your situation, urge your readers to take action to improve the situation.

a)      Address your readers’ counterclaims

b)      Clearly state the actions you think are necessary for changing the situation

c)      Give more than one course of action

1.      Student Example:  The student writing about heavy backpacks proposed that…

·        The school administrations either reinstall school lockers, or…

·        Issue an extra set of textbooks for each classroom

 

 

B.     Remember to use the Jane Shaffer one-chunk paragraph model when writing.

                                                               i.    Samples:

1:2

 

2:1

 

3:0

 

1:2 + 1:2

Topic Sentence

or

TS

or

TS

or

TS

Concrete Detail

 

CD1

 

CD1

 

CD1

Commentary 1

 

CD2

 

CD2

 

CM1.1

Commentary 2

 

CM

 

CD3

 

CM1.2

Conclusion/Closing Sentence

 

CS

 

CS

 

CD2

 

 

 

 

 

 

CM2.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

CM2.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

CS

 

 

 

       I.            Writing

                                                                                                                             

a.      Introduction

                                                               i.      Begin with a bold statement or anecdotal hook.

a)      anecdote

b)      question (as last resort, although this is an easy tool it is less effective)

                                                             ii.      Provide background information for the situation if necessary.

                                                            iii.      Include a clear opinion statement.  Indicate how you feel about the situation and hint at the effects you will discuss.

 

b.      Body

                                                               i.      Explain the cause and the effects of the situation.

                                                             ii.      Use persuasive appeals—logical, emotional, and ethical.

                                                            iii.      Use evidence as support—facts, statistics, anecdotes, expert opinions, logical reasoning, or commonly accepted beliefs.

 

c.       Conclusion

                                                               i.      Propose a specific call to action.

                                                             ii.      Address any counterclaims a reader may have to your call to action.

                                                            iii.      Restate your essay’s opinion statement.

                                                           iv.      End with a strong statement.