Students write various kinds of essays or study various kinds of things, but most of them are so blind to whatever they study that they don’t even know the basics of it. It is however extremely important to know what you are studying, for it is only when you know the basics of what you are studying that you excel at that thing. Therefore, if you are a student about to write a persuasive essay, you should know its basic definition.
A persuasive essay is an essay in which you bring up an idea and through a connected series of arguments and evidence, try to convince your reader to either support of go against that idea. Writing a persuasive essay involves the art of rhetoric, because you have to manipulate your reader at a psychological level through words. Therefore, we will discuss the outline of the art of mastering a persuasive essay in this article.
Read on to find out what that outline is:
Before you can move on to writing your essay, it is necessary to structure your thoughts. A persuasive essay is not a free flow of the mind. Everything should be in the right place. If you want to learn how to convince people more efficiently, it is time to master creating a persuasive essay outline.
An outline is more than a plan. It is a strategic tool used to accomplish the goal of your writing. After a bunch of preliminary notes, you should pull yourself together, observe the inevitability of the next step, and write the outline according to the structure.
The introduction of an excellent persuasive essay features a catchy message, which is used to spark the interest and make the reader eager to read further. It may be informative, but it should be put in the correct words. You are better to start an essay with a narrative sentence. It can be a thought-provoking fact of a controversial statement.
Just like in any other essay type, a persuasive essay intro presents the topic under consideration. Make sure you are thoughtful while choosing the topic, it should highlight your strengths as much as possible.
Each essay introduction has to contain one. What makes the most difference in the case of a persuasive essay is that you should present the thesis in the form of a problem. The arguments of your persuasive essay are solutions to this problem.
Writing an introduction outline is also the time to choose whether you are going to write your essay in the first, second, or third person. It is good to tell about your experience using the first person singular, but the best choice is the second person. When you address people directly, it is easier to influence them.
The main body of a persuasive essay usually consists of three paragraphs. Each of them is a reason why the reader should adopt your viewpoint or/and do what you say. You are better to demonstrate this reason as a problem as well, and you should support it with evidence. You can replace the evidence by solutions to the problem you state, or it can be the mixture of both.
A persuasive paper outline has to include the preliminary plan of the conclusion. Like the introduction, this part of a persuasive essay has peculiarities of its own. Your conclusion has to include summarizing your topic and the key arguments.
To conclude, structure and arguments are very important. The stronger the facts and evidence you rely on, the better. But it is most vital to understand that a persuasive essay should be aimed at making your readers emotional. Dry statistics will not impress anybody, even if you swear it is true. Emotional background of your essay is a determining factor of your teacher’s response. There are plenty of ways to appeal to people’s emotions: from humor to personal stories from your life. Use right stylistic devices to be more convincing.
Knowing how to write a persuasive essay can be of great help in your future life. A good essay starts with an outline, which, in its essence, is a half of a job. Use the template we described here, and you’ll have no difficulty with your writing. In fact, we will provide some sample topics here, which might help you in the practice.