Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #427 - How to write a Persuasive Essay, part one
Hi Mom,
This code is all a bit wonky, but this is something I have been meaning to post for some time. A few years ago I took an HTML class, and I created a web site of my lessons on persuasive writing. The site is no longer hosted, so I am adding it to the blog in the hopes of directing students here. I will post a part once a week until I am out of text. The site had many pages, so this may take me a few weeks. If nothing else, it may increase traffic from my students to the blog and from students who are not mine but find this via Google search. Hello Google Searcher!! If that's you, bookmark me. Check back. Once I get them all posted, you can find the entire seat with the "persuasive essays" category.
Mom, I have some of my fondest memories of helping you write essays -- especially for your English class -- when you returned to school in the 1990s in the hopes of finishing your college degree. I know I already apologized to you for ever being short-tempered with you, exasperated, frustrated, or otherwise ill-humored. You know I love you, and you died knowing that I love you and that I was sorry if I ever did anything but help you and guide you and support you with my whole heart. But gee wiz, we edited and printed some of those papers close to a dozen times. Really. I am not lying. But I have fond memories of those times. If only all sons could help their mothers with their school in this way. You made me feel important and needed, Mom. I was able to give back to you with something I could give as away to thank you for all that you gave to me. I found all your essays and saved them from being thrown out in a purge. Maybe I will share some on this blog at some point.
Now with that written, dear reader, and Mom, here we go. The first installment of HOW TO WRITE A PERSUASIVE ESSAY. Enjoy.
Welcome
Welcome to christopher tower's © page devoted to the most important lesson of College English composition: writing the persuasive essay.
Call it what you will: a persuasive
essay, an argumentative paper. It's all the same. Every semester, students are
confounded by assignments from well meaning instructors.
Each semester students suffer
sleepless nights of toil and anguish laboring at writing at least one
persuasive paper assignment with often little instruction and virtually no
guidance other than some half-baked textbook.
NEVER FEAR, TRUE
BELIEVERS!!
This web site is dedicated to guiding you step-by-step through the creation of the most common of all college beasties: the persuasion paper. Follow these simple steps to grand, academic success. The site also features several side topics that I loving call "stupidity revealed." There are many ideas that college professors pass off as "rules," which are not rules. There are also many conventions of APA format, research, and writing style that are quite stupid. I hope you enjoy my perspective on these issues, but beware employing my good ideas in other classes. Some instructors are unfairly, over-focused on quite minor elements of composition and format; you could be grossly penalized for following some of my advice on "stupidity."
Also, enjoy many links at the bottom
of this page that are useful in creating the most important element of the
persuasion paper: the thesis. Some of the links are just fun, as is the
unlabeled "fun" link hidden somewhere on this page (though not well
hidden as it's obviously a link).
WHAT AM I GOING TO ARGUE?
In the list below, you will find a PROCESS for conceiving, planning, and writing a persuasive for a College English composition course. This web site develops ideas about the process throughout its pages.
1.
CHOOSE A SUBJECT 1
4.
IDENTIFY TOPICS TO INVESTIGATE
5.
CONSIDER AUDIENCE
6.
BRAINSTORM OBJECTIONS
7.
CREATE PARTS OF ARGUMENT = THESIS
8.
TOPIC SENTENCES = PARAGRAPHS
WHAT AM I GOING TO ARGUE?
I detail and develop the process of
"What am I going to argue?" in the pages of this site (see menu links
in the top left corner of every page). Following the process can help you
devise a winning and successful persuasive paper about most any topic.
Though some persuasive papers for
academic work can be written without arguing for a solution to a specific
problem, many of the best arguments attempt to convince readers to implement a
solution that will fix a serious problem after the writer describes the harms
of the problem in vivid detail.
This process for developing an argument
will employ strategies for creating a problem-solution paper, which is
(arguably) the most common form of the persuasion paper in academic courses.
Navigate! Read on, intrepid users!
— all content by christopher tower
& aka The Galactic Monkey Wrench
Good Links about paper composition and form
Assorted Good Links that Chris wishes to promote
☀ Chris
Tower ☀ The Galactic Monkey
Wrench ☀ Kalamazoo,
Michigan 49006 ☀
1 The words "subject" and "topic"
are used in two different ways in describing a persuasion paper and the process
of completing it. "Subject" refers to the global content of the
entire paper; "topic" refers to a specific element of the subject
developed in a paragraph or paragraphs within the content, hence the term
"topic sentence," which refers to a statement of the topic that leads
a paragraph.
© All text and some of the images are the exclusive copyright
of christopher tower (who purposefully avoids capitalizing his
name), also known as the galactic monkey wrench, located at the
Eldorado Ranch and batcave in the heart of the Great Lakes. All rights
reserved. All paronomasia intentional.
Link to the next post - How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part Two
Link to the category to list all post in this series (bakcwards) - PERSUASIVE ESSAY WRITING
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Reflect and connect.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
I miss you so very much, Mom.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 429 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1609.06 - 10:10
NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.
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