Persuasive

Writing
Unit
Name: ______________________
Date: ___________

What is Persuasive Writing?

What does the word persuasive mean? (use a dictionary if needed)
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List four synonyms for the word persuasive.
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Can you remember a time in your life when you had to be persuasive? Explain what
happened.
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What do you think persuasive writing is and what is its purpose?
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Brainstorm 4 examples or types of persuasive writing. (ex. billboards with slogans)
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Persuasive Essay Format

In persuasive or argumentative writing, we try to convince others to agree with our facts, share
our values, accept our argument and conclusions, and adopt our way of thinking.
5 paragraph format including: introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and conclusion

Introduction:

Introduce the topic

Inform the reader of your point of view or thesis

State the three reasons to support your point of view

Each Body Paragraph Has...

Topic Sentence (explains what the paragraph will be about)
Supporting Details (supports the statement made in the topic sentence)
Concluding Statement (summarizes the major point of the paragraph)

Conclusion:
Summarizes the main points stated in the body paragraphs and thesis.
Wraps up the discussion and makes several other general comments about the topic.

Persuasive Essays Brainstorm Sheet

Instructions: To help get our minds ready for writing persuasive essays, we need to practice
thinking about our 3 reasons (the bing, the bang, and the boom). For each topic listed,
brainstorm 3 reasons.
1. You get to nominate someone for president of the United States. Who would you
nominate and why?
Who would you nominate? _____________________________
Reason #1: ______________________________________
Reason #2: ______________________________________
Reason #3: ______________________________________
2. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only have 3 things with you to help
you survive, what would you want to have with you?
Item #1: ______________________________________
Item #2: ______________________________________
Item #3: ______________________________________
3. Your birthday party is coming up. What kind of party do you want to have? Choose 3
reasons that will help persuade your parents to plan this party for you.
What kind of party? _______________________________
Reason #1: ______________________________________
Reason #2: ______________________________________
Reason #3: ______________________________________
4. You want a cell phone, but your parents wont allow you to have one. Write your
parents a letter explaining why you need one.
Reason #1: ______________________________________
Reason #2: ______________________________________
Reason #3: ______________________________________
5. Your principal wants students in your school to start wearing school uniforms. Write a
letter to your principal explaining why you think this is a good idea or a bad idea.
Do you think uniforms will help improve your school? ______________
Reason #1: ______________________________________
Reason #2: ______________________________________
Reason #3: ______________________________________

Why People Shouldnt Watch too much Television

Watching television is an experience shared by most adults and children. It is cheap,
appealing, and within the reach of the general public. In this way, TV has become an
important mass media around the world. Sadly, this resource isnt used in a way that people
could get the best possible benefits from it. The purpose of this essay is to persuade the reader
that people shouldnt watch too much television because the content of many TV programs is
not educational; it makes people waste time that could be used in more beneficial activities;
and it negatively affects peoples mental development.
The first reason why people shouldnt watch too much television is because the content
of many TV programs is not educational. Nowadays, we can see movies, series, and shows
that present scenes of violence. This has established wrong concepts among the audience that
influence them into having a negative behavior. Moreover, the impact this tendency has on
children is worse because they grow up with the idea of a world where women must be
slender and blonde to stand out, where problems can only be solved with money and violence,
and where wars are inevitable.
The second reason why people shouldnt watch too much television is because it makes
people waste time that could be used in more beneficial activities. The time we spend
watching TV could be applied to useful activities like exercise, reading, interacting with
friends and family, activities that are crucial for a healthy lifestyle.
The third reason why people shouldnt watch too much television is because it
negatively affects peoples mental development. According to several scientific studies,
watching TV for prolonged periods of time has a negative effect over the intellectual
development of children and leads to deterioration of the mental capacity in older people by
causing both attention and memory problems in the long term.
In conclusion, people shouldnt watch too much television because the content of many
TV programs is not educational; it makes people waste time that could be used in more
beneficial activities; and it affects peoples mental development. However, this doesnt mean
that we should ban TV, but if we are going to watch it, we should do it with moderation.
Television is a resource that we should learn to use through the right selection of programs by
taking an active and critical attitude towards it.

