How to Write a Persuasive Essay

High school, college, and even university students from all over the globe are writing persuasive essays. However, most of them are not proficient when it comes to adequate literary organization. Unless you devise a comprehensible structure, the viewpoints expressed by your persuasive essay will not have value. At this point, you might be asking yourself what a persuasive essay actually is. By definition, to persuade means to convince. Obviously, we’re talking about an academic paper in which you must try to use your personal perspectives to try and change the audience’s viewpoints on the subject. To increase your appeal to the reader, you need to utilize the rhetorical techniques called ethos, logos, and pathos.

If you want to find out how to write a good persuasive essay, you’re looking in the right place! While any form of essay has particular requirements, standards and guidelines, when dealing with a persuasive essay you should generally utilize the 5-paragraph structure. The primary target of this paper is to present an argumentative evaluation on a specific subject. This type of assignment can help you expand your analytical reasoning skills. It makes for a great way of learning how to explain your assessment using a structured organization.

The Format of the Persuasive Essay

As described earlier, persuasive essays are typically written using the conventional 5-paragraph structure. A lot of high school students are taught to use this structure in their papers in order to stick to national conventions, particularly in the US. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to examine and elucidate certain subjects in only five paragraphs. If that is the case, you can be flexible. In the majority of high schools, your capability of writing such an essay will be evaluated in class. In general, students are asked to write assignments that take between half an hour and a whole hour. Nevertheless, in various university programs, this traditional format is seldom utilized. Furthermore, the variety of content you need to study and assess is considerably lengthier and more intricate. In other words, the structure of the paper depends a lot on the subject and the type of question you are required to answer to.

Examples of Persuasive Essay Subject

In general, you’ll be required to choose a perspective in an argument or to support a specific viewpoint against critiques. Here are a few of the most widespread topics you might be asked to write an essay on:

• Is it right to legalize cannabis for therapeutic reasons?
• Is it fair to penalize individuals for illegal downloads of songs, movies or video games?
• Is it ethical to allow abortions?
• Should gruesome murderers be given the capital punishment?
• Should cigarette advertisements be banned from television?

While these are merely a few of the general questions you may be asked to reply to, they make for a great way of learning how to write an efficient persuasive essay. In general, your assignment will involve a subject related to your class or specialty. No matter the topic, the structure is the same for any persuasive essay.

Examples of Persuasive Essay Subjects for College Students

As opposed to high school subjects, college subjects are more difficult to find. In middle school or high school, students are merely required to assemble a well-organized paper. On the other hand, in college things are more challenging. Seeing as the majority of college students are already familiar with common standards, the focus is on delivering original content instead of reformulating thoughts. As a result, if you write a persuasive essay on a subject like marijuana, death penalty or firearm control, you won’t get a flawless grade. When selecting an argument for your paper, try to think of something exceptional, a topic that not many people discuss. To put it simply, if your teacher is not impressed after taking a look at the first page, your grade will probably be mediocre.

Take a look at a couple of remarkable persuasive essay subjects for college students:

• Is it justifiable for the government to keep track of private data through Google?
• If an illegal expatriate has an empty rap sheet and a good work history, should they be allowed to stay in the country they immigrated to?
• Are social networks a good way of enhancing an individual’s socialization abilities?
• Are film critics partial when rating a production or do they utilize deficient standards?
• Do technological breakthroughs diminish the usefulness of personal skills?

As indicated by various university teachers, the examples above constitute some of the most outstanding persuasive essay subjects and can give rise to fascinating discussions. Apart from being unique, these topics also allow for the utilization of a large array of knowledge to strengthen your ideas. Therefore, if you wish to build perfect arguments when writing a persuasive essay, don’t hesitate to follow these examples!

Persuasive Essay Structure (Model)

The outline of your persuasive essay should look more or less like the template presented below.

• Focus on delivering a powerful introduction
• Short description of both sides
• Talk about your perspective on the argument
• Hypothesis assertion indicating the reasonability of your entire argument

• An explanatory subject phrase that illustrates your idea directly (affirming the first argument)
• Offer proof that is reasonable and relevant
• Combine proof with clarification
• Include a conclusive assertion regarding the entire paragraph.

• An explanatory subject phrase that illustrates your idea directly (affirming the second argument)
• Offer proof that is reasonable and relevant
• Combine proof with clarification
• Include a conclusive assertion regarding the entire paragraph.

• An explanatory subject phrase that illustrates your idea directly (affirming the third argument)
• Offer proof that is reasonable and relevant
• Combine proof with clarification
• Include a conclusive assertion regarding the entire paragraph.

• Reiterate the hypothesis
• Provide a summarized explanation of each justification
• Write a general conclusion that stimulates the reader’s thinking.

Introduction

Hook Assertion: The best way to start writing any persuasive essay is by creating a confident hook assertion. When reading this phrase, the reader should feel enthusiastic about your paper. It goes without saying that the hook statement needs to be connected to your subject of persuasion.

Short introduction/context: The size of this section depends on the amount of information and assessment you intend to offer. You should include a separate phrase for each of your topics of assessment.

Thesis Assertion: This part represents the main argument/idea of persuasion of your paper. As a piece of advice, postpone your thesis statement until after you’ve completed the body paragraphs. This way, you’ll be able to know for sure what your essay is about before devising your thesis.

Writing the thesis at the end of your paper makes for a much simpler method. It would be considerably harder to align your arguments to match the thesis, and it might diminish the value of your assessment and the validity of your arguments.

Body Paragraphs

Subject Phrase: This phrase should present your argument. Make sure you include terms of accentuation, as these powerful and reassuring words have a great potential for supporting your assertion.

