9 Persuasive Writing Techniques for an Excellent Essay
The idea of persuasive writing is to state your position and make the reader believe you or even adopt your views on the subject. To do this, you should operate facts, logic, reasons and apply specific techniques used in all kinds of persuasive writing. Today, our proofreading and editing services will share some tips on building your argument, presenting the evidence and convincing the reader to take your point of view.
As it’s obvious from the name, these techniques will come handy for writing persuasive college essays. However, they are also effective for other types of writing where you need to advocate your point of view: research papers, speeches and web writing.
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What is persuasive writing?
Generally, the term ‘persuasive writing’ refers to all types of writing which intend to convince someone to adopt a particular viewpoint. To achieve this goal, writer does a research, provides evidence and builds argument. Thus, the author persuades his audience to take a certain action or to stick to a particular point of view. All these attributes apply to persuasive essays as well.
9 effective writing techniques and definition of a persuasive essay
Since persuasive writing has wide area of application, you can use the below techniques both to compose the next persuasive essay and for other types of writing where you have the goal of convincing the reader.
1. Understand your audience
If you write an essay, obviously, it’s your professor who will be reading and grading it. However, they are not necessarily your target audience. When thinking the essay topic through, think of who would you like to persuade. What are their political views, age, values, education level, etc.? If you keep the target audience in mind, you’ll find it easier to pick the right words and build an effective argument.
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2. Follow your passion when choosing a subject
When choosing a subject for writing, stick to the one that you have a personal interest in. It’s been proven that students do their best when writing on the topic they like. You’ll feel more engaged in writing and will build a stronger argument. If the topic is assigned to you by a teacher, still try to find the way of connecting it with your personal views and interests. Here you can find more tips on making your essay impeccable: https://getessayeditor.com/blog/make-your-essay-perfect-12-tips-from-professional-writers.
3. Do a quality research
It’s impossible to convince your audience if your own knowledge of the topic is superficial. To sound more convincing and prepared in writing, analyze trustworthy resources (in case with essays, it will be academic sources such as books, journals and newspapers). During the research phase you’ll collect the facts and evidence necessary to persuade anyone that your point of view is correct. As you research, don’t only look for arguments that support your ideas. Also study the opposite point of view to anticipate the potential counter-arguments.
4. Show your position
After you’ve studied academic sources and thought through subject, clearly define your position. Clearly formulate the idea you are going to argue. Some essay types encourage creativity and obscurity, but this isn’t the case with persuasive writing. Here, you should state your argument from the very beginning and then use evidence and various tricks to prove it. In addition to formulating argument and collecting evidence, check out why grammar and spelling matter for an excellent essay.
5. Provide compelling evidence
After you’ve stated the taken position, you need to prove it. In this regard, nothing works better than referencing credible academic sources. Quotes from books, stats and percentages or simply relying on the ideas of other researchers prove the correctness of your point of view. The use of evidence builds credibility. Referencing the authors that the readers know and respect and relying on facts, you’ll have more chances to persuade the audience that you are right.
6. Use repetition
Repeating your main ideas is one of the best tactics of persuasive writing. As you’ve stated the thesis in introduction, repeat it again in other essay sections. Otherwise, the reader might lose focus. Reiterate your argument as you give quotes from books, provide an example, and formulate it using different words. The experts in learning psychology state that repetition is absolutely crucial for getting your ideas heard and remembered.
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7. Use figurative language
To prove your ideas effectively, use metaphors and analogies. When you connect your ideas to something that already exists in the reader’s mind, they are more likely to accept your ideas as true. So, make comparisons, use well-known metaphors and rhetorical questions. Not only they will make your writing more vivid and enticing, but also motivate the readers to take your side. However, don’t overdo with creativity – keep in mind that like any academic paper your essay should be fact-based. Take a look at this revision of present tenses to make sure your grammar is accurate.
8. Give readers a future perspective
If you want to agitate your readers for or against something, one of the best techniques is to give them a future forecast. This trick won’t work with all topics. But if you manage to analyze the information and give a prediction of likely future outcomes, this trick alone will impress the readers. For instance, when writing about climate change, you can give predictions about how much the ocean level will rise. To do that, however, you need to do a comprehensive research, otherwise your predictions will sound as fluffy statements.
9. Address potential objections
It is naïve to expect that the readers will agree with you at once. Most likely, you’ll face the objections, and those of the well-versed reader can completely confuse you. So, think of what kind of objections the paper reader might express. And don’t ignore the counter-arguments – address them in writing or think through how you will respond to them in class. If you do it in advance and address the objections with grace, your chances to persuade the audience will increase dramatically.
The elements and examples of persuasive essay
A persuasive essay starts with an introductory paragraph where you should present your position on a certain topic or issue. In the body you then build an argument supporting it with evidence and facts. Don’t forget to use transitions and sentence connections to help your writing look consistent and well-structured. In the conclusion section you should restate the thesis taking into account the evidence you’ve collected and analyzed.
How do you write a persuasive speech?
You can use the above techniques and approaches when writing a persuasive speech as its goals are the same. However, there are two key differences. Firstly, your speech should end with a call to action to trigger the response of the audience and engage them. And secondly, when preparing a speech, consider spending more time addressing potential objections as controversial subject is likely to provoke a heated discussion.
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