Essay Structure for Why People Shouldnt Watch too much TV

- 5 paragraph format including: introduction, 3 body paragraphs, conclusion

Introduction:
- Gradually introduces the reader into the topic. Slowly becomes more specific near the

thesis statement (last sentence of the introductory paragraph). The first part of introduction
should talk generally about the topic and the last part should speak specifically about what
the rest of the essay will discuss.
- Thesis - what is the text going to say? ex. The purpose of this essay is to persuade the

reader that people shouldnt watch too much television because the content of many TV
programs is not educational; it makes people waste time that could be used in more
beneficial activities; and it negatively affects peoples mental development.
Each Body Paragraph Has...
- Topic Sentence (explains what the paragraph will be about) - ex. The first reason why

people shouldnt watch too much television is because the content of many TV programs is
not educational.
- Supporting Details (supports the statement made in the topic sentence) - Nowadays, we can

see movies, series, and shows that present scenes of violence. This has established wrong
concepts among the audience that influence them into having a negative behavior.
- Concluding Statement (summarizes the major point of the paragraph) - ex. Moreover, the

impact this tendency has on children is worse because they grow up with the idea of a world
where women must be slender and blonde to stand out, where problems can only be solved
with money and violence, and where wars are inevitable.
Conclusion:
- Summarizes the main points stated in the body paragraphs and thesis. ex. In conclusion,

people shouldnt watch too much television because the content of many TV programs is
not educational; it makes people waste time that could be used in more beneficial activities;
and it affects peoples mental development.
- Wraps up the discussion and makes several other general comments about the topic. ex.

Television is a resource that we should learn to use through the right selection of programs
by taking an active and critical attitude towards it.

Why People Should Read for Pleasure

In the past years the use of the television and the internet has increased; this situation
has caused many people to change their likes and the way that they enjoy their free time.
Because of television and the internet, many people spend less time reading, so the purpose
for this essay is to present reasons why people should read just for pleasure. The reasons that
I give you are quite simple: to improve your knowledge, to expand your general culture, to
have more fun, to make your imagination fly, to find new ways to express your ideas, and
finally to expand your vocabulary.
The first reason that I give you to enjoy reading is that when you read, you can expand
your knowledge and also your culture. There are a lot of good books in which you can find
history, novels, tragedies, comedies and a variety of other themes. You can see that people
who read more often frequently have a bigger knowledge of life and also a bigger perspective
of their environment. I think that fact gives them an advantage over all others who do not read
frequently.
The second reason to read more often is that through books you can have fun and even
travel in your imagination. Children have not yet lost the ability of getting into their dreams,
and because of this, in their first years the parents read a lot of tales in which they use their
imagination. Adults should try to keep this ability, so we do not forget the importance of the
use of the imagination. The imagination also represents a tool that could help you to develop
your professional career in a creative way.
Finally, the third and the most important feature that reading offers you is that it does
not matter the age that you have, you always could expand your vocabulary and the ways to
express your ideas to the others in a simple and correct form. By the time you can improve the
kind of books that you read, there are a lot of categories, so you will never stop learning from
the pleasure of reading. People who know how to choose a book generally have the capability
of choosing a formal book in which they can find formal grammatical structures and
obviously a formal vocabulary. All these things allow them to gain greater fluency in their
communication.
In conclusion, I recommend that you enjoy reading more often. There are excellent
reasons for doing it; you just have to want to expand your knowledge and your culture, to
improve your imagination and also your vocabulary. I know that we should evolve with the
technology; that is, it is good to know how to navigate in the internet, but we must also not
forget the books. Try to choose good books at the beginning, and then I ensure you that you
never will stop reading.

Follow Up Sheet Why People Should Read for Pleasure

1. What is the thesis statement?

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2. What is the thesis statement saying? What is this essay trying to persuade the audience

about?
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3. What are the three reasons the author gives to support the thesis statement?

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4. In your opinion, what is the strongest argument that the author makes? Why?

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5. Do you agree with the author? Why or why not?

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Persuasive Essay
In persuasive writing, a writer takes a position FOR or AGAINST an issue and writes to
convince the reader to believe or do something. Persuasive writing is often used in
advertisements to get the reader to buy a product. It is also used in essays and other types of
writing to get the reader to accept a point of view. In order to convince the reader you need
more than opinion; you need facts or examples to back your opinion. So, be sure to do the
research!
TASK: Think about the issue of having a class pet. Select a stance on the issue. Read/reread and take notes on the articles: Should you have a pet in your classroom, Leave Animals
out of the Classroom. Are you in favor of pets in the classroom or is it a bad idea? Using
the information for the articles, craft a persuasive essay with evidence supporting your
position.

Read the following articles:

Pets Make Great Teachers of Compassion
Leave Animals out of the Classroom.

