What Is a Persuasive Essay?
A persuasive essay is a type of essay that presents logical arguments with emotional appeal in order to sway readers to a particular point of view. Persuasive essays can be both a form of academic writing and personal writing. They typically begin with a question that the writer spends the essay arguing in favor of or in opposition to. A personal essay writer will make a firm statement that is backed up with a combination of data, research, and anecdotal experience. The writer will often explore opposing positions and counterarguments as a means to discredit them.
3 Elements of a Persuasive Essay
A good persuasive essay should feature three essential components known as modes of persuasion. These elements, coined by philosopher Aristotle himself, work together to make a compelling and effective argument that attempts to persuade others’ points of view.
- Ethos: Ethos is an element of argument and persuasion through which a speaker establishes their credibility and knowledge, as well as their good moral character. Readers are more likely to trust someone with credible knowledge, personal experience, or standing within a community. Including ethos—or ethics—in your persuasive writing can help sell your point of view.
- Pathos: Pathos is an appeal made to an audience’s emotions in order to evoke feelings. Triggering particular emotions in your audience can help them connect with you as a narrator. This provides a layer of interest to your readers as well, making your writing more compelling and stickier.
- Logos: Logos is a rhetorical or persuasive appeal to the audience’s logic and rationality. Good persuasive writing outlines a series of logical reasons that the reader should believe the writer’s argument.
Components of a Persuasive Essay
Here we have compelled an extensive list of good persuasive essay topics divided into popular categories to help you get started with your paper.
A persuasive essay should be well-organized and follow a clear and logical structure. As a rule, the length of this essay is between 5-and 6 paragraphs. What are the components of a persuasive essay? This type of work follows the standard essay structure – that is, a catchy intro; the main body which includes the main ideas, with arguments to support them; and a logical conclusion. Now, let’s look at each of the three components closer:
- Introduction: An introduction is the opening paragraph of an essay. It is the first thing that gets presented to readers’ eyes, which is why it has to be clear and attention-grabbing. To drive readers’ attention, an introduction should contain a hook – an intriguing fact, statement, or argument. Also, an introductory paragraph has to contain a strong thesis statement that reflects the main idea that you will be examining in the next part.
- Body: An essay’s main body is its heart. As a rule, it consists of 3-4 paragraphs. Each paragraph reflects a specific point and provides supporting evidence for it.
- Conclusion: The closing part of your essay is used to sum up the key ideas discussed in its main body and connects them to the thesis statement in the introduction. In persuasive writing, the conclusion is used to strengthen the persuasive effect of the whole piece.