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Why teach persuasive writing?
As children mature as writers, it's important to give them the opportunity to write using a variety of formats. Persuasive writing helps students formulate specific reasons for their opinions, and provides an opportunity to research facts related to their opinions. As students develop an understanding of how writing can influence or change another's thoughts or actions, they can begin to understand the persuasive nature of the marketing they are exposed to through television, the Internet, and other media.
How to teach persuasive writing
- Have students listen to or read examples of persuasive writing. Together, listen and look for words, phrases and techniques that helped the writer persuade the listener.
- Brainstorm something that is important to an individual child or the group. Is it extra recess? Another chapter of the read aloud? The potential closing of a library? The more authentic the issue, the more passionately your students will write.
- Once the important privilege is chosen, have the child (or class) start to list reasons why they should be allowed this privilege. "Just because," and "because I like it" should not be considered valid reasons. Students can work together to generate at least three good reasons to support an argument. This list of persuasive words and phrases from the site Teaching Ideas may help get students started.
- Have students do some research to gather facts or examples that support their reasons.
- Have students summarize their position.
Here's a persuasive letter written by an elementary school student from Crozet, VA:
Watch: Bubble Gum Letters
Create an authentic writing opportunity that motivates students to write persuasive letters to a target audience. See the lesson plan .
This video is published with permission from the Balanced Literacy Diet . See related how-to videos with lesson plans in the Text Structures and Genres section as well as the Writing Processes and Strategies section.
This persuasive writing lesson from ReadWriteThink uses the Beverly Cleary book Emily's Runaway Imagination as the springboard for kids to write letters to a librarian urging the addition of certain titles to the library. A Persuasion Map Planning Sheet guides students through steps similar to what is described above.
This resource shows the lifecycle of writing a persuasive letter to a child's parents about where to vacation for the summer. The PDF begins with the brainstorming, moves through drafting, editing, and publishing of the final letter.
From Writing Fix, here's a speech writing lesson that uses the mentor text Otto Runs for President in conjunction with the RAFT strategy. In this lesson, students assume to the role of a talking fruit or vegetable. Pretending that there's a "Fruit/Vegetable of the Year" election, the students will create a campaign speech that explains why their fruit/veggie is the best candidate for the job.
For second language learners, students of varying reading skill, students with learning disabilities, and younger learners.
- Have students work in small groups to generate their ideas and do the research.
- Offer various suggestions for how students can share their argument: e.g., a debate format, a "soapbox" in the classroom, or letters to the editor of the newspaper.
See the research that supports this strategy
Wollman-Bonilla, J. (2000). Family message journals: Teaching writing through family involvement . Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Children's books to use with this strategy
Emily's Runaway Imagination
Emily Bartlett lives in an old farmhouse in Pitchfork, Oregon at a time when automobiles are brand-new inventions and libraries are a rare luxury. Can Emily use her lively mind to help bring a library to Pitchfork? ReadWriteThink offers a persuasive writing lesson plan featuring this book.
Otto Runs for President
When Otto runs for school presidency, he must defeat some underhanded techniques used by his opponents. What might convince the students that Otto is the best candidate for the job?
How Oliver Olsen Changed the World
Oliver Olsen learns how to change his own world as the engaging third grader works on a school science project. The telling (third person) is natural and the situations plausible. The story can be retold using transition words to emphasize or identify individuals' favorite (or most memorable) parts.
The Storyteller's Candle
This is the story of librarian Pura Belpré, told through the eyes of two young children who are introduced to the library and its treasures just before Christmas. Lulu Delacre's lovely illustrations evoke New York City at the time of the Great Depression, as well as the close-knit and vibrant Puerto Rican community that was thriving in El Barrio during this time. Bilingual Spanish-English text.
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
Farmer Brown has his hands full when the cows on his farm get a typewriter. Duck, however, negotiates successfully for all parties in this very funny farm story of very clever animals. Be prepared to talk about typewriters or take a trip to a museum to see one!
Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. grew up fascinated by big words. He would later go on to use these words to inspire a nation and call people to action. In this award-winning book, powerful portraits of King show how he used words, not weapons, to fight injustice.
I would also the Duck series (Duck for President) and the Pigeon Series (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus) as books to use!
Thanks for this, it really helped!
This is a good site and very helpful to my son.
