Persuasive Essays: convince the reader that you are right.

Many students find the concept of this essay appealing, yet it is difficult for many of them to write successfully. Persuasive essays allow you to put your own thoughts and opinions in the essay to an extent and then find evidence to back up your way of thinking. However, the challenge comes in finding the right evidence and learning how to debate and defend your point of view. The best persuasion papers focus on one single aspect of a debate and then work out from there.

There are many purposes for writing an essay. If you are trying to convince your reader to believe or to do something, then you are persuading. A purpose to inform means that your goal is to give information and to teach your audience. To entertain means to amuse and be interesting to your audience. Once you decide on your purpose for your essay, be sure to keep it in mind as you write. One way to do this is to write a clear and detailed thesis statement, which is one sentence outlining the main idea of the whole essay. If each paragraph relates back to this thesis, then your whole essay will be persuasive.

Once you decide on your purpose, you must be sure to have a tone that falls within that field. For instance, imagine you are writing a persuasive essay trying to convince others to recycle paper. It will be wrong if you include sarcastic comments degrading those who did not recycle. That would probably offend a lot of people and turn them off of your argument. This kind of tone is inappropriate with a purpose to persuade. Instead, you should be respectful of other’s opinions and try to speak directly to your reader. Apart from that, you should provide examples and evidence to support your idea. This respectful attitude and relevant statistics will persuade the reader more than a sarcastic, demeaning tone.

REFRENCES

1. Смирнова, Н.Ф.Практика чтения и письменной речи = Reading and Writing Aid: учеб.-метод. пособие для студентов старших курсов заочного отделения факультета английского языка / Н.Ф. Смирнова, Т.Ф. Бурлак. – Минск: МГЛУ, 2009. – 153 с.

2. Kimmelman, J. Reading and Study Skills: A Rhetorical Approach / Joan Kimmelman, Harriet Krantz, Charles Martin, Sandra Seltzer. – New York: Macmillan Publishing Company; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. – 1984. – 333 p.

3. Крохалева, Л.С. Стилистика английского языка = English Stylistics : учеб. пособие с грифом МО РБ / Л.С. Крохалева, Т.Ф. Бурлак, С.Ф. Чистая, С.Е. Кунцевич, Г.А. Назина . – Минск : РИПО, 2017. – 122 с.

4. Essay writing process[Electronic resource]. – Mode of access: http://www.time4writing.com.  – Date of access: 11.11.2016.

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SUPPLEMENT

It is common to hear a teacher who would say very good, good, or excellent to praise a student. Evidently, teachers ought to develop a repertoire of responses to the answers and comments students make. Most learners need a great deal of encouragement, especially at the initial stage of the course they are taking. No one response should be used for every occasion. As students continue working with the material, the teacher is to make fewer responses or to respond in a more neutral way in order to promote more interaction between the students themselves.

It is highly recommended to give appropriate appraisals; teachers may select them from the list that follows: thank you; that’s very nice / clever / great; very interesting / creative; you’re on target; good thinking; that’s an interesting way of looking at it, I like the way you’re working, it’s a pleasure when you work like this, this kind of work and effort pleases me very much, keep up the good work; what neat work; excellent / fine work, good job, great going; perfect, splendid, outstanding, fantastic, marvellous; exactly right; you are right; that’s right, good for you; you really outdid yourself; now you’ve figured it out, that’s a good point / solution / a very good observation / an interesting point of view; the results are worth all your hard work, you’re becoming an expert at this, this gets a five-star rating, a splendid job.

Unfortunately, teachers should also know how to respond to wrong or not very good answers: no, you are wrong; no, but thanks for trying; the answer is wrong / flat out, perhaps, somebody can give the right one; the answer isn’t very good; explain your thinking; take us through the steps that led you to that conclusion; close, but not quite right; if that’s correct, try to explain it; I’m glad you’ve made this mistake – it shows a lot of students misunderstand the same thing; let’s argue the merits of the given answers, identify a good one; here’s the question you answered and that’s not the question I asked; where did you get that idea?

[1] For more detailed information refer to Borisova, L.V. Interpreting Fiction. – Минск, 1999.

[2] See the plan of complex stylistic analysis in Крохалева, Л.С. Стилистика английского языка = English Stylistics : учеб. пособие / Л.С. Крохалева, Т.Ф. Бурлак, С.Ф. Чистая, С.Е. Кунцевич, Г.А. Назина. – Минск : РИПО, 2017.