How to Write a Persuasive Essay to Make It Sound Convincing

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How to Write a Persuasive Essay to Make It Sound Convincing
Table of Contents
  1. How to Write a Persuasive Essay to Make It Sound Convincing
  2. Persuasive Essay Definition
  3. How to Write a Persuasive Essay?
  4. Prewriting Steps
  5. Persuasive Essay Structure
  6. Introduction
  7. Body Paragraphs
  8. Conclusion
  9. Persuasive Essay Topics
  10. Persuasive Essay Topics for High School
  11. Controversial Persuasive Essay Topics
  12. Tips for Persuasive Essay Writing
  13. Choose Your Audience
  14. Use Evidence
  15. Mind the Transitional Words
  16. Follow the Format
  17. Conclusion
  18. Frequently Asked Questions
  19. 1. Can I use "I" in a persuasive essay?
  20. 2. What are the 5 persuasive techniques?

Writing a persuasive essay is one of many tasks that students need to perform while studying. You need to know how to  write a persuasive essay. One of the primary purposes of such an assignment is to determine the students' writing skills and ability to convince. Other goals include the demonstration of excellent research skills and deep knowledge of the subject.
The main factor that makes a persuasive essay in English differ from others is reasoning usage. It means collecting evidence to support each argument. The author's goal is to encourage the target audience to agree with the idea or act in an offered way.
This article has gathered the most valuable tips on persuasive essay writing. Stay tuned for fantastic guidelines shared by our expert writers and use them to develop such an essay that will stand out. Also, you can order professional help from academic writers. Drop a 'write papers for me' request and get your persuasive essay completed according to instructions.

Persuasive Essay Definition

A persuasive essay is an academic paper that aims to interpret a specific topic's meaning to prove the author's viewpoint to the audience and make it accept the same position. An excellent persuasive essay has to reflect your compelling personality with unparalleled passion and unusual perspective. Three features are required to succeed:

  1. A most informed point of view
  2. The logical flow of thoughts
  3. Valid perspective on the problem

Students often perceive persuasive and argumentative essays as the same type of writing. However, there is a difference between these essay types. In an argumentative essay, the writer presents different arguments in support or against the particular topic. On the other hand, the writer's purpose in a persuasive essay is to give ideas and convince the reader that the presented opinion is the right one. 
 

How to Write a Persuasive Essay? 

How to create a solid persuasive essay? Get inspired by the fresh ideas online, from the books, explore other peoples' papers, and download essay samples. Use the recognized authors' points of view. Try to convince your readers of the truth of your argument. We will help you get the idea of writing a good persuasive essay with extraordinary supporting evidence to make it stand out.

Prewriting Steps
 

While trying to understand how to write a persuasive essay step by step, students can miss another critical activity. Follow these tips to get ready to face the challenge!

  • Choose your position on the topic offered by your teacher or selected independently. 
  • Define the target audience. Knowing your readers is quite crucial while choosing the voice, language, arguments, and strategies to convince. Initially, it's time to decide whether the reading audience is for or against your statement.
  • Set the purpose. The purpose of any work is always to convince its readers to accept the author's position.
  • Dedicate time to research. Conduct primary or secondary research for your document.
  • Read relevant, up-to-date online and printed resources. Talk to your parents and teachers to find out more information. Taking notes all the time will help.
  • Think about the most convincing evidence along with the critical points of the opposing view you can reject. 


Persuasive Essay Structure

The persuasive essay has similar features of other academic papers. It will be pretty helpful to make a 5 paragraph essay outline before you proceed with the persuasive writing. You can do it even if the prompt does not require it just to be on the safe side. Outline the main points for yourself to make sure you include all the necessary elements, and you are good to go. 
An effective persuasive essay will have three critical elements:
  • Introduction
  • Body paragraph (Use 3 paragraphs. One for each argument)
  • Conclusion
     
How to Write a Persuasive Essay: Easy Steps

Introduction

In your starting paragraph, introduce the topic and provide meaningful background information. State your argument in the thesis statement that comes at the end of the introductory paragraph. Students are encouraged to start it with a hook to grab the reader's attention. An excellent hook for essay can be a:
 

  • Quote
  • Interesting fact
  • Statistics
  • Metaphor or simile
  • Joke
  • Figures
  • Bold statement
  • Contradiction
  • Provocative question


Perhaps, the best ways to attract the reader to your essay are fascinating facts, figures, contradictions, etc. If you use rhetorical questions, there is no need to provide the answer in your text. Although, remember to answer other essay questions in the concluding paragraph.
Pay special attention to the thesis statement. It is an essential part of every paper as it is a single sentence that expresses the whole paper's idea. Come up with the thesis statement before composing the introduction for your persuasive essay. How to formulate a thesis for a persuasive essay? Choose a strong argument that defends only one of the existing positions. Make sure that the thesis statement is paper-specific and expresses your opinion regarding the discussed issue. 
 

Body Paragraphs

 

Once you enclose your opening paragraph with a clear thesis, move to the body paragraphs. The body is the most significant part of the essay. It should consist of at least three sections. Here you should provide all your arguments and main ideas. Readers want to hear strong supporting points. Begin each section with the one. 
Make sure that all the ideas you present are related to the thesis statement. Also, do not discuss more than one main idea in the paragraph if you do not want it to look messy. Main body paragraphs for the persuasive essay should look as follows:

  • Argument 1
  • Argument 2
  • Counterargument


Focus all the paragraphs only on supporting the argument. Add the evidence like direct and indirect in-text citations from the chosen sources to prove that your ideas make sense. Your audience wants to learn the opposing points as well. Don't forget to provide a minimum of one argument that contradicts your essay's picture in the last paragraph.


