persuasive essay detailed lesson plan

5 Top Persuasive Writing Lesson Plans for Students and Teachers

The purpose of any persuasive writing text is to persuade the reader of a particular point of view or to take a specific course of action. Persuasive texts come in many different forms, including, but not limited to, essays, editorials, letters, advertisements, and reviews. While persuasive texts come in many shapes and sizes, they all share standard features.

Persuasive texts employ a wide variety of different rhetorical strategies and techniques to achieve their ends. For example, they’ll use emotive language and rhetorical questions. Images are sometimes used to entice or appeal to the reader or viewer. 

Advertising is one key form of persuasive writing . It makes vigorous use of all the tools in the persuasive writing toolbox as it strives to sell goods or services to the reader.

In this article, you’ll learn how to take your students from reluctant salespersons to master marketers in a lightning-fast five days. 

Students will first learn how the various persuasive strategies work before incorporating them into their advertisements. We have comprehensive guides to persuasive writing and advertisements you should explore also.

So, let’s get started!

Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 1: Identify the Key Features of Adverts

Before your students will be able to produce their own well-written advertisements, they’ll need to be well-versed in all the tricks up the skilful salesperson’s sleeves.

One of the most productive ways for students to do this is through reverse engineering.

Organize your students into small groups or pairs and distribute print advertisements gleaned from various sources such as magazines, newspapers, and posters. You could also show projections of some sample advertisements projected onto the whiteboard to facilitate this exercise.

Now, ask the students to examine the advertisements and answer the following question: 

What techniques do the advertisers use to get our attention?

Challenge the students to go beyond the pretty obvious features of advertisements, e.g. branding, slogans, and testimonials, to also look at more subtle techniques such as the use and interplay of images and various other effects created by language choices and figurative devices. 

When the students have finished their discussions, give them feedback as a whole class and use their responses to compile a master list of the various features they have identified. 

Some features suggested by the class might include:

• Emotive language
• Exaggeration
• Appealing adjectives
• Powerful verbs
• Strong adverbs
• Contact details
• Alliteration
• Rhetorical questions
• Testimonials

Once you have compiled a master list of persuasive strategies and techniques used in advertising, these can handily be turned into checklists that the students can use when producing their own advertisements later.

Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 2: Analyze an Advert

Now, the students have a solid understanding of the different features of advertisements and a checklist to work from; it’s time for them to analyze an advert in more detail. 

Not only will this prove a valuable exercise to help prepare your students for producing their own advertisements later in the week, but it will also serve as an excellent task to improve your students’ media literacy skills. It may even help to innoculate them from media manipulation in the future.

To get started on their advertisement analysis, they’ll need to source a suitable advertisement to look at in detail. 

Older and higher-ability students may be fit to make their own choices regarding which advertisement to analyze. If this is the case, perhaps they can choose an advert for a product they like or a product or service in a category that interests them greatly. 

Allowing your students some say in the ads they analyze will help fuel their interest and enthusiasm when creating their own advertisements later.

However, it might be best to choose a sample advertisement for younger students and those of lower ability – or at least offer a pre-vetted, limited choice. They will most likely have enough to contend with already!

When students have a suitable advertisement to hand, please encourage them to use their checklist from yesterday’s lesson to explore how the ad works. The students should then write a paragraph identifying the various techniques used in the advertisement and their effect.

Challenge the students to write another paragraph or two, considering what makes the advertisement work – or not, as the case may be. Ask them to consider where the advertisement could be improved. Could the slogan be catchier? How about the logo? Does it convey the brand’s identity appropriately? Are the images used in the advertisement optimal?

When the students have finished their paragraphs, they can display their advert and their analysis and share their thoughts with the class.

Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 3: Plan an Advertisement

At this stage, your students should have a good understanding of many of the main features of advertisements and had plenty of opportunities to see examples of these in action. Now it’s time for them to begin to plan for writing their own advertisements. Here are some areas for your students to think about when starting the planning process.

The Purpose and Audience

Like any other writing type, students will need to identify both the purpose and the audience for their advertisements bef ore putting pen to paper.

