Persuasive Writing Workshop

1. Persuasive Writing Workshop

2. Objective With 100% effort, students will write persuasive essays for appropriate audiences that: • Establish a position. • Include detailed and relevant evidence. • Include consideration of alternatives. • Include sound reasoning.

3. focus The purpose of persuasive writing is to influence readers’ attitudes and to persuade them to agree with the writer or to take action on issues the writer describes. Effective persuasion involves clearly identifying issues, presenting a position and details to support it, anticipating and responding to objections, and using sound reasoning to help convince the audience.

4. How to achieve our goal To achieve this goal, you will engage in a series of activities in which you work with your teacher and with your classmates to construct two persuasive essays. You will then use these models for your own writing.

5. materials • Folder of class set of materials • Personal booklet (you may write in this) • One sheet of notebook paper

6. Quickwrite: 3-5 minutes On a sheet of notebook paper, describe the following: What is your experience with writing persuasive essays? If you have never written one, have you ever tried to convince someone to act a certain way or do something? If so, what techniques did you use? What kind of argument did you make? Debrief

7. Round robin reading Read the sample text “Pets are important” Then respond to the questions that follow it. Note: Feel free to use your persuasive techniques terms to assist with types o f persuasion used here.

8. Qht chart- 3 to 5 minutes • On your notebook paper, create the graphic q-h-t organizer on your paper. We will address these terms momentarily. • q- question??? Don’t know this word • H- Heard- I’ve heard of this word but not 100% sure of the meaning • T- Teach- I know this word well enough to teach it to a peer.

9. Activity 2: Writing a persuasive essay as a class Prompt: As a class, write an essay that persuades a person in power (principal, teacher, etc.) to change something about your school. Your essay should meet the requirements listed in the goal statement for persuasive essays. Let’s unpack: box verbs, underline nouns – 1 min

10. Activity 2: Writing a persuasive essay as a class Prompt: As a class, write an essay that persuadesa person in power (principal, teacher, etc.) to change something about your school. Your essay should meet the requirements listed in the goal statement for persuasive essays. Let’s unpack: box verbs, underline nouns – 1 min

11. Brainstorming 1-2 min • Create a list of things you would like to change about school

12. Think-pair-share 2 min • Turn to your shoulder partner and share your list, at this time.

13. Whole group discussion 1 min • Let’s share some of the topics generated

14. Moving on…. #2 A writer must express an opinion to turn a topic into a claim. For example, if your topic is “school start time,” then a possible claim could be “school should start later in the day.” Remember that your claim has to be arguable, meaning it needs to have at least two sides.

15. Filling in your graphic organizer • For each claim you brainstormed, fill in two possible sides of the argument. See the example for assistance. Begin filling in your graphic organizer on page 56

16. Thesis statement • What is a thesis statement?

17. Thesis statement • a thesis statement is where you use a topic and opinion. • Let’s create one at this time.

18. Organizing your essay One way of organizing the paragraphs of your essay is as follows: • Topic Sentence: Statement of a reason to support your thesis claim. • Evidence: Examples to support the claim (facts, details, stories, etc.). • Commentary: Explanation of the significance of the evidence or the connection to the claim.