Writing Practice  

How to write a persuasive essay

A. A brief introduction 

The purpose of persuasive writing is to state an opinion which you are going to defend and to offer supporting evidence in order to convince the reader to accept your point of view.

Three steps you should take to produce a good persuasive essay.

Step 1:

Write your thesis clearly at the beginning of the essay. The thesis is your statement of purpose and it will serve to guide you in writing the entire paper. For the sake of unity, a short essay needs only one thesis.

Step 2:

Give facts, examples, statistics or the opinions of reliable authorities to support your thesis.  

Step 3:

By tying together what has been discussed, conclude your essay with a restatement of the thesis or a forceful sentence that helps to drive your thesis home.

B. A sample

      Pollution is harmful to human beings. Polluted water causes many kinds of diseases such as diarrhea, enteritis, etc. And sometimes these diseases even take man’s life. Dirty air or air-bone garbage causes stinging eyes and running nose.

Nowadays pollution problems have not been completely solved. Pesticides are widely used almost everywhere. They pollute soil, water and food. They have the power to make our streams fishless and our gardens and woodlands silent and birdless. Some factories are still dirty. Quite a few chimneys are still pouring smoke into air and noise pollution remains serious.

Measures should be taken to control pollution. Legislative steps should be introduced and pollutants should be trapped before they are poured out of chimney.  

C. Homework

Directions: For this part, you are allowed thirty minutes to write a composition on the topic Environmental Protection. You must base your composition on the following instructions (given in Chinese). Your composition should be no less than 120 words. Remember to write it clearly.

1. 目前环保中还存在许多问题

2. 为了保护环境，政府做了大量的工作

3. 应采取有效措施保护环境