The purpose of any advertisement is to sell goods or services. Precisely what goods or services are being sold is the first question that needs to be answered.

Students might like to focus on the goods or services advertised in the adverts they’ve been exploring over the previous two days. Or, if they prefer, they might like to choose something new entirely.

Once they’ve chosen what they’re selling, students will need to identify who they will sell it to. Scattershot advertisements that attempt to sell to everyone often end up selling to no one.

One effective way to help focus an advert is to define a ‘buyer persona’ first. This is a profile of the hypothetical buyer who the ad will target.

Students can consider the following characteristics to help them develop their buyer’s persona:

• Education level
• Marital status
• Likes/Dislikes
• Who they trust
• What they read/watch

The Brand Name

The next stage is for the student to decide on a name for their company. This should usually be something relatively short and memorable, and appealing to the target audience.

Generally, the student will need to come up with at least four or five ideas first. They can then choose the best. 

It can be a helpful practice for the student to look at the brand names for companies selling similar goods and services. A little internet research will be beneficial here.

Now it’s time for students to jot down ideas for their brand’s slogan. Slogans are short and punchy phrases that help make brands more memorable for customers. 

Slogans often employ literary devices such as alliteration, puns, or rhyme. They don’t always have to be the most meaningful things in the world; it’s more important that they’re memorable. Think Nike’s Just to Do It or McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It – not the most meaning-rich phrases in the world but instantly recognizable!

The Body Copy

This part of the advertisement will contain the bulk of the writing. It’s where the students will get to use the various techniques and strategies they’ve explored in the previous activities.

Despite containing most of the ad’s text, advertising copy is usually concise and to the point. Student’s should strive to get the main points across in the fewest words possible. Nothing turns readers off faster than impenetrable walls of text.

To help organize the text, students may use bullet points and subheadings. They should be sure to include any specific information or specifications that they want the reader to know about the product or service. 

The language chosen should also be appropriate for speaking to the audience that they have defined earlier.

The Call to Action

The Call to Action – commonly referred to as the CTA , usually comes at the end of an advertisement.

The CTA typically comprises a few sentences that invite the reader to take a particular course of action. Normally, to buy the advertised goods or service.

However, not all CTAs focus on getting the reader to make an immediate purchase. Some, for example, aim to get the reader to provide their contact details so they can be sold to later. 

Students need to first define what their Call to Action will invite readers to do. They will then need to choose a strong imperative that will call on the reader to take that specific action. Commonly used verbs that urge readers to take action include subscribe, join, buy, etc.

The CTA must be clear and specific; the reader should be in no doubt about what the advertisement is asking them to do. 

Often, the CTA will create a sense of urgency by limiting special offers by time. 

As part of the planning process, students should use some of their time in today’s session to think about and make some notes on options they might like to include in the final drafts of their Call to Action.

Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 4: Create the Advertisement

Day 4, already! This is the day students will try to bring all the elements together. They’ll work to complete their advertisements by the end of today’s session.

You may like to have the students collaborating to produce their ads or working individually. Either way, reinforce the importance of attention to detail in their work. 

The main focus for persuasive texts of any kind, advertisements included, shouldn’t be length but, instead, it should be on how effectively it persuades the reader to take the desired action.

Students should incorporate their planning from yesterday and refer to their checklists as they create. As precise language is so essential to effective marketing, encourage students to use thesauruses to help them find just the right word for their copy.

When students have had a chance to draft their advertisements, they can then get into small groups and compare their work. This is an opportunity for students to provide each other with constructive criticism. 

They can use their checklists as a basis to provide this criticism. Students can then revise their advertisements in light of the advice they’ve received in their groups.

Persuasive Writing Lesson Plan 5: Further Practice in the Art of Persuasion

In the process of comparing their work with each other, with reference to the criteria they’ve worked on earlier in the week, students will no doubt identify areas they are strong in and other areas where they are weaker.

Day 5’s activities should offer students an opportunity to practice those areas identified as needing further work to bring them up to par.

For example, students can practice their persuasion skills by moving their focus from printed ads to other types of marketing endeavours that utilise the arts of persuasion.

