Effective Argumentation in Persuasive Essays

Persuasive Essay

by Oriana González

​WRITING A PERSUASIVE ESSAY

​Structure and organization are integral components of an effective persuasive essay. No matter how intelligent the ideas, a paper lacking a strong introduction, well-organized body paragraphs and an insightful conclusion is not an effective paper.

​THE INTRODUCTION

​The introductory paragraph introduces the argument of your paper. A well-constructed introductory paragraph immediately captures a reader’s interest and gives appropriate background information about the paper’s topic.

​

​Such a paragraph might include a brief summary of the ideas to be discussed in body of the paper as well as other information relevant to your paper’s argument. The most important function of the introductory paragraph, however, is to present a clear statement of the paper’s argument.

​

​The following are helpful questions for you to consider when formulating a thesis:

​

• ​What is the argument that I am trying to convince the reader to accept?

• ​How exactly do I expect to convince the reader that this argument is sound?

​THE BODY

​The body of your paper contains the actual development of your paper’s argument. Each body paragraph presents a single idea or set of related ideas that provides support for your paper’s argument.

​

​Each body paragraph addresses one key aspect of your paper’s thesis and brings the reader closer to accepting the validity of your paper’s argument. Because each body paragraph should be a step in your argument, you should be mindful of the overall organization of your body paragraphs.

​THE CONCLUSION

​A basic purpose of your paper’s concluding paragraph is both to restate the paper’s argument and to restate how you have supported this argument in the body of the paper. However, your conclusion should not simply be a copy of your introduction.

​

​The conclusion draws together the threads of the paper’s argument and shows where the argument of your paper has gone. An effective conclusion gives the reader reasons for bothering to read your paper.

​

​Some possible questions to consider when writing your conclusion are:

​

• ​What are some real world applications of this paper’s argument?

  ​Why is what I am writing about important?

• ​What are some of the questions that this paper’s argument raises?

• ​What are the implications of this paper’s argument?