Pets Make Great Teachers of Compassion

http://www.tolerance.org/print/blog/pets-make-great-teachers-compassion
Submitted by Sara Schmidt on October 25, 2011

Children can learn a thing or two from pets. They learn responsibility through feeding and
caring for their furry friends. They learn about loss when their pets die and they partake in
their first funeral rites. One of the most powerful lessons that pets can teach us is how to be
compassionate to one another despite our differences. Students dont have to have a pet in the
home. The classroom pet can help teach many lessons.
Children are used to being the smallest beings in the room, but pets are even smaller. So
children learn not to play roughly with animals. Learning proper care for animals can help
foster kind hearts, but it can also serve as a lesson in not picking on those whom are smaller
than we are.
Having an injured class pet can also help illustrate how important it is to respect our
classmates with disabilities. An injured dog with staples in his leg can help us teach to be kind
while still being mindful of the injuryjust as we would not play with a classmates
wheelchair or prosthetic limb while we play with him or her. The dog is still our friend, just as
the classmate is, and using the dog to highlight the concept provides a safe zone for students
to discuss and ask questions.
Pets can even help reinforce curriculum standards. With older children, have each child write
down a few observations and assumptions about the class pet, from her coloration to eating
habits, size and personality. Discuss why they wrote what they did. Were they correct? How
were they mistaken?
The same can apply for discussing race. Having three guinea pigs in the classroom that are
white, black and brownor having three different colored cats at home, for homeschoolers
is a great opportunity to discuss how they are the same and how they are different. Do we love
any of these animals less or more because of their color?
Each animal has his own personality and quirks, yet he is still a guinea pig and our beloved
friend. Two brown guinea pigs may not act alike; why would we assume they are all the same
just because they share the same color? Using the animals fur can also help illustrate likeness
and differences, such as in Teaching Tolerances activity,Who Has Hair? for very young
students.
Animals are also a wonderful tool in helping children talk to one another respectfully. Shy
children may feel more comfortable introducing themselves to a class lizard, while more
outgoing kids might find themselves lowering their voices to coo quietly at a hamster.
And perhaps the best way to unite the class is to implement the animal into an activity that the
children share togethersuch as monitoring how much the class pet eats or weighs. This
would help bring the lesson full circle, connecting the students through their love of the pet.

Leave Animals out of the Classroom

Animals in the classroom: Issues and Alternatives
[Adapted from an article by the World Society for the Protection of Animals]
At the end of every school year, shelters across the country are inundated with hamsters, mice, rabbits,
gerbils, fish, guinea pigs, and reptiles that are no longer needed or wanted in the classroom. Many teachers
believe keeping an animal in the classroom is a good way to foster responsibility, teach respect, or raise
awareness about animals. But the learning environment can turn sour when the classroom pet becomes too big
a burden and must be surrendered to the local animal shelter. Despite teachers good intentions, keeping a
classroom pet puts the animals at serious risk for neglect and substandard care.
Once animals are in the classroom, important aspects of their nature are ignored completely. For example,
hamsters and most small animals are nocturnal, yet they are kept in brightly lit classrooms and removed from
their cages during the day. Birds tend to be sensitive to drafts and changes in air temperature, but climate
control is normally regulated by the students comfort levels, not the animals needs. Furthermore, animals are
removed from their habitat, and placed in cages.
Classroom pets are often neglected during school breaks and holidays. Many suffer from missed meals,
unsanitary living conditions and lack of climate control. If left alone for a weekend, pets can be literally
starving or dehydrated come Monday morning. A fire or power outage can also be deadly to an animal that is
left alone in a building overnight or on weekends. Animals health can also be compromised when caregivers
fail to address their nutritional needs. Inadequate veterinary care also leads to failed health of classroom pets.
Many animals actually die in classroom environments, which is not only a terrible fate for the animals but a
devastating experience for the students.
Filling the role of classroom pet or mascot can be extremely stressful on an animal. Going from five days of
noise to two days of isolation is particularly traumatic and confusing. Constant poking and handling can also
be taxing on an animal.
Furthermore, keeping animals in a classroom poses serious health risks for students. Recently there have been
reports of Salmonella, caused by having reptiles in the classroom. Students with asthma and or allegories can
be adversely affected by the presence of an animal in the classroom.
Fostering responsibility and teaching respect are important components of a childs educational and personal
development. Classroom pet duties, however, are not an appropriate method for instilling values. The learning
process is inherently filled with mistakes and failures, which are appropriate in normal life circumstances but
is it fair to allow a mistake by a child to result in the suffering of a dependent animal?
There are far more constructive ways to learn about living beings than by keeping animals in the classroom.
Here are some suggested alternatives:
Observe animals in their natural surroundings.
Sponsor an animal in its environment.
Take a trip to an animal wildlife rehabilitation center.
Bring an animal specialist in.
Take a virtual reality tour of an animals habitat.
Bring animals into the classroom through books, magazines, etc
http://www.mendota289.org/vimages/shared/vnews/stories/4e55466221c17/6th%20Grade%20Leave_Animals
_Out_of_the_Classroom1.pdf

