The Seven Steps - Persuasive Writing
Step 1: Plan for Success
How many times have you told your students 'plan your work' – and they ignore you? The biggest hurdle is to show thinking is far more important than physically writing. To be original you need to have LOTS of ideas, so brainstorm and practice generating ideas often.
Step 2: Sizzling Starts
Do you get the same old starts, 'One day... Once upon a time... I think that... In my opinion...' over and over again? Teach students how to start at the 'moment of change' to gain a reader's interest immediately.
Step 3: Tightening Tension
To persuade (not just set out facts) you have to build up momentum. Start strong, but save your best arguments and persuasive techniques for near the end.
Step 4: Dynamic Dialogue
Quotations from experts, real words from a flood victim, concise sayings from famous people, even words from the people in your article ('I thought I was going to die from fear...') give strength and vibrancy to writing.
Step 5: Show, Don't Tell
If you were told children were dying from lack of clean water, would you send money? Most likely not. However, if you were shown one small skinny child, squatting by a polluted river, exhausted, hungry, and desperately needing water... would you help?
Step 6: Ban the Boring
The first ideas are usually the worst – as everyone else is thinking of them too. Challenge students to be better than basic, they can be brilliant, not boring.
Step 7: Endings with Impact
First lines and last lines are what people remember the most. 'In conclusion, I think...' is writing by numbers. Be powerful in order to persuade.