Writing a persuasive essay is the difference between an essay that communicates and one that does not. Writing persuasively might seem like a hard skill to master, but with the right guidelines, you can write a persuasive essay easily. This post will guide you on how to write a persuasive essay the next time you are writing one.
Format On How To Write A Persuasive Essay
- Establish you stand
- Understand your audience
- Organize your ideas
- Choose the structure
Establish your stand
The first rule, if you are to write a persuasive essay is to take a stand. Your position on the topic at hand will influence the choice of words that you make in the rest of the essay. Additionally, once you have established your stand, you can rope in your readers to either agree or disagree with you.
To establish your stand, you first need to understand the essay question. Take some time to know what the essay question is asking you to do. Decide, depending on the resources available to you, what position to take. Once you have done this, establish a thesis statement that will guide your writing process.
Understand your audience
Similar to a stage performance, an essay targeted at the wrong audience will not entertain, inspire, or do anything you intend. It is important to have an idea of the audience that you are writing for. Decide what would appeal most to this audience and the angle that you need to take to persuade the said audience.
An understanding of the audience saves you a lot of time deciding what phrases to use and which ones not to. Knowing your audience intimately also means you will be able to read the finished essay as they would. This kind of understanding allows you to proofread later and edit your work to appeal to the target audience.
A good understanding of the audience also guides your research. You will know the kind of evidence you need to persuade the audience you are writing for. This knowledge allows you to go straight to the source that will benefit your audience the most rather than try several sources that fail to support your essay. It also helps you to follow through with a persuasive essay outline easily.
Organize your ideas
The greatest obstacle to effective communication is the failure to organize ideas well. Most people writing essays focus on bombarding the reader with information without care of how the ideas flow. An essay that persuades is one that has a simple flow of ideas from start to end. Take some time to organize your ideas on paper before you start writing.
Disorganized thoughts can easily lead to the reader getting lost while reading your essay. It is important to write down the ideas you have and how you want them to appear in your essay. Group each one of these ideas with the supporting evidence that you have once you have done this.
You can now think of how you can present each one of these ideas to the reader. Doing this will also help you present the evidence that supports the idea and then explain the understanding that you have.
Choose the structure
You need to choose the structure of your essay. A persuasive essay outline will have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
How To Write A Persuasive Essay Structure
Introduction
The introduction will help you speak to your audience before they even read the rest of your essay. If your objective is to be persuasive, it must start with the introduction. Take time to write the introduction to make it a sneak peek of what the reader can expect in your essay. Additionally, make the reader understand your position right from the introduction.
The Body
The body of your essay is your best chance to persuade. You need to elaborate on your points clearly and concisely here. Choose simple language and avoid long sentences that fail to communicate your message. Ensure the audience not only understands your stand but also takes the time to address the other side of the argument that your audience may be thinking about.Â
Conclusion
The conclusion needs to summarize the main ideas your body talks about. It also needs to revisit the thesis statement. You can do this by paraphrasing it. Ensure you use phrases that indicate this is a summary of the ideas highlighted in the body of the essay.
An Example Of How To Write A Persuasive Essay
What is a good way to start a persuasive essay?
The best way to start a persuasive essay will depend on the topic you want to discuss and the audience you are trying to convince. You can think about the current issues happening around that you find interesting and come up with a narrow and specific topic that is easy to go about. Your introduction should lead to a well-crafted thesis.
What are the persuasive techniques?
Persuasive techniques include; Adjectives, Adverbs, Alliterations, Anecdotes, Appeals, cliches, connotations, emotive words, exaggeration, imagery, inclusive language, Logic, metaphor, expert opinion, pun, Repetition, Rhetorical question, sarcasm, simile, tone, and everyday language.
What are persuasive words?
Words that convince people to buy. Examples of persuasive words include; new, free, because, you, urgency, and imagine.
