Persuasion is encounter every day in life. The successful student will be a student who possesses the skills and methods to persuade his peers, teachers and yes, his family. Some of the various situations upon which we are confronted with persuasion in daily life are:
1. Advertisements and commercials
2. People trying to convince other people to believe in what they believe in such as;religion, philosophy on a war, how to raise children, what university one should go to, why you should hire me for the open employment position, capital punishment, abortion,corporal punishment, etc.
3.Trying to convince someone to try to buy a particular product
There are many writing methods that students can implement in order to incorporate persuasion within their personal writings , public speaking, and presentation skills.
What is Persuasive Writing
When writing a persuasive essay, your goal is to win acceptance of your ideas when others do not agree with your beliefs or opinions.
Writing a persuasive paper helps us to:
1 look at the evidence//the detailed facts that will persuade the audience to view the issue as you do.
2. state the ideas more clearly//you must cover all aspects of the issue that you are talking about.
3. take into consider of the claims of the opposition fairly//do not ignore your opposition. Recognize and respect their opinions, but be firm in your convictions.
4. to justify your own position//you must be able to give valid facts about your issue and opinions
You must be able to distinguish fact from opinion//This is one of the most important rules to follow. In your writing, be sure to distinguish between opinion and fact, but justify your opinions.
Persuasive writing is also known as an essay fragment , making use of logic and reason to show that one idea is more justifiable than another idea.
Persuasive writing attempts to persuade a reader to embrace a certain point of view, or to execute a particular action. The argument must always use sound reasoning and solid evidence by :
1. stating facts(descriptive and detailed)
2. giving logical reasons:
"Logic is primarily concerned with distinguishing correct reasoning from reasoning that is incorrect. It is most closely related to rhetoric which also deals with the reasoning process. Rhetoric, however, unlikelogic, is chiefly interested in the difference between persuasive reasoning and reasoning that is not persuasive.
As we will soon discover, although persuasive reasoning is often correct it is unfortunately also quite common for reasoning that is persuasive to be incorrect. Moreover, frequently reasoning that is correct may nevertheless not be very persuasive.
Admittedly a salesperson, whose primary concern probably lies with convincing his clients, might find rhetoric a more useful subject to study than logic. Perhaps most of us, however, are more interested in using reasoning to aid us in discovering truth and avoiding error. If we are, logic is undoubtedly an important subject to use in persuasive writing".
There are several different ways of subdividing logic. First, there are two different types of reasoning processes and, as a result, two main branches of logic. Some reasoning processes are supposed to establish the claim being argued for with certainty (assuming the evidence is correct). Others are only
supposed to establish the claim being argued for with a greater or lesser degree of likelihood. Deductive logic studies those reasoning processes in which the claim being reasoned to is supposed to follow with certainty
from the evidence presented. Inductive logic, on the other hand, studies those reasoning processes in which the claim being reasoned to is only supposed to follow with likelihood from the evidence presented
SOURCE: (wwwrohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rfreeman/reason.html)
3. using examples
4. and quoting experts.
Prewriting for a Persuasive Essay
The Topic Sentence of the Introductory Paragraph
The topic sentence should not begin with stating a fact, thus because a fact(which is valid) can not be debated. You must begin your introductory paragraph with a statement of position. This stated position must be very clear, precise and no ambiguities. It guides the audience to follow along towards the specific stated conclusion that you want them to support,.
Along with this statement of position, state the three best reasons that you have to support your position as the remainder of the opening paragraph.
These three best stated reasons(in the introductory paragraph) will become the topics of each of the three supporting paragraphs that are to follow. You must be able to support these three supporting reasons with additional supportive facts.
The Main Body of the Persuasive Essay
In the body of the essay, the student needs to use
1. detailed and description specific supporting evidence,
2. precise examples and data that can be verified by listing it's source.
3. no extensive generalizations or personal opinions to persuade the reader that their statement of position is a valid one.
Each topic sentence, for the remaining three paragraphs, must closely address the topic that was introduced in the introductory paragraph. This allows the logic of the argument to be easily followed.
Transitions between paragraphs
During the processes of writing, the student’s goal is to get across information clearly and in a few words. Transitions help the student to accomplish these goals by establishing logical connections between sentences, paragraphs, and sections of your papers.
Because the beginning of a new paragraph signifies a change to another segment of your argument, you should make your train of thought clear to the reader by showing the relationship between this new segment and the segment discussed in the preceding paragraph.
There are several devices for creating this connection between paragraphs. These devices help to keep the thought flowing smoothly from paragraph to paragraph in the same way that linking words and transitions keep the thought flowing from sentence to sentence.
After making sure that the content of one paragraph logically leads to the next,
use transitions to link paragraphs together so your writing will flow coherently. Each
paragraph should refer to an idea from the previous one. You can accomplish this
connection by using a transitional word or two, phrase, or sentence.
Connectives
Here are some common transitional words:
Admittedly, Assuredly, As a result,Consequently, Finally, Clearly, then Of course, an addition, In fact, For example, Moreover, Likewise, Furthermore, Indeed,On the other hand, The fact remains, Similarly, Therefore, Nevertheless, Obviously, Thus
Click on the following like from the The Study Guides and Strategies web site to view an important list of transitions words classified by category. Click HERE.
The Concluding Paragraph
A basic purpose of your paper's concluding paragraph is both to restate the paper's argument and to restate how you have supported this argument in the body of the paper. The concluding paragraph is the summary paragraph. It is vital that within this paragraph, you restate the Thesis Statement and the three support ideas for you argument. This should be an area where you restate you argument powerfully, because this is your last chance of convincing your reader the validity of your presentation. It should restate the thesis using some of the original text that was written in the Introductory Paragraph.
Next , you will need to give a brief summary of the three main issues or points that were supported in the above three paragraphs.
Your conclusion may alas contain a prediction, a question, some helpful recommendation or a powerful quote. Some writers prefer to make the readers act with the last words in their essay or they share their own comments on the problem .