Persuasive Writing Process

Prewrite:
Step #1 Brainstorm reasons why a classroom should or shouldnt have a class pet?
Step #2- Establish your thesis. Are you in favor or not in favor of classroom pets? Form that into an
opening statement.
Step #3 - Gather three solid reasons that support your thesis. Be sure they are reasons that can
continue to be supported with further evidence.
Step #4 - Review each article for facts and evidence to support your each reason.
Drafting:
Step #5 - Using your persuasive argument planner, begin organizing your essay.
Persuasive essays follow a specific structure; they contain an introduction, body and
conclusion. As you gather facts to support your belief, record them on the organizer.
Be sure to include FACTS that are persuasive--try to stay away from opinions. Once
youve organized your essay, you may begin writing.
While writing remember:
Introduce and organize the reasons and evidence clearly.
Support your reasons with clear and relevant evidence.
Use words and phrases to show the relationships between your thesis and
reasons. (for example, for instance, in addition, moreover, etc.)
Provide a concluding paragraph that follows from the argument
Cite directly from the articles to support your reasons
Revising:
Step #6 - Revise your piece. Add, change, and delete parts of your essay to make it better.
Consider the following:
Are my facts compelling and accurate?
Do I provide enough information be persuasive?
Does my essay contain an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion?
Do my words express my opinion?
Did I use transitional phrases?
Did I provide a powerful conclusion?
Editing:
Step #7 - After you made your revisions read through your piece carefully and look for
spelling and grammar errors.
Look for
Run-on sentences and sentence fragments
Are all of your words spelled correctly?
Proper punctuation (periods, questions marks, exclamation points,
commas)

Persuasive Writing
Brainstorming

PRO

CON

(should)

(should not)

1.

1.

2.

2.

3.

3.

4.

4.

5.

5.

Thesis: _________________________________________________________________________________
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Example thesis: Kids should not be allowed to drive cars.

Persuasive Argument Planner

Paragraph #1 - Introduction

(Question)

(Thesis)

(3 Reasons)

Paragraph #2 The first reason

(Reason #1)

(detail #1)

(detail #2)

(detail #3)

Paragraph #3 The second reason

(Reason #2)

(detail #1)

(detail #2)

(detail #3)

Paragraph #4 The third reason

(Reason #3)

(detail #1)

(detail #2)

(detail #3)

Paragraph #5 The Conclusion

(conclusion)

First Draft
Introduction:

Introduce the topic

Inform the reader of your point of view or thesis
State the three reasons to support your point of view

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Reason #1

Topic Sentence (explains what the paragraph will be about)

Supporting Details (supports the statement made in the topic sentence)
Concluding Statement (summarizes the major point of the paragraph)

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Reason #2

Topic Sentence (explains what the paragraph will be about)

Supporting Details (supports the statement made in the topic sentence)
Concluding Statement (summarizes the major point of the paragraph)

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Reason #3

Topic Sentence (explains what the paragraph will be about)

Supporting Details (supports the statement made in the topic sentence)
Concluding Statement (summarizes the major point of the paragraph)

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Conclusion:

Summarizes the main points stated in the body paragraphs and thesis.
Wraps up the discussion and makes several other general comments about the topic

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Persuasive Essay Rubric

Name: _______________________________

Introduction
Body
Supporting
Details
Conclusion
Organization

Transitions

Mechanics

Excellent
4 Points
Introduction is clear
and compelling
Presents compelling
reasons and substantial
facts and examples

Good
3 Points
Introduction is clear

The conclusion is
strong and purposeful
Organizes the essay
into an introduction,
three strong body
paragraphs and a
conclusion
Establishes and uses
strong transitional
statements
Few errors in
spelling, punctuation, or
grammar

Date: ______________
Fair
2 Points
Introduction is weak
or requires clarification
Provides limited
reasons, facts and
examples

Unsatisfactory
1 Point
Essay lacks an
introduction
Reasons, facts, and/or
examples or not present
or unclear

The conclusion is
adequately stated
Mostly organizes the
essay as required

The conclusion is
weak
Missing a critical
component of the
organization

The conclusion is not

present or unclear
Does not organize the
essay appropriately

Transitional
statements are present
but may not be used
correctly
Some errors in
spelling, punctuation, or
grammar

Few transitional
statements

Fails to use
transitional statements

Several errors in
spelling, punctuation, or
grammar

Serious errors in
spelling, punctuation, or
grammar

Presents solid
reasons, facts, and
examples

Comments:
A= 22 and above
B = 20 and above
C = 17 and above
D = 15 and above
F = 14 and below

Total Points
24