Where students struggled to employ literary devices in their advertising copy, they may benefit from creating a radio jingle or radio ad for their product or service. As this type of ad can contain no visual imagery to support, writing a radio jingle or ad will force the student to pay particular attention to verbal imagery, rhyme, alliteration, etc. 

If the testimonials used in the first advertisement were unconvincing, perhaps the student will benefit from isolating this strategy to focus exclusively on effective testimonial writing. They should spend some time researching testimonials and how to write them effectively. 

For example, testimonials should usually be:

• Short and to the point
• Conversational in tone
• Authentic (use a name, photo, job title, etc.)
• Specific about the benefits
• Directed at overcoming objections.

Once students have a good handle on how these work, they should put their new-found knowledge into practice and get writing as soon as possible.

This research-then-practice model can help the student improve in whatever particular area of persuasion that needs work – as identified in yesterday’s activity.

Getting good at persuasive writing demands our students to develop their knowledge and abilities with a broad range of skills and strategies. 

Advertising copy is a highly concentrated form of persuasive writing and, therefore, an excellent means for our students to gain lots of practice in a short space of time. 

And, as the saying goes, a good start is half the work, so set your class of creative copywriters on the road to marketing mastery today!

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Persuasive Writing

In our Persuasive Writing lesson plan, students learn how to write a better persuasive argument. Students practice identifying key components of persuasive writing and also write their own persuasive essay.

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Our Persuasive Writing lesson plan introduces students to the concept of persuasive writing and to strategies for writing their own persuasive essay. Students are asked to first create a detailed outline for a persuasive essay asking the president to give them an extra thirty minutes of recess. Students are then asked to plan, outline, and write their own persuasive essay about a topic of their choosing.

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to identify key components of persuasive writing and will have written their own persuasive essay.

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Writing a Persuasive Essay: Lesson Plan on the Persuasive Essay Writing Process

• Suzanne Florin
• Categories : High school english lesson plans grades 9 12
• Tags : High school lesson plans & tips

The Art of Persuasion in Writing

How do you help your students develop skills in writing a persuasive essay? Guide students throughout the entire thought process with this lesson plan. Help them first come up with ideas, form arguments, debate with other students and finally bring the whole thing together in a finished product.

Make the Concept Clear to the Students

Make a PowerPoint presentation of print ads that they see on billboards or magazines. Then, let the students guess the product endorsed. This is a good opening activity or game to familiarize them with captivating words that advertisers use to persuade the public to support their product or idea. Discuss how persuasive the advertisements are in encouraging you to buy their product. This is a great real life application of the power of persuasion.

Let the Students Form Judgments

After letting the students discover the importance of persuasion, divide them into groups with four members. Then, distribute a piece of paper with a debatable topic. Ask them to discuss what they think of the situation presented, and let them form judgments about it. Afterward, ask volunteers to share with the class what their group has talked about.

Use a Map to Organize Ideas

Upon realizing the different opinions that each person had about the topic, tell the students to defend or strengthen their judgment by writing about it. Teach them how to use a persuasion map in presenting their ideas. Then, provide them with sufficient time to accomplish their map. Have their map printed so that they can use it as a guide in developing their persuasive essay.

Begin Writing

With the printed persuasion map in hand, teach the students how a persuasive essay is expected to appear. Let them refer to the map, and tell them that all they need to do is to simply follow the sequence of the items found within it. They simply have to elaborate on each statement that they formed in the map.

Do Peer Editing

Present to the students the guidelines for editing a persuasive essay . Then, with a partner, let them edit each other’s work according to the standards of a good essay. After editing, tell them to discuss with their partner their feedback on the essay they have edited.

The active involvement of the students from the springboard activity until the editing stage of the essay enables them to fully grasp the lesson. With the right approach, your students will find this topic practical, simple to do, and essential in their lives.

