Persuasive skills are useful for every aspect of life, whether you’re trying to convince your parents to increase your allowance or asking the teacher for an extra day to complete an assignment. Developing these skills also helps you learn to express your opinion and support your ideas with facts and logic.
It’s common for teachers to assign persuasive essays because the template tests your knowledge of a topic and your ability to think critically about it.
The formula for a persuasive essay is simple: tell the reader what you are arguing, show them the evidence for your argument and summarise the information you have presented. Here are a few tips for writing a compelling and convincing paper.
A strong introduction
A well-written introductory paragraph captures your reader’s attention and convinces them to continue reading. The most important part of the introduction is your thesis statement. This is the main idea you will be discussing, and it shows the direction of your argument. Make sure your thesis statement is clear. It should say not only what your argument is, but also how you will present it.
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Don’t: “Tests are bad.”
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Do: “Tests teach students to study for the exam but don’t help them truly learn and remember information.”
Body paragraphs
This is where you will develop your argument. Although the five-paragraph essay – consisting of an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion – is one of the most common formats teachers assign, it is not necessary to limit yourself to only three body paragraphs if you haven’t been told to do so.
Each body paragraph presents an idea or set of related ideas that support your thesis statement. In each paragraph, show you are a credible writer by quoting from reliable sources and expert opinions. Appeal to the reader’s logic and reason by using data and statistics to support your argument. Once you’ve established the facts, you can include a more emotional story to connect with the audience on a deeper level.
For example, after you have presented data from research testing students’ knowledge retention of a topic two weeks after taking an exam, you can mention how you once got full marks after cramming for a test about Shakespeare’s Hamlet, only to look back on the experience a month later and realise you didn’t remember a thing about the book. Sharing a story like this can add an emotional and human element to something previously represented solely by words and figures.
Conclusion
Briefly summarise your main points – don’t get too wordy, since the reader just saw them – and restate your thesis in a slightly different way to avoid sounding too repetitive.
Example:
In the introduction, our thesis was “Tests teach students to study for the exam and don’t help them truly learn and remember information.”
In the conclusion, we can restate it as “Rather than promoting lifelong knowledge retention, tests simply teach students how to pass a test.”
Other tips
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Do: Use strong words. It is common for students to use words like “might” or “may” in their writing. It allows room for error. But persuading someone to see your point of view requires the use of strong, confident language; if you sound unsure of your opinion, why should they take it seriously? Unless you’re quoting from a study or another person, keep “might” and “may” out of your paper.
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Don’t introduce new information in the conclusion. The paragraph should simply reinforce your argument and leave the reader with something to think about.
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Don’t ignore other viewpoints in your essay. Identify and address the counterarguments. This shows you have considered other perspectives, but after weighing the evidence, decided that your opinion remains the most informed.
