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How To Write A Persuasive Essay
By Alan Leach
Here we examine how to write a persuasive essay. A persuasive essay is basically one in which you are trying to convince the reader that your opinion is better or more logical than alternatives. Often, you are expected to write a solution to a problem, or support one side of a controversial issue. Learning how to write a persuasive essay is not difficult, and the following steps will be useful whether you have to write a persuasive essay for school or college.
As with all writing tasks, one of the most important things to remember as you learn how to write a persuasive essay is planning. You simply must plan your work first. Brainstorm ideas both to support your opinion on the topic and against. Also brainstorm useful phrases and vocabulary that you can use and plan a paragraph outline. When learning how to write a persuasive essay, the importance of planning what you are going to write cannot be overestimated.
The first step in learning how to write a persuasive essay is the introduction. You should begin by restating the essay question itself, and placing the issue in context. In other words, why is the question you are attempting to answer relevant to modern society? A good way to do this is to write that this issue has been in the news recently and has received a lot of debate.
Following the introduction, the body of the essay should contain no more than three paragraphs. A useful tip to remember for those who want to learn how to write a persuasive essay is these essays almost always have five paragraphs. Because you have three paragraphs in the body, you should use three arguments to support your overall opinion. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence, which is essentially one of the arguments you want to use to support your opinion. While you may have come up with four or more arguments during the brainstorming phase, just choose the best for the persuasive essay.
This brings us to one of the key things to keep in mind while learning how to write a persuasive essay. Keep your work clear, simple and free from too much detail. While the assignment may call for a certain number of words to write, remember to delete any unnecessary information when you write your persuasive essay.
For each of the three main paragraphs you must support your topic statements. You can do this by providing examples, evidence or logical arguments. Evidence may come in many forms, such as statistics, appeal to authority or other means. When learning how to write a persuasive essay, it is important to remember that logic and rational thinking are vital. While you may give your opinion, this must be backed up with solid evidence.
The first sentence of the conclusion should answer the essay question, exactly and explicitly. An important thing to remember for those of you learning how to write a persuasive essay is that answering the question is the whole point of the essay. A considerable number of students plan their work perfectly, and use beautifully constructed paragraphs but forget to write the answer!
As always, when learning how to write a persuasive essay, care must be given to checking your work carefully for mistakes. Look at ways to improve your writing and see if you can remove unnecessary parts.
Learning how to write a persuasive essay is much easier if you follow these steps. Good luck!
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