• Photo Credit: WikiCommons.
• Read, Write, Think,  http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/persuasion_map/

Developing Persuasive Arguments through Ethical Inquiry: Two Prewriting Strategies

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In this lesson, students use focused prewriting strategies to explore content and ethical issues related to a persuasive assignment. These strategies work best after students have established their topic and audience and have begun exploring their rhetorical (writing) situation as it relates to a specific, local problem about which they have some knowledge. These strategies would pair well with Joelle Brummitt-Yale's “ Persuading the Principal:  Writing Persuasive Letters about School Issues ”.

Featured Resources

• Ethical Inventory Questions : This tool helps students discover ethical values that they possess and may share with others.
• Ethical Question Star : Students use this tool to discover what ethical values relate to a specific rhetorical (writing) situation of their choice.

From Theory to Practice

This lesson takes the position that “ethical inquiry is an important form of critical thinking and as such it is an important component of students’ cognitive development.” Including prewriting heuristics that encourage ethical inquiry when students are preparing to write practically focused persuasive pieces can help students create “sufficient, audience-based content for their work” and “understand that writing is a form of action and as such can have consequences for themselves and others in the world.”

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Flip chart paper and markers
• Computers with Internet access
• Lesson Overview Discussion Questions handout
• Ethical Inventory Questions
• Ethical Question Star (two copies per student)
• Sample Writing Situation
• Sample Completed Ethical Question Star
• Peer Review Guidelines
• What Ethical Values Did I Use?
• Sample Ethical Rubric (to add to an existing persuasive letter writing rubric)

This bibliography of print resources from CCCC provides links to codes of ethics from various professional organizations that can be used to support the ‘extensions’ described for this lesson. These codes can also be mined for values to promote discussion as the class works to complete the ethical inventory questions.

This web page provides links to writing, discussion, and other classroom activities that focus on ethics and character in the K-12 classroom. The resources are free, and the discussion resources provide tips for how to lead class conversations on ethics.

This online center provides a wealth of free resources on ethics across a range of disciplines. The resources are too numerous to list here, but the links to character and campus ethics might be of use to teachers who would like to link ethics to other projects in their classroom.

Preparation

• Read “ Ethics as a Form of Critical and Rhetorical Inquiry in the Writing Classroom ” from English Journal 100.6 (2011) to get a sense of how this lesson works and the types of responses it can generate.
• A persuasive unit should be in progress in the classroom; students should have a topic and audience. If a persuasive unit is not already in progress, it is recommended that teachers use  Joelle Brummitt-Yale’s “ Persuading the Principal:  Writing Persuasive Letters about School Issues ” to prepare for this lesson.
• Write out your own answers to the questions on the Lesson Overview Discussion Questions handout .  Use the Lesson Overview Discussion Questions handout to guide whole class discussion and overview the lesson (see also directions on the handout).
• Gather flip chart paper and markers.
• Test the Persuasion Map and Letter Generator student interactives and make sure that you have the appropriate software installed for them to run effectively.  You will need computers with internet access for each student to use these interactives.  If you need additional help with these interactives, please visit our Technical Help page .
• Plan for computer use on Session 3 of this lesson so that students can access the Persuasion Map interactive and for when students are ready to format their final drafts as letters and reflect on their use of ethical values so that students can use the Letter Generator interactive.
• Add an ethical component to the Peer Review Guidelines for Persuasive Letters (see Student Assessment/Reflection section of this lesson for more details).
• Add an ethical component to the assessment of student work by modifying the ReadWriteThink Rubric for Persuasive Letters (see Student Assessment/Reflection section of this lesson for more details).

Student Objectives

Students will:

• work cooperatively to understand what ethical values they already possess and how their culture has shaped those values.
• learn about and use a new prewriting heuristics to consider ethical values when developing persuasive messages.
• make use of ethical values when drafting persuasive messages.

