Warm-Up for Persuasive Essays
Persuasive essays share an opinion and attempt to convince readers to agree with it. This unit will show you how to build a strong argument that influences your readers.
What Is a Persuasive Essay?
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A persuasive essay allows you to express and support an opinion about an important topic—often a topic that pulls people in different directions.
Does homework really help you? Are school uniforms a good idea? Is more security needed in your school? You have opinions about these topics, right? In fact, you have opinions about a lot of things. Everyone does.
The purpose of persuasive writing is to convince readers to agree with an opinion. To be convincing, you must learn a great deal about your topic. Then you must write about it clearly and thoughtfully. In this unit, you will write a persuasive essay about an important school-related topic.
Thinking About Opinions
An opinion is a personally held belief that cannot be proven to be true. The central idea or argument of a persuasive essay is expressed in an opinion statement. An opinion statement shares a specific opinion about an interesting topic.
Sample Opinion Statement
A special bike lane is needed on all busy streets.
- Specific topic: Bike lanes
- Thought or feeling: Needed on all busy streets
Analyze opinion statements.
In each of the following opinion statements, highlight or circle the topic and underline the feeling or belief about it. The first one has been done for you. Make a copy of this Google doc or download a Word template.