November's Writing Goal: To Master the Persuasive Essay

The purpose of this lesson is to be sure we understand exactly what the objective of a persuasive essay is and then to compare it to the argument essay (also known as the argumentative essay). You will be receiving a variety of topics from which you can select one (or more, if you'd like) to write about in a persuasive manner. This means that you want to convince me (your audience!) that your opinion on a specific topic is the right one!

In order to do this correctly, we must first take a stance! This means you will form an opinion about a subject, which becomes the position you will defend. For this reason, your opening sentence should make a firm statement about a topic without using the words "I think." 

Here is an example: Public transportation should be free to all Massachusetts residents.

Next, you need to brainstorm three good reasons why this is true. Let's take a moment now to list some reasons why providing free transportation would be beneficial for people in Massachusetts.

1.



2.



3.



After that, we need to think of a good closing sentence that will make a comment or remind the reader why our opinion is the way to go! 

An example: Providing Massachusetts residents with free use of buses and trains will eliminate costly trips around town and enable many more people to take advantage of an efficient form of travel.

Now notice that our closing statement could also be swapped (traded!) with our opening sentence! It can sometimes come in handy to create two different opening statements when you are writing a rough draft so that you could use either one of them as a closing sentence if you find yourself stuck!