Session One

• Review the questions/answers to the Lesson Overview Discussion Questions handout and use the lesson overview questions to guide a brief, 5 to 10 minute general discussion about ethics and persuasive writing.
• After the class has a chance to answer the questions, be sure to also share your answers to the questions.
• Make sure all students have copies of the Ethical Inventory Questions .
• Copy the first question from the Ethical Inventory Questions hadnout onto a piece of flip chart paper (or you may choose to use an overhead, a whiteboard, a computer with LCD projector, etc.; the important part is that these questions/responses can be saved for later sessions).
• Some common answers to this question include: a good person is fair, honest and shares. A good neighbor helps other neighbors in need, respects others rights by not playing music too loud and by keeping up his/her property. A good friend is someone who won’t tell my secrets. A good parent is someone who cares, helps and loves me even when I do wrong. A good sibling is much like a good parent or friend. He/she is someone I can trust. If students get stuck on this set of questions, ask them to think of their favorite person, neighbor, parent, teacher, friend, etc. and describe that person to the class. The good traits that are ethical the teacher should record. For instance, a friend who keeps secrets is one who exhibits the ethical value of trustworthiness.
• Discovering values related to social ethics of care: How do the people in the first question show that they care for one another? Common answers to this question include actions such as sharing, giving, helping, and forgiving. If students get stuck, as them to think of a time when someone helped them. Ask them to report out what kind of help they received and align it to ethical values. For instance, if a parent spent a lot of time helping a child with homework, a value the parent may have exhibited is patience.
• Discovering values related to social utilitarian ethics: What are some actions people take to make the world a better place? What makes these actions good? Here, it might be helpful for students who get stuck to brainstorm about real people who made some aspect of the student’s home, school, church, neighborhood, town, county, country or world better. Starting with examples from the news of people helping others is also a good idea. Some common actions people take to make the world a better place include: responding to fix negative consequences that they did not create such as cleaning up animals after an oil spill, sacrificing something important to save or care for another life such as ruining a favorite, expensive pair of shoes or outfit to pull someone else out of harm’s way.
• Here again, looking for actions from the news that relate to organizations might be a good idea. For instance, Purina recently donated food to animal shelters in need. An area school gathered items for a food pantry. Our government gave money to people in Japan after the earthquake and so on. Asking students what makes these actions good ones will get to ethical values such as caring, sharing, responsibility, respect, and many others.
• Discovering values related to social rights/laws and rules: What rights, rules, and laws are important to you as a citizen of the United States? As a member of this school? As a member of your church? As a member of your town? Here teachers may want to be prepared to bring in the bill of rights to the discussion as well as the preamble to the constitution. Both documents point to ethical values we have as Americans. Some of these values include, the belief that all people are created equal, have the right to pursue happiness and have the right to free speech. The teacher might provide these answers to get the discussion started and then ask for other examples.
• Discovering values related to conservation: What do people do to care for the earth, its air and water, and its plants and animals? What makes these actions good? Here again examples from the news about protecting the health of the environment can get students discussing. For instance, Americans are being encouraged to go green by using public transportation, car pooling, and other means of transportation such as walking and biking. The teacher might ask the class the positive effects that these alternatives yield to get at ethical values.
• Repeat steps 5-6 until all answers are complete.
• Flip chart answers should be hung on the walls and used in session two.
• This session can be altered to accommodate small group work by using the  Jigsaw Strategy . In the Jigsaw Strategy , students work in teams to create content for themselves and their peers. The teacher must first model out loud how to create this content. In the case of the ethical inventory questions, the teacher should model how she or he would answer one set of questions. After modeling, the teacher should point out key features the teams should seek to mimic when creating their answers. For more specifics about how to transition from this modeling to group work, refer to the Jigsaw Strategy Guide .

Session Two

• Hang the flip chart paper up in the classroom for reference during this session.
• Invite the class to take no more than 10 minutes to get up and review the flip charts. As they review the charts, students should take notes about what commonalities and differences they see in the values displayed on the charts.
• In round-robin fashion, have students report out the commonalities and differences they noted in step 2.
• Make sure students have copies of both the Sample Writing Situation and a blank Ethical Question Star .
• Using the Sample Writing Situation and working as a whole class, guide the class in completing the Ethical Question Star for the rhetorical writing situation. When the class gets stuck, be sure to point out the flip chart answers hanging around the classroom and ask them if anything from the chart can be used to answer each question.
• After the discussion, share with students the Sample Completed Ethical Question Star for this writing situation. Ask the class how the student who completed the star could have used the star to help him or her write a persuasive letter. Record these answers on the board and use them to reinforce to students the need for each of them to complete their own question star on this topic.
• Once steps 1-6 are finished, students should work on completing a question star of their own for their own writing situation. Students should be allowed to work in pairs or larger teams so that they can consult each other for help. Students should also be encouraged to look at the flip chart answers for help.
• For homework, students should finish their ethical question stars and bring them to the next class period.

