Bookmark

Sign up or login to use the bookmarking feature.

27 Writing Persuasive Essays

Page
133
from
Write on Track

Writing Persuasive Essays

Start-Up Activity

Ask students, "What movie should everybody see?" Write suggestions on the board, noting who offered which movie. Then pick a movie and turn to the student, asking, "Why should everyone see this movie?" Prompt the student to provide strong reasons (and get help from others who like that movie, if need be). Then turn to the rest of the class and ask, "Do those reasons convince you that you should see this movie?" Choose another movie and do the same process with it.

Point out that the movie recommendations are opinions, and the reasons are supporting facts that may or may not convince others to see the movie. Tell your students they will be writing persuasive essays that state an opinion and support it with facts that just might convince readers to agree.

Think About It

“It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.”

—Thomas Jefferson

You are viewing: 27 Writing Persuasive Essays

26 Writing Newspaper Stories
28 Writing Opinion Letters

Select your writing standard type:

State Standards Covered in This Chapter

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.A

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.B

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.4

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.5

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.7

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.C

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.D

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.9

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.2

Page 134 from Write on Track

Writing a Persuasive Essay

Help your students understand the difference between an opinion and a fact. Ask students to raise their hands if they think your classroom is a comfortable temperature. Ask them to raise their hands if they think your classroom is too warm or too cool. Then have a student check and report the temperature in the classroom. Note how the actual temperature of the classroom is a fact that can be checked. Whether the classroom is comfortable or uncomfortable is an opinion that cannot be checked.

Have students pick a topic that they care about and combine the topic with a feeling in order to state their opinions.

Related Minilesson:

Select your writing standard type:

State Standard Reference:

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Page 135 from Write on Track

Gather and Arrange Reasons

Once students have found a topic and stated an opinion about it, they can gather reasons to support their opinion. Help them understand that reasons should be facts, not opinions. They should answer the question "why?" and show a benefit to readers. Have students write as many reasons as they can think of to support their opinions.

Then have them choose at least three reasons and put them in order with the strongest reason first or last.

 

Select your writing standard type:

State Standard Reference:

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Page 136 from Write on Track

Writing, Revising, and Editing

After students have gathered and organized their reasons, they are ready to start writing. Lead them through the tips and examples for creating effective beginnings, middles, and endings. Then give them time to write.

Once students complete their first drafts, review the tips for revising and editing. Ask students to revise their work using the questions at the bottom of the page, and then get a peer reviewer to read the revision and offer suggestions. After revising, have students correct any remaining errors and create clean final copies of their work.

Select your writing standard type:

State Standard Reference:

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Page 137 from Write on Track

Sample Persuasive Essay

Have volunteers read aloud each paragraph from the sample persuasive essay. Afterward, lead a discussion about it:

  • What is the opinion statement of this essay?
  • What is the strongest reason?
  • What details support the strongest reason?
  • What are the other two reasons?
  • How does the writer call the reader to act?

You can also share this persuasive essay and this persuasive paragraph.

Select your writing standard type:

State Standard Reference:

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site