I agree with all of these
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Can You Convince Me? Developing Persuasive Writing
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Persuasive writing is an important skill that can seem intimidating to elementary students. This lesson encourages students to use skills and knowledge they may not realize they already have. A classroom game introduces students to the basic concepts of lobbying for something that is important to them (or that they want) and making persuasive arguments. Students then choose their own persuasive piece to analyze and learn some of the definitions associated with persuasive writing. Once students become aware of the techniques used in oral arguments, they then apply them to independent persuasive writing activities and analyze the work of others to see if it contains effective persuasive techniques.
From theory to practice.
- Students can discover for themselves how much they already know about constructing persuasive arguments by participating in an exercise that is not intimidating.
- Progressing from spoken to written arguments will help students become better readers of persuasive texts.
Common Core Standards
This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.
This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.
NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts
- 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
- 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
Materials and Technology
- Computers with Internet access
- LCD projector (optional)
- Chart paper or chalkboard
- Sticky notes
- Persuasive Strategy Presentation
- Persuasion Is All Around You
- Persuasive Strategy Definitions
- Check the Strategies
- Check the Strategy
- Observations and Notes
- Persuasive Writing Assessment
- Work in cooperative groups to brainstorm ideas and organize them into a cohesive argument to be presented to the class
- Gain knowledge of the different strategies that are used in effective persuasive writing
- Use a graphic organizer to help them begin organizing their ideas into written form
- Apply what they have learned to write a persuasive piece that expresses their stance and reasoning in a clear, logical sequence
- Develop oral presentation skills by presenting their persuasive writing pieces to the class
- Analyze the work of others to see if it contains effective persuasive techniques
Session 1: The Game of Persuasion
Home/School Connection: Distribute Persuasion Is All Around You . Students are to find an example of a persuasive piece from the newspaper, television, radio, magazine, or billboards around town and be ready to report back to class during Session 2. Provide a selection of magazines or newspapers with advertisements for students who may not have materials at home. For English-language learners (ELLs), it may be helpful to show examples of advertisements and articles in newspapers and magazines.
Session 2: Analysis of an Argument
Home/School Connection: Ask students to revisit their persuasive piece from Persuasion Is All Around You . This time they will use Check the Strategies to look for the persuasive strategies that the creator of the piece incorporated. Check for understanding with your ELLs and any special needs students. It may be helpful for them to talk through their persuasive piece with you or a peer before taking it home for homework. Arrange a time for any student who may not have the opportunity to complete assignments outside of school to work with you, a volunteer, or another adult at school on the assignment.
Session 3: Persuasive Writing
Session 4: presenting the persuasive writing.
- Endangered Species: Persuasive Writing offers a way to integrate science with persuasive writing. Have students pretend that they are reporters and have to convince people to think the way they do. Have them pick issues related to endangered species, use the Persuasion Map as a prewriting exercise, and write essays trying to convince others of their points of view. In addition, the lesson “Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues” can be adapted for your students as part of this exercise.
- Have students write persuasive arguments for a special class event, such as an educational field trip or an in-class educational movie. Reward the class by arranging for the class event suggested in one of the essays.
Student Assessment / Reflections
- Compare your Observations and Notes from Session 4 and Session 1 to see if students understand the persuasive strategies, use any new persuasive strategies, seem to be overusing a strategy, or need more practice refining the use of a strategy. Offer them guidance and practice as needed.
- Collect both homework assignments and the Check the Strategy sheets and assess how well students understand the different elements of persuasive writing and how they are applied.
- Collect students’ Persuasion Maps and use them and your discussions during conferences to see how well students understand how to use the persuasive strategies and are able to plan their essays. You want to look also at how well they are able to make changes from the map to their finished essays.
- Use the Persuasive Writing Assessment to evaluate the essays students wrote during Session 3.
- Calendar Activities
- Strategy Guides
- Lesson Plans
- Student Interactives
The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.
This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.
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- Kindergarten K
5 Top Persuasive Writing Lesson Plans for Students and Teachers
The purpose of any persuasive writing text is to persuade the reader of a particular point of view or to take a specific course of action. Persuasive texts come in many different forms, including, but not limited to, essays, editorials, letters, advertisements, and reviews. While persuasive texts come in many shapes and sizes, they all share some pretty standard features.
Persuasive texts employ a wide variety of different rhetorical strategies and techniques to achieve their ends. For example, they’ll make use of emotive language and utilise rhetorical questions. Sometimes images are also used to entice or appeal to the reader or viewer.