Argument: This part represents the bulk of your paper. State your main argument explicitly.

Clarification/Proof: This section includes the assertions that can truly persuade the reader. Such statements comprise either certainties or data assessment. Their purpose is to support your core argument and demonstrate its validity.

Conclusive phrase: Once you finish clarifying your supported argument, use a conclusive phrase to summarize your idea. Use the most effective terms you can think of! You should regard this as a brief but useful synopsis. The number of body paragraphs depends on the topic of assessment, hypothesis or the paper standards like a number of words or page length. Nevertheless, this constitutes the most common essay outline.

Conclusion

Reiteration of the Hypothesis: Once you demonstrate your hypothesis in the body paragraphs, you need to reiterate it in the conclusion. Try to paraphrase it in the most efficient manner.

Sum Up Essential Ideas: Offer a succinct explanation as to the way in which your primary arguments supported your hypothesis assertion. Demonstrate once more that your explanations are rational and coherent.

General Conclusive Assertion: You need to make certain that the audience comprehends the worth and significance of your paper and the argument you examined and explained. Your persuasive essay will not be a success unless the reader seriously reflects upon your argument.

Useful Advice

MLA and Chicago style formats are generally recommended for this type of essay, seeing as they offer the best material alignments, edges, headlines as well as other paper elements. Do not utilize vocabulary excessively! While it’s advisable to show some diversity, overusing vocabulary is never recommended. Play it smart! Go over the paper again to check that you’ve demonstrated your hypothesis. If you believe a certain point has been demonstrated in a somewhat different way than you intended, modify the thesis correspondingly. Illustrate the reason for which your perspective is more plausible than the opposite one. While the main purpose of a persuasive essay is supporting your viewpoint, counteracting the opposing perspective is a plus!

Have someone go through your essay. This way, you’ll see how your arguments are perceived by others.

Persuasive Essay Grading Criteria

When grading persuasive essays, professors generally follow certain criteria. While each specific criterion has its particular directions, to get an excellent grade, you need to know how to properly combine them.

• Emphasis: Does the hypothesis assertion express a definite perspective instead of showing impartiality? Are the ideas on track? Is the thesis supported in a perpetual manner?
• Positional Support: Is the thesis supported adequately? Does the essay writer introduce at least three different substantiated ideas? Is the authenticity of the thesis validated by the writer’s arguments?
• Structure: Is the shift from one thought to the other harmonious? Are transitional phrases used correctly? Are the arguments introduced in the right order?
• Conclusion: After going through the entire paper, is the reader able to gain a complete understanding of the writer’s perspective? Does it have the potential of stimulating the reader to change their perspective and submit to that of the writer?
• Understanding: Are grammatical mistakes kept to a minimum? Does the author use an adequate combination of brief and lengthy phrases? Are punctuation marks positioned properly?

A Model of Persuasive Essay

Take a look at the following persuasive essay. This is a great piece of writing that deals with the subject of morality in downloading multimedia content illicitly.

Up to the present day, the world has evolved to a great extent. Nowadays, the internet grants us access to everything we want. All across the globe, individuals spend countless hours on their computers, smartphones or tablets, engaging in different virtual pastimes. In this very moment, there are many people who are playing video games, looking at websites or downloading multimedia content online. While some of the endeavors above are entirely legitimate, downloading or torrenting music or movies is against the law. Taking into account the harmful outcomes presented in the following paragraphs, individuals who download copyrighted content online ought to be penalized.

When producing and revising their projects, artists spend a large amount of money. In addition to being tax payers, they are required to pay certain fees prior to launching a product. Moreover, recording music videos and movies does not come cheap. Consequently, when you download their works of art online, you cause them substantial problems and some may even lack the necessary funds to devise new products. When being confronted with such a situation, the artist may quit this job and look for other means of making a living. As a result, the entertainment business might go downhill in the course of time, which would be unjust to musicians and actors.

As indicated earlier, downloading multimedia content online may demoralize some of the actors and musicians who depend exclusively on their artworks to make a living. Their projects are unsuccessful in producing a sufficient sum of money to support future works of art. Unless the production sells well, the artist might not have enough money to carry on. Other people in this line of work may get the impression that their entitlements to intellectual property rights are being violated and nothing can be done about the guilty party. As a result, people who download artistic creations free of charge ought to be penalized. This way, artists will be aided in advancing in their activity.

Illicitly downloading works of arts represents the means to the ethical decline of today’s society. By performing such actions, one shows children and young individuals that it is alright to take someone else’s possession and utilize it without their prior approval. This is not any different from theft. Sadly, guardians and other mature individuals are the ones who are the most engaged in such operations. Thus, youngsters are stimulated to reproduce their behavior. Other people download movies or music and offer them for sale as counterfeit DVDs or soft copies. This is why the majority of youngsters are reluctant to listen to the advice of mature individuals because integrity represents an attribute they do not place much value on.

Illicitly downloading multimedia content online is also detrimental to the financial progress of a state. Songs and films represent the biggest income earners in the entire show business. The authorities are very dependent on that income when it comes to supplying the assets needed in a state. Nevertheless, illicit downloads make certain that movies and songs do not generate any revenue. As a result, the administration experiences shortages. Thus, it is not capable of supplying the required resources. Moreover, the financial position of the state is deteriorated, which forces the administration to loan money in order to attend to the necessities of the population.

To sum up, illegally downloading works of arts online may damage the society, the population as well as the state itself. Demoralization of the musicians and actors, menaced financial progress and ethical decline in society represent only some of the many harmful outcomes of stealing multimedia content. Consequently, people who download movies and music illegally must be punished.

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