120 hr. TEFL Course Module 4-Writing (Pt.13 Persuasive Writing)

Module 4: Writing

4.5 Persuasive writing

While persuasive writing is generally less utilized in most careers than informative and explanatory writing, it is still an extremely important genre that can help your students in many different aspects of their life. From trying to convince your boss that you deserve a raise to trying to convince your colleagues that a new idea will work, persuasive writing can be very powerful. Unlike informative and explanatory writing, persuasive writing explores a topic or an idea that is not already widely accepted and creates an argument for why it should be. Rather than discuss the different types of persuasive writing, we will focus this section on how to craft an argument by focusing on the most important aspects of an argument.

Thesis: While experts will argue on where a thesis is most effective in a persuasive argument, they will all agree that a thesis is important. A thesis statement is a short (one or two sentences) summary of the writer’s position and serves as the main idea for the piece of writing. A strong thesis statement provides the writing with a focus and gives the writer a frame of reference for the rest of his or her argument.

Organization: An argument needs to be carefully organized to be as effective as possible. This means that the writer needs to constantly think about the thesis and how the argument is connecting back to it. Proper organization helps the argument flow and eases the reader through the writer’s ideas. 

Support: An argument is not complete without strong support. Whether the support comes in the form of direct textual evidence, facts, or the opinions of respected professionals, it gives the reader a reason to believe your claims. The support serves as an assurance to your reader that you are not coming up with this argument off the top of your head, but rather that there is evidence to support what you are trying to convince the audience to believe.

Elaboration and Analysis: Your argument needs to explore the topic and why the support you have provided is worthwhile and relates back to the thesis. Without proper elaboration and analysis, your support will simply hang there limply and not be effective in convincing your audience.

Conclusion: Your conclusion should come with a summation of the rest of the argument to solidify your ideas in the readers’ heads as well as a call to action or a last attempt to convince the audience to understand and/or believe your argument.

If your students can master these basic components of a strong argument, they will find it much easier to be convincing whenever they are trying to persuade.