Advertising is one key form of persuasive writing . It makes vigorous use of all the tools in the persuasive writing toolbox as it strives to sell goods or services to the reader.
In this article, you’ll learn how to take your students from reluctant salesperson to master marketer in a lightning-fast five days.
Students will first learn how the various persuasive strategies work before moving on to incorporate them into their own advertisements. We have very thorough guides to persuasive writing and advertisements you should explore also.
So, let’s get started!
Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 1: Identify the Key Features of Adverts
Before your students will be able to produce their own well-written advertisements, they’ll need to be well-versed in all the tricks up the skilful salesperson’s sleeves.
One of the most productive ways for students to do this is through a process of reverse engineering.
Organize your students into small groups or pairs and distribute a selection of print advertisements gleaned from various sources such as magazines, newspapers, and posters. You could also show projections of some sample advertisements projected onto the whiteboard to facilitate this exercise.
Now, ask the students to examine the advertisements and answer the following question:
What techniques do the advertisers use to get our attention?
Challenge the students to go beyond the pretty obvious features of advertisements, e.g. branding, slogans, testimonials, to also look at more subtle techniques such as the use and interplay of images and various other effects created by language choices and figurative devices.
When the students have finished their discussions, have them feedback as a whole class and use their responses to compile a master list of the various features they have identified.
Some features suggested by the class might include:
- Emotive language
- Appealing adjectives
- Powerful verbs
- Strong adverbs
- Contact details
- Rhetorical questions
Once you have compiled a master list of persuasive strategies and techniques used in advertising, these can handily be turned into checklists that the students can use when producing their own advertisements later.
Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 2: Analyze an Advert
Now, the students have a solid understanding of the different features of advertisements and a checklist to work from; it’s time for them to analyze an advert in more detail.
Not only will this prove a valuable exercise to help prepare your students for producing their own advertisements later in the week, but it will also serve as an excellent task to improve your students’ media literacy skills. It may even help to innoculate them from media manipulation in the future.
To get started on their advertisement analysis, they’ll need to source a suitable advertisement to take a look at in detail.
Older and higher ability students may be fit to make their own choices regarding which advertisement to analyze. If this is the case, perhaps they can choose an advert for a product they like or a product or service in a category that interests them greatly.
Allowing your students some say in the ads they analyze will help fuel their interest and enthusiasm when it comes to creating their own advertisements later.
However, for younger students and those of lower ability, it might be best to choose a sample advertisement for them – or at least offer a pre-vetted, limited choice. They will most likely have enough to contend with already!
When students have a suitable advertisement to hand, encourage them to use their checklist from yesterday’s lesson to explore how the ad works. The students should then write a paragraph identifying the various techniques used in the advertisement and their effect.
Challenge the students to write another paragraph or two considering what makes the advertisement work – or not, as the case may be. Ask them to consider where the advertisement could be improved. Could the slogan be catchier? How about the logo? Does it convey the brand’s identity appropriately? Are the images used in the advertisement optimal?
When the students have finished their paragraphs, they can display their advert and their analysis of it and share their thoughts with the class.
Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 3: Plan an Advertisement
At this stage, your students should have a good understanding of many of the main features of advertisements and had plenty of opportunities to see examples of these in action. Now it’s time for them to begin to plan for writing their own advertisements. Here are some areas for your students to think about when starting the planning process.
The Purpose and Audience
Like any other writing type, students will need to identify both the purpose and the audience for their advertisements bef ore putting pen to paper.
The purpose of any advertisement is to sell goods or services. Precisely what goods or services are being sold is the first question that needs to be answered.
Students might like to focus on the goods or services advertised in the adverts they’ve been exploring over the previous two days. Or, if they prefer, they might like to choose something new entirely.
Once they’ve chosen what they’re selling, students will need to identify who they will sell it to. Scattershot advertisements that attempt to sell to everyone often end up selling to no one.
One effective way to help focus an advert is to define a ‘buyer persona’ first. This is a profile of the hypothetical buyer who the ad will target.
Students can consider the following characteristics to help them develop their buyer’s persona:
- Education level
- Marital status
- Who they trust
- What they read/watch
The Brand Name
The next stage is for the student to decide on a name for their company. This should usually be something relatively short and memorable, and appealing to the target audience.
