1. What is persuasion?

2. What is better? Milk or lemonade?

3. What has more merit? Scooby Doo or Sponge Bob ?

4. Regardless of topic WRITE WITH A CLEAR AND COMPELLING PURPOSE! What is the “so what” of your essay? What is your claim and why is it worthy of your reader’s time?

5. Is racial profiling justifiable and necessary? Yes or no? Why or why not?

6. When you persuade you take a stand. We persuade all the time. Persuade others to see an issue from a different angle. Persuade a friend to try a new sport. Persuade your parents that a movie is valuable or worthy of merit.

7. Formal versus Informal Informal persuasion uses casual language, but still relies on reasoning and specific examples. Formal persuasion uses a more formal voice and tone. It refers to specific research statistics and examples.

8. Solid Persuasive Essays Articulate a clear and compelling purpose Avoid sweeping generalizations Vigorously engage the audience with tone Demonstrate “fairness” and complex thinking (counterargument) Explain and articulate assumptions with clear and specific evidence

9. Starts with a choice. Did that actor deserve the Academy Award? What is the best choice amongst a variety of competing options?

10. Data shows that students today cheat more than ever before. Why? Pressure? On whom? There has always been pressure, but how has it changed? When you persuade, you take a stand on a topic where there are many possibilities. Here, there could be differing lines of reasoning depending upon your perspective and your evidence.

11. Persuasive Thesis Statements “Today there is more pressure placed on students to do well [in school] ….This new pressure is what is causing the increase in cheating.” How is this a choice? What are the two options?

12. Data - Claim - Warrant Data= evidence Claim= what you are proving Warrant= reasoning

13. “Too Much Pressure” Read the essay “Too Much Pressure”. As you read, take notes on the data, claim, and warrant articulated in this essay. List the data. Summarize the claim in 1-2 sentences. Explain the warrant, the reasoning that leads the writer to this conclusion. Write this in your spiral. Break it down into 8-10 steps.(I WILL check these again at the end of the persuasive unit.)

14. Cause and Effect Persuasive Essay Some persuasive essays evaluate the causes of a particular problem or the effects of a particular trend: Violent video games cause aggressive behavior. Violent video games have no consequential impact upon rates of aggression in American culture.

15. Start with a cultural observation/ question What has been the impact of technology on communication? Positive? Negative? How so? Why? Why do teens read so little? What is the impact of this? Is this a modern trend or is it simply our expectations for young people that have changed? Racial stereotypes persist in our culture in spite of many concerted efforts to obliterate them. Why? What are central forces at play that affect this trend?

16. What other cultural questions might we ask? Write three questions that are based on your cultural observations. Record these in your spiral notebook and write your “best” question on the white board.