How to Approach Your Persuasive Essay Writing With No Trouble

Writing guide
Posted on November 25, 2021

Agree that we all love persuading others regarding our point of view, life principles, or particular habits. However, our persuasive advice might also occasionally be “too much”. On the other hand, the situation when you can experience complete relief persuading someone is the college or university assignment. So, let’s learn how to write a persuasive text academically fit, and appropriate without any criticism.

Steps on How to Start a Persuasive Essay

Persuasive papers are assignments employed by students who need to take one particular position on a situation, book, event, author, issue in pursuit of persuading a reader on that. Such texts are a common deal also found in advertisements, reviews, and an array of media article formats. Yet, when writing an essay you should approach it with thorough research, word choice, and argument options. Those who avoid using supporting facts, and evidence will simply come up with biased opinions, and will only provoke readers’ irritation. All in all, the key features of a persuasive essay are the following:

Good Bad
By using facts, statistics, figures, you persuade the reader; You convince a reader with your emotions and tone;
You base everything on logic and reason; You base everything on personal experience only;
You acknowledge opposing views; You believe you are always right and do not consider others opinions;
You appeal to the reader’s mind; You appeal to the reader’s emotions;
You require at least basic research of the issue; You approach the topic without its analysis.

How to write a good persuasive essay from scratch with the outline?

1. Choosing the Best Topic

A universal rule to starting your persuasive essay is to pick a topic that alone interests you. It can be a subject you either agree or disagree with. Try to avoid trite themes like – why should one be vaccinated? Besides, it is a super-sensitive theme where you can violate one’s personal boundaries. Good examples are:

Is it OK to provide fast food at college cafeterias?
Should online education replace traditional learning?
Why should financial literacy be taught in elementary school?
Should students take a gap year after graduating from high school?

2. Hook One with Your Thesis

Your paper should start with a declarative statement that introduces your reader to your point of view. For example, it can be a fact, evidence related to the topic, or certain research findings. If you want to persuade a reader about the harm of fast food, find the numbers indicating how many people struggle with the obesity caused by that food. Yet, it should be short and precise. The introduction structure of 1-3 sentences is enough. The example:

  • “About 84.8 million adults eat fast food every day, taking into consideration the 2020s statistics.” – It helps to draw a reader’s attention, and then develop the key ideas either supporting or disagreeing with the relevance of fast food today.

3. Correlate with Both Pros and Cons

To not be biased, you have to introduce your reader to both sides of the subject. It also allows you to avoid criticism. How to write a persuasive paragraph in the main body? Divide your main body into 3-5 paragraphs. Each paragraph will be dedicated to your 1 point of view where you try to persuade. Prior to writing that fast food is the worst thing invented by humans, begin writing about its positive sides. For example, people love eating it as their guilty pleasure. After that, indicate the possible harm.

  • 1st paragraph – introduce a reader to the phenomenon of fast food. You can speak when it first “appeared”, or how popular it is in your country, city, among others;
  • 2nd paragraph – introduce the main pros of eating fast food on a regular basis. Yet, try to be sober with your opinions. Ideally, you can find the scientific findings regarding the benefits;
  • 3rd paragraph – introduce REAL cons of eating fast food. No need to refer only to your personal opinion about that. Find what scientists say about it. For instance, there might be problems with health, deterioration of the skin, among others.

Pros and cons should be balanced. Like – 3 pros and 3 cons.

4. Be Empathic

A good trick to persuade a reader is to show empathy. Try to relate to one’s issue or attitude regarding one subject. It shows one that you understand their possible struggle rather than criticize them. It can be used for both the introduction and the conclusion.

  • “Personally, fast food is my guilty pleasure, so I do understand the cravings of others.” – You show a reader that you alone ate it a lot or tried it before, and do not think of it as something critical. Instead, some students straightforwardly try to persuade a reader that fast food is the enemy. It is a no-no!

5. Be Repetitive

Another good trick is to be repetitive when persuading. However, ensure to do it by using different words, or statements. For instance, it may be metaphors. Especially, it concerns the events when you conclude your ideas, and proceed with final convincing.

  • “Fast food harms the body”, “Fast food causes obesity”, “Fast food is addictive” – as you may see, you do not always write Fast Food is Bad, Bad, Bad, etc.

6. Conclude Responsibly

Yes, exactly responsibly! The conclusion is the last chance to persuade your reader. You can use linking words, the examples are – “finally, in a word, in brief, in the end, in the final analysis, on the whole, thus, to conclude, to summarize”, among others. Your summary should not also be too lengthy. If the entire essay is 500 words, 100 words are pretty much enough. Just refer to your thesis, and do not add any new ideas or persuasive statements. After that, ask the following questions:

  • How may this argument be extended in a larger context?
  • Why is this argument or point of view important to me?
  • What other issues have my argument raised?
  • What actions may readers do as a result of reading my essay?

If you could answer all the questions positively, you are on the right track. If after reading, you alone do not see any possible actions regarding changing opinion about fast food, what’s the point?

If you still need some ideas, do not forget to refer to online samples. Derive inspiration, but do not copy-paste anything. Ask your friends about any true feedback. Check whether you could persuade them about the possible harm or benefits of fast food. The main goal is to at least make them rethink their vision about fast food, rather than persuade in full. Keep in mind, relating to your topic alone can help you receive a good grade.

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