Generally, the student will need to come up with at least four or five ideas first. They can then choose the best.
It can be a helpful practice for the student to look at the brand names for companies selling similar goods and services. A little internet research will be beneficial here.
Now it’s time for students to jot down some ideas for their brand’s slogan. Slogans tend to be short and punchy phrases that help make brands more memorable for customers.
Slogans often employ literary devices such as alliteration, puns, or rhyme. They don’t always have to be the most meaningful things in the world; it’s more important that they’re memorable. Think Nike’s Just to Do It or McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It – not the most meaning-rich phrases in the world but instantly recognizable!
The Body Copy
This part of the advertisement will contain the bulk of the writing. It’s where the students will get to use the various techniques and strategies they’ve explored in the previous activities.
Despite containing most of the ad’s text, advertising copy is usually concise and to the point. Student’s should strive to get the main points across in the fewest words possible. Nothing turns readers off faster than impenetrable walls of text.
To help organize the text, students may use bullet points and subheadings. They should be sure to include any specific information or specifications that they want the reader to know about the product or service.
The language chosen should also be appropriate for speaking to the audience that they have defined earlier.
The Call to Action
The Call to Action – commonly referred to as the CTA , usually comes at the end of an advertisement.
The CTA typically comprises a few sentences that invite the reader to take a particular course of action. Normally, to buy the advertised goods or service.
However, not all CTAs focus on getting the reader to make an immediate purchase. Some, for example, aim to get the reader to provide their contact details so they can be sold to later.
Students need to first define what their Call to Action will invite readers to do. They will then need to choose a strong imperative that will call on the reader to take that specific action. Commonly used verbs that urge readers to take action include subscribe, join, buy, etc.
The CTA must be clear and specific; the reader should be in no doubt about what the advertisement is asking them to do.
Often, the CTA will create a sense of urgency by limiting special offers by time.
As part of the planning process, students should use some of their time in today’s session to think about and make some notes on options they might like to include in the final drafts of their Call to Action.
Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 4: Create the Advertisement
Day 4, already! This is the day students will try to bring all the elements together. They’ll work to complete their advertisements by the end of today’s session.
You may like to have the students collaborating to produce their ads or working individually. Either way, reinforce the importance of attention to detail in their work.
The main focus for persuasive texts of any kind, advertisements included, shouldn’t be length but, instead, it should be on how effectively it persuades the reader to take the desired action.
Students should incorporate their planning from yesterday and refer to their checklists as they create. As precise language is so essential to effective marketing, encourage students to use thesauruses to help them find just the right word for their copy.
When students have had a chance to draft their advertisements, they can then get into small groups and compare their work. This is an opportunity for students to provide each other with constructive criticism.
They can use their checklists as a basis to provide this criticism. Students can then revise their advertisements in light of the advice they’ve received in their groups.
Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 5: Further Practice in the Art of Persuasion
In the process of comparing their work with each other, with reference to the criteria they’ve worked on earlier in the week, students will no doubt identify areas they are strong in and other areas where they are weaker.
Day 5’s activities should offer students an opportunity to practice those areas identified as needing further work to bring them up to par.
For example, students can practice their persuasion skills by moving their focus from printed ads to other types of marketing endeavours that utilise the arts of persuasion.
Where students struggled to employ literary devices in their advertising copy, they may benefit from creating a radio jingle or radio ad for their product or service. As this type of ad can contain no visual imagery to support, writing a radio jingle or ad will force the student to pay particular attention to verbal imagery, rhyme, alliteration, etc.
If the testimonials used in the first advertisement were unconvincing, perhaps the student will benefit from isolating this strategy to focus exclusively on effective testimonial writing. They should spend some time researching testimonials and how to write them effectively.
For example, testimonials should usually be:
- Short and to the point
- Conversational in tone
- Authentic (use a name, photo, job title, etc.)
- Specific about the benefits
- Directed at overcoming objections.
Once students have a good handle on how these work, they should put their new-found knowledge into practice and get writing as soon as possible.
This research-then-practice model can help the student improve in whatever particular area of persuasion that needs work – as identified in yesterday’s activity.
Getting good at persuasive writing demands our students to develop their knowledge and abilities with a broad range of skills and strategies.
Advertising copy is a highly concentrated form of persuasive writing and, therefore, an excellent means for our students to gain lots of practice in a short space of time.