Session Three

• Divide students into groups of three.
• Direct groups to share their stars in round-robin fashion with the rest of the group.
• The group members should respond to each star by offering one praise statement and one suggestion. For instance, the group might note that one value will work well in the student’s paper (a praise comment), and that the student should add something about fairness to his/her star (a suggestion comment).
• The group should finish its work in no more than 20 minutes.
• Once all the group discussion is complete, ask the class how they might use the details from their stars to write their papers.
• Using the Ethical Question Star the whole class completed for the Sample Writing Situation , ask the class how ideas from the question star can be used to complete the persuasive map interactive.
• Once the whole class work is finished, students should work to complete a Persuasion Map for their own papers using the interactive . Students should be allowed to work in pairs or larger teams so that they can consult each other for help.
• Before students are sent to work on their own, be sure to share with them the assessment tool that you've created to help guide them through the assignment (quite possibly a persuasive rubric with the addition of the Sample Ethical Rubric ).  Be sure to allow time for student questions to make sure they understand what is expected of them.
• Teachers should be prepared to follow these prewriting sessions with drafting, reviewing, and revising lessons that they would usually do for any writing unit.
• Have students use their choice of the ethical inventory questions or the ethical question star to interview their intended audience. After interviews are complete, have students informally report to the class what they learned from their interview and how they might apply what they learned to their project.  The ReadWriteThink Tip Helping a Teen Prepare for an Interview provides a video and a list of process-based strategies students can follow for a successful interview.
• Have students do internet research on ethical values by searching for ‘codes of ethics’ related to any of the following: their topic choices, an area of interest or hobby, or a career choice. After research is complete, have students informally share with the class how what they found is similar and different from the ethical values the class reported while completing the ethical inventory questions.  To prepare their findings for the class presentation, students can use the ReadWriteThink Venn Diagram Interactive .
• Have groups of students create a presentation or multimedia project in which they take a position on what it means to be a good person in the 2 1st -century. In developing ideas for this project, students should use the ethical inventory questions to interview others on this topic, and they should research ‘codes of ethics’ on the internet related to their areas of interest. Students should also do research to discover ‘role models’ who personify their view of what it means to be a good person. The goal of the project should be to encourage students to synthesize other perspectives in creating a comprehensive portrait of what it means to be a good person in the 2 1st -century.  Creating a PowerPoint poster that students ‘deliver’ to the class is one way to put this idea into practice. Traci Gardner’s ReadWriteThink Lesson Designing Effective Poster Presentations provides strategies for creating such posters.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Observe student discussions and in class work; prepare to assist and ask guiding questions to help students generate ethical values and relate them to their writing. Some guiding questions that can help students discover their values include: what about this issue upsets you? Why should people care about this issue? If nothing is done to resolve this problem, who will be hurt? Will any laws be broken if nothing is done?
• Add an ethical component to the Peer Review Guidelines for Persuasive Letters . Including an ethical component can be as simple as inserting this prompt into the peer review handout: Identify the ethical values the writer has used in the letter. How well do these values relate to the writer’s argument? What values, if any, should be added to or removed from the letter?
• Ask students to reflect on their use of ethical values and thinking when they have completed their final project by attaching a short, reflective letter to their finished work.  See the print out What Ethical Values Did I Use? for more details.
• Add an ethical component (see the sample ethical rubric) to the Rubric for Persuasive Letters (be sure to share this rubric with students before their assignment is given).
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Through a classroom game and resource handouts, students learn about the techniques used in persuasive oral arguments and apply them to independent persuasive writing activities.

Students will research a local issue, and then write letters to two different audiences, asking readers to take a related action or adopt a specific position on the issue.

Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.

In this strategy guide, you will learn how to organize students and texts to allow for learning that meets the diverse needs of students but keeps student groups flexible.

