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 favour 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.
Once you’ve already understood what sample persuasion essays are all about, it’s time to start writing your own. It may take some time before you can start writing more fluidly but if this is your first time writing such an essay, here are some tips to guide you:
- Start by reading the instructions of your assignment regarding the persuasive essay you must write. If you have the freedom to choose the topic to write about, then you may want to look at different persuasive writing examples to get inspiration. Remember, choose a topic that you’re interested in, one which inspires you.
- Before you start with your research, make a list of all the facts you know about the topic you’ve chosen. Then create another list, this time containing your opinions and ideas about the topic. Arrange these points according to how important you see them.
- Now it’s time to reflect on what you’ve written. Think about why you have these opinions. You must first clarify your views so that you don’t get overwhelmed by all the information you come across when you do research.
- Try to think of your own perspective on the topic. In doing this, you can come up with a draft of your thesis statement to reflect your view in a concise manner.
- The next step is to start doing research. Use different sources to give you a broader perspective regarding your topic. From library books to academic sources to online journals and more, there are so many resources available.
- As you’re doing research, take note of the things you want to include in your essay. If you can find facts which support the information you already know about your topic, all the better! The point of doing research is to collect enough information to strengthen the statements you include in your persuasive essay.
- After researching, go back to the thesis statement you’ve created. If you think that it’s still relevant, keep it. But if all of the information you’ve gathered makes your thesis statement seem weak, revise it. Think of another thesis statement which is more compelling and thought-provoking.
- Create an outline for your essay. After your research, you would have a better idea of the overall content of your essay. Try to come up with a clear outline to guide you as you write the content.
- The next step is to go through all of your notes. Organize the information according to relevance. If you’ve already placed the points you want to discuss in your outline, search for information about those points and put them together. Make sure that all the points in your outline have clear facts and explanations.
- Finalize your outline after organizing all of the information you have at your disposal. This makes it easier for you to follow when you start writing your essay.
- Most people start writing their essays with an introduction. But for some, some prefer to write the body of the essay before writing both the introduction and the conclusion. Either way, use the outline and the notes you’ve gathered to help guide you.