And, as the saying goes, a good start is half the work, so set your class of creative copywriters on the road to marketing mastery today!
ARTICLES RELATED TO PERSUASIVE WRITING LESSON PLANS
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23 Persuasive writing Topics for High School students
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persuasive writing mini lessons
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Persuasive Writing Workshop Mini Lesson Activities Middle School
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Also included in: Writing Workshop Mini Lesson Activities Whole Year Bundle Grade 8 Virtual Print
Argumentative / Persuasive Writing Tutorial Bundle Resources Mini-Lessons
Persuasive Writing Unit (Opinion Writing)
Six Traits of Writing Mini Lessons: Narrative, Informational & Persuasive Gr 4-5
Opinion Writing Unit | Writing Workshop | Print and Digital
Also included in: Writing Workshop Bundle | Print and Digital | Informational, Opinion, Narrative
Persuasive Essay Writing Unit With Sample Writing & Lesson Plans for High School
Also included in: Essay Writing Unit Bundle: Expository, Narrative, Persuasive & Literary Analysis
Opinion Writing 4th and 5th Grade | Graphic Organizers & Reasons and Evidence
Also included in: 4th & 5th Grade Writing Units - Curriculum Bundle | Text-Based Writing & Prompts
Six Traits of Writing Mini Lessons: Narrative, Informational & Persuasive Gr K-1
Six Traits of Writing Mini Lesson BUNDLE: Narrative, Informative, Persuasive
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Opinion Writing Resources and Organizers for Elementary Students + Teachers
Also included in: Elementary Writing Workshop Resources Bundle | Teaching Without Frills
Step By Step Opinion/Persuasive Writing Unit with Mentor Texts
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K-3 Writing Mini-Lessons | Writing Prompts | Opinion Writing | Writing Centers
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Opinion Writing 2nd Grade 3rd Graphic Organizer Minilessons Prompts PowerPoint
Also included in: 2nd 3rd Grade Writing Workshop Bundle~ Opinion Informational with Minilessons
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- Teaching Persuasive Writing in a Fun Way
by Gordana S | Feb 14, 2021 | Student Skills | 0 comments
Table of Contents
Teaching Persuasive Writing in High School—Theory and Practice
Teaching different writing skills to high school students is crucial if you want them to develop the soft skills they’ll need in life. When considering the reasons why reading and writing skills are important , it’s a mistake to think only in terms of language conventions and an excellent GPA.
Your students will have to use different writing skills and strategies in life. For example, they will need to write personal statements to get into the college of their choice. When they are enrolled, they will do college essays and write motivational letters to get internships . Adolescents enjoy coming up with creative ways to express themselves in their personal lives too. Research shows high school students enjoy writing — 93% of them do it for pleasure.
Your students will benefit from learning persuasive writing strategies in a variety of ways. Not only will they need to master persuasion for everyday exchanges, but also for their personal statement essays and college applications. To that end, let’s see what persuasive writing encompasses and how you can teach it to your students effectively.
Take the Right Approach to Teaching Persuasive Writing
Persuasive writing is used in any text that aims to nudge readers to form an opinion or take action. While it’s a given that most persuasive writing belongs to the non-fiction genre, fiction writers can use persuasion to influence their readers’ worldviews too.
Even though your students read persuasive texts, they don’t necessarily know how to write an effective persuasive essay themselves. This means that you need to teach them the specific skills that go into composing a persuasive essay one by one.
In your teaching, you cannot miss a lesson on effective opening and closing paragraphs or the importance of outlining. You also have to teach students how to do research effectively and choose the right words to construct their sentences. Only when your students know each of the techniques used in writing persuasive texts can they compose a solid persuasive essay.
Characteristics of Persuasive Writing
Credit: Elijah Macleod
Readers are more likely to believe a professional in the field than someone who has no connection or experience with the subject of a text. Experienced writers know that the first step to writing a persuasive piece is gaining knowledge on the topic.
To do it, your students have to know how to do research first. When it’s clear from their essays that they know what they are writing about, their texts will be more effective and convincing. Whether they can write persuasively depends on the techniques of persuasive writing that you teach them.
Some of the most common characteristics of persuasive essays are:
- Current statistics that support the author’s argument
- Examples from real life
- Observation of current events and phenomena
- Acknowledgment and rebuttal of the opposing argument
- Additional research from reputable institutions
These characteristics contribute to the validity of the statements in an essay and the credibility of the author. Sound, well-researched arguments should sway the reader to take the author’s point of view .