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

The Letter Generator is a useful tool for students to learn the parts of a business or friendly letter and then compose and print letters for both styles of correspondence.

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Persuasive Essay Lesson Plan

• by MOHAMMED RHALMI
• January 13, 2010 March 14, 2017

Writing a persuasive essay

This activity teaches students to write persuasive essay. The activity takes about 2-3 session periods.

The activity

• Tell students to choose an item of clothing, food, drink, … to advertise to the class.
• Students write a short commercial to advertise the product.
• Class votes on most convincing (persuasive) commercial.
• Discussion about persuasion and how it was used in the short commercials.
• Give complex, debatable topics (capital punishment, abortion, corporal punishment, etc.) to discuss. These will help provoke thought and trigger reactions.
• The oral debate of the topics  allows students time to develop opinions and share ideas.
• Without any guidelines students are instructed to write an essay on the topic.
• Tell students that opinion words (such as think, feel, in my opinion, etc. ) make the essay sound weaker. They should be avoided in a persuasive essay.
• Do not use contractions
• Use formal language
• Write in first or third person only
• Do not use “opinion words”
• Have a strong introduction which states your view on the situation
• Wrap up with a strong conclusion
• Now have students write a 250-300 word persuasive essay.

Examples of topics for persuasive writing

The following are some good topic ideas for persuasive essays collected from various sources:

• We spend billions of dollars on space discovery while millions of people die in Africa. Do you think this is fair?
• There has been discussion of raising the legal driving age. How do you feel?
• Should professional athletes be paid more than teachers?
• Should public school students wear uniforms?
• Should prayer be allowed in public schools?
• Should capital punishment be banned

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Nine steps to essay success

Hint: You need a lot of prep

Essay writing is an essential skill that all students need to develop in order to survive, and thrive in, school, university and beyond.  Follow our nine steps to essay success. 

BONUS TIP : Check out our Assignment Calculator to help break it down into easy, manageable steps and tasks, each with its own mini-deadline. 

• Nail the question.   It sounds obvious, but if you don't REALLY understand the question, you're doomed to fail before you even put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).  If you have any doubts whatsoever about what your lecturer or teacher wants, double- and triple-check with them before you start.
• Create a skeleton.   Break the question down into parts to create an outline of your essay.  Make sure all the points in the question are included in your outline.  Need some help with this step?  Grab a free copy of our essay planning template on this page. You can also connect with an English specialist in real time to discuss it.
• Research.  Gather as much information as you can about your topic.  Use the library, research online (using lots of different authoritative sites), speak to people you know, gather interviews and sources.
• Brainstorm.  Ask yourself a whole heap of questions about the topic.  If you're used to creating mindmaps, this is the time to use one.  Allow your mind to travel broadly on the topic to stretch yourself beyond what might usually be expected.  Then, when you've got all your questions, use more research to answer them!
• Body build.   In point form, start to put some muscle on that skeleton you built earlier.  Don't start writing yet, but using all the notes you've taken in your research and brainstorm phase, plan out the main arguments you'll include in each paragraph.
• Hang on a sec!  Don't start with your introduction yet, that will come later...
• Your essay body.  Each paragraph in your essay should deal with a separate insight.  Start each paragraph with a topical sentence, then support that topic with the evidence or reasoning found in your research phase.
• The conclusion.  Wrap up your essay with a quick summary that holds up your arguments one last time.  Some students like to end with a memorable thought such as a quotation or call to action - but make sure it's relevant, and that you attribute it correctly.
• Finally... the introduction.  It's much easier to introduce something AFTER you've written it. Use your introduction to outline the points asked in the question, and describe how your essay addresses these points.

At Studiosity, we want your words and ideas to be heard, to be understood and to be valued. Every day, our English and writing specialists help hundreds of students construct arguments, develop creative skills, improve grammar and punctuation, and much more. It’s easy to get started. Simply upload a written draft to us and we’ll send it back with detailed feedback on how to make it better.

Free Essay Planner  hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(437097, '76905bf1-92da-4e9d-8ef4-53b84f33380a', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"});

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