Conclusion

 

In the conclusion part, restate your thesis statement but do not copy-paste it. Then, provide a summary of your main ideas and arguments. Again, do not repeat all your thoughts, instead synthesize them. After this, demonstrate once again why your position is correct. Conclude your persuasive essay with a sentence that summarizes the whole report and answers the "So what?" question.
Since the conclusion is the final part of the paper that summarizes the previously discussed question, make sure to avoid:
 

  • introducing new ideas
  • adding in-text citations that present new ideas
  • providing facts that contradict the ideas and arguments provided in the paper. 


Persuasive Essay Topics
 

The process of writing a persuasive essay for high school or college, like any other assignment, requires you to start with the topic. Analyze the ones you can access to choose the most suitable for you. If you have not found the one you like, check out other topics online or use ours.


Persuasive Essay Topics for High School

 
  1. The US must have a free health care system
  2. Immigration laws should be reformed for the Mexicans
  3. It is a beautiful idea to lower the voting age in the US
  4. A year of community service is a must for every US citizen
  5. The elderly should be provided with the free use of public transport
  6. Females must have a right to take part in BITS sports
  7. Refusing to wear a seat-belt has to be judicially punished 
  8. Music with filthy language must be forbidden at school dances and prom
  9. It is up to the girls to obtain birth control without the parents' permission
  10. A silent prayer time has to be introduced in every high school 


Controversial Persuasive Essay Topics

  1. There is nothing wrong with polygamy
  2. The United Kingdom is a surveillance community based on the high level of regulation and private life violation
  3. Abolishment of the jury (when it is wrong)
  4. Specific weapons aimed to destroy one nation and leave others untouched
  5. Islamic economics & capitalism
  6. A non-college education for better income opportunities
  7. The merits of genetically modified organisms
  8. Is torture a helpful interrogation instrument?
  9. What are the adverse effects of having a lesbian mom?
  10. How can stem cells be used to treat various diseases?
  11. The modern education system is not effective
  12. Traveling should be more affordable

Looking for compare and contrast topics? We have got you covered. You will be impressed with a wide range of ideas.

Tips for Persuasive Essay Writing

 
If you want your persuasive essay to convince your audience of your argument's correctness, write about what you are sure of. Be ready that you may be asked to prepare quality presentations to support your work. The truth is that you need to impress your readers and make them interested in your research.


Choose Your Audience

Being a college or university student, you'll see how important it is to understand your reader. Are you afraid of speaking in public and feel you cannot say a word? Writing a persuasive essay for a particular audience is the best method to eliminate this social fear. Let yourself take a few minutes to think about who your target audience is. Would you like to write your paper for young people or adults? Answer the question and start writing with your audience in mind.


Use Evidence

 
Try to find only the most relevant and up-to-date sources to use in your persuasive essay. Choose only those sources that are no older than 5 years old. Check if they are credible. It is better to pick:
 

In other words, play with facts instead of someone's subjective point of view. Don't steal the comments of other authors, and never forget to cite your sources. At the end of your persuasive essay, put a work cited page or an annotated bibliography of all the resources you used. 
 

Mind the Transitional Words


Transitional or linking words are ways to connect sentences and paragraphs while writing a persuasive essay. Insert these phrases to show the logic of your narration. Each time you start a new section, start with one of the offered examples to build a bridge between different ideas. A reader will not get the main point without them!


 

Follow the Format

 
A paper format is something that predetermines the essay plan. It helps to make the writer's position solid. To make sure you follow the correct structure of your persuasive writing, review your assignment requirements first. Then simply download a guide on academic paper formatting. There are plenty of them available online. 
The most popular writing styles are APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian. Students write essays (such as for example a position paper) using these formats for their Literature, History, and other humanities classes. Thus, there is no need to view the last versions of IEEE, CME, or ACS styles used to format documents in precise science and technical disciplines. 
You can also review our example of a persuasive essay that can help develop your own convincing writing. 


Conclusion

Now it became clear that there is a difference between argumentative and persuasive essays. Writing both such types of paper requires you to present arguments about the chosen topic. However, if you write a persuasive text, your additional task is to convince your reader that your position is the most optimal and rational. It doesn't sound effortless, but if you choose a topic that you have great experience in, completing such a task will be an easy breeze.
If you don't want to waste your time researching, compiling the information you found, and writing a solid persuasive essay, you can always trust our experts to do the job. They will help you with any subject. Once you order a paper on our website, you can just sit and relax. Our team will do the rest to make sure your expectations are fully met!
 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

1. Can I use "I" in a persuasive essay?

It's better to avoid using the first-person perspective if you need to write a persuasive essay. Using such pronouns can diminish your position's persuasiveness, which will hinder your chances to convince your audience.

2. What are the 5 persuasive techniques?

  • Five persuasive techniques
  • Establish trust and develop credibility.
  • Understand the reader's purpose and align your own.
  • Pay attention to language.
  • Consider tone.
  • Use rhetoric and repetition.