Essential Persuasion Techniques
Whether it’s used in writing or speech, persuasion has three essential elements:
Take a look at the table demonstrating what each of the three is:
You should teach your students about ethos, pathos, and logos to show them why it’s important to use those elements of persuasion. They will not only learn how to use them to their advantage but also be more successful in recognizing when their intellect and emotions are being appealed to.
Teach Your Students Persuasive Writing Skills
Credit: Kelly Sikkema
Ethos, pathos, and logos are the backbone of persuasion. There are many techniques your students can employ to use these three elements effectively.
Teaching your students persuasive writing isn’t much different from teaching them critical or argumentative writing . Some skills—such as an excellent command of vocabulary and critical thinking—are needed for any type of writing.
The next time you are planning a persuasive writing activity, think about how you can teach these techniques to your students:
- Establishing tone
- Targeting a specific audience
- Using the right words
- Locating evidence
- Presenting data
- Telling a story
- Refuting an argument
- Appealing to the readers’ emotions
- Rephrasing effectively
Outlining is a prewriting activity that your students should employ when creating any type of essay. Your students should learn that a clear outline will help them in each stage of their writing process. Outlining makes it easier for them to organize their ideas into specific parts of the essay and serves as a reference they can use to check whether they are straying off topic.
If time and curricula allow, you should have a lesson dedicated to writing effective outlines only. You can distribute a sample outline of a persuasive essay to all your students to introduce them to the technique. They can see that an outline consists of:
- The introduction —in which authors determine how they will present the topic, opposing views, and thesis statements
- Body paragraphs —in which authors decide how they will back up their claims
- The conclusion —which summarizes the thesis effectively and calls to action
When students have studied the outline structure, give them a sample essay to examine how well the author executed their plan. You can have a class discussion about the usefulness of an effective outline.
An interesting exercise is to allow your students to construct outlines for already written essays before they make outlines for their texts.
When your students compose outlines for their persuasive texts, make sure you give them feedback on their work. Help them see if they are on the right path.
Tone is essential for persuasive writing. The tone your students set in their essays will build trust more than the topic of the assignment. Teach your students what tone they should use to sound confident when defending their arguments in essays.
For example, imagine your students are arguing against the rule of wearing uniforms in high schools. Rather than writing “wearing uniforms in high schools may impact the students’ self-expression negatively,” they should write “wearing uniforms in high schools eliminates the students’ self-expression.” The second sentence is more confident, and the essay assumes a stronger stand and convinces the reader that uniforms aren’t a good idea.
Targeting a Specific Audience
Instead of aiming to appeal to as many people as possible, persuasive writing is more effective if targeted at a specific audience. Depending on the argument that your students want to support or the field for which they are writing, the type of audience will vary.
When your students hand in their persuasive writing essays, you will be their only judge, but they shouldn’t see you as their target audience. Teach your students they should also appeal to a specific audience rather than the masses. You can give them a list of questions they can go over, such as:
- Who will benefit from what I have to say the most?
- What problems do people I address experience?
- Who is this issue important to?
- What has the best chance to trigger emotions in my target audience?
Using the Right Words
A careful selection of words can influence readers to feel more deeply about the problem students present in their essays, so make sure you work with them on expanding their vocabulary. Having a large number of synonyms and topic-specific vocabulary in their arsenal will help them pick the most efficient word for what they want to express.
You should also equip your students with the words and phrases that are commonly used in persuasive writing. Give them a reference list of phrases they can use and show them how specific vocabulary helps their essay convince the reader that they are knowledgeable on the topic.
An excellent exercise is to have a quick vocabulary brainstorming session with the whole class based on the topic of the essay your students need to write. For example, if they need to write a topic on pollution, your class should brainstorm on the topic-related words and phrases. This gives your students useful vocabulary for the essay, ideas on what to write about, and in turn, how to outline their texts.
The best technique to prove a point is to refer to concrete evidence that supports it. Your students may not be familiar with academic research yet, which is why it’s a good idea to teach them how to do research in high school. They will not be overwhelmed when the same is required of them in college.
Make sure your students know these rules of effective research:
- Knowing which keywords to use to get the results fast online
- Checking whether the information is relevant and up-to-date
- Choosing statistics published by reputable institutions
- Selecting the most relevant type of information for their essays
Same as outlining, research is part of almost all longer writing. If possible, dedicate a lesson to teaching the importance of research to your high school students. Another lesson should be devoted to teaching your students how they can locate data successfully.
You can start with a fun topic that is interesting to your students. For example, if there are rumors about their favorite celebrities, you can tell them to research the validity of those rumors.
If the research your students do involves data, they need to present it in their essay effectively. Knowing how to present data in a persuasive essay might be more work for your students than finding it in the first place. If they clutter their essays with numbers for the sake of having them, they will probably do their writing a disservice.
The best course of action is to give students a text that presents statistics clearly and effectively. They should also learn the vocabulary that is used to explain data. Your students can then practice presenting data themselves in their essays.
Telling a Story
Telling a story can be a great way to connect with readers. Your students need to learn how to use narration to their benefit. Make sure they don’t turn their persuasive essays into fiction, though. A story element should appeal to the reader’s emotions and influence them to take the author’s side .
Providing examples from real life can back up your students’ arguments as effectively as presenting a precedent or striking statistics. Relating real-life experience can be a neat way your students can start a speech in a school competition , for example. Teach your students they don’t have to tell stories from their personal lives if they don’t have any they would like to share.
Refuting an Argument
Acknowledging the other side of an argument is essential for successful persuasion. Readers will hardly be convinced to side with a certain opinion if the opposite one isn’t refuted.
You should make it clear to your students that they must not run from opposing viewpoints. When they present them in their persuasive essays and explain why those arguments are not as valid as their own, their essays will be that more compelling.
When you present the topics for the essay to your students, have a class discussion on the opposing views first. Each student can pick one side of the argument and practice how to refute the opposing one with their partner.
Appealing to Readers’ Emotions
Your students can appeal to their readers’ emotions by the use of narration or the right word choices—but these aren’t the only techniques. Others include:
- Creating an effective hook in the introductory sentence
- Addressing the reader directly
- Making the reader relate to the author’s experience
- Using direct questions to make readers think about what they have read
When your students master these nuances of persuasive writing, they should use them to a steady degree. Logic should be the primary focus of their essays rather than emotional manipulation.
You should also engage your students in acknowledging how other writers do it. The best example would be the advertisements that your students are bombarded with on the daily. The ads your students see on their phones or in the newspapers use persuasive language and appeal to their emotions. When your students recognize it, they can get ideas on how to use persuasion in their own essays and be more mindful when they are the target of persuasive writing themselves.
Your students will have to repeat themselves in their persuasive essays. Most notably, their concluding paragraph will have to restate their thesis statement. You should teach them how to paraphrase it effectively.
Teach your students to express the same idea again in other words. When they are invested in the topic of their assignment and have researched it thoroughly, they should have no problem doing that.
When you devote one lesson to closing paragraphs, give your students other authors’ intros to rephrase. They need to connect their conclusions to the hook in the original intro, but they mustn’t introduce new concepts in that final paragraph.
Activities for Teaching Persuasive Writing
You can come up with various activities to teach your students persuasive writing, but make sure to have one main goal for each activity.
To practice persuasive writing through class activities, your students can:
- Watch and learn from other writers
- Look for relevant sources
- Outline their essays
Watch and Learn
For this activity, pick a good example of persuasive writing and distribute it to your students. They should single out the specific techniques the author used to influence readers.
Ask your students which persuasive methods are prevalent in the text. You can also tell them to jot down any words and phrases they believe are there for a specific reason—to make readers adopt the author’s viewpoint.
Look for Sources
If your students have little experience with research, prepare an activity that can introduce them to it carefully. You can give them a list of specific questions they can find answers to. Their answers should be backed up by relevant sources.
Organize Your Ideas
Having your students create an outline for their persuasive essay should be an individual activity. Teach them the main parts of an outline and let them try their hand at writing one.
Here’s an idea of what a persuasive essay outline should cover:
How To Teach Persuasive Writing—Your Ideas
If you have ample experience in teaching, you might be familiar with many of the points mentioned in this article. Perhaps you would like to add your own.
Many believe that high school students don’t learn writing skills effectively. Despite wanting to unleash their creativity, your students often don’t have sufficient tools to do so. If you feel it’s time for that to change, we want to hear what innovations you would bring to American education.
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