Component Skills for Persuasive Writing 1.Writing a paragraphWriting a paragraph 2.Using transition words and phrasesUsing transition words and phrases

Writing a paragraph is an important and necessary skill to have mastered in order to write a persuasive essay. A paragraph can be described as a group of sentences focusing on the same topic. Most paragraphs have three parts; A topic sentence, supporting details, and a closing sentence. In this lesson you will see how each part functions to create a complete paragraph.

Part 1 – The Topic Sentence After you have brainstormed what you are going to write about, you will come up with your first sentence. The topic sentence introduces the main idea of a paragraph, this tells the reader what you are going to talk about. The topic sentence should always be indented. Example: Over Spring Break,my family went on a hiking trip in Moab, Utah. *Main Topic

Part 2: Writing detailed sentences about your topic Next, you will describe your topic with a minimum of three sentences. These sentences should all reflect the topic sentence. In this case, the writer is recalling events that took place on a vacation. Over Spring Break, my family went on a hiking trip in Moab, Utah. We spent three days down there. The first morning we hiked to Delicate Arch and had lunch at the top. Another day we watched rock climbers scale a huge wall in Castle Rock Valley. On our way home, we drove to Dead Horse Point and looked at all the beautiful sights. Body of the paragraph

Part 3 - A closing sentence Restate the topic of the paragraph, keep it interesting, and make it a closing sentence so your reader knows this is the end of the paragraph. Over Spring Break, my family went on a hiking trip in Moab, Utah. We spent three days down there. The first morning we hiked to Delicate Arch and had lunch at the top. Another day we watched rock climbers scale a huge wall in Castle Rock Valley. On our way home, we drove to Dead Horse Point and looked at all the beautiful sights. I hope we get to go on another hiking trip next year. Closing Sentence

Transition Words and Phrases Transition words and phrases help establish clear connections between ideas and ensure that sentences and paragraphs flow together smoothly, making them easier to read. In your persuasive essays, there are many places that you can insert these words. The first part of this module you will see many different examples of transitions. Read each section carefully, then see how transition words can be used in your everyday writing.

To indicate more information: Besides Furthermore In addition Indeed In fact Moreover Second...Third..., etc. To indicate an example: For example For instance In particular Particularly Specifically To demonstrate To illustrate *These transition words fit in nicely with a persuasive essay, use them at the beginning of a new paragraph. *When telling the reader an example or story, replace the common phrase “for example” with one of these.

To indicate a cause or reason: As Because Because of Due to For For the reason that Since To indicate a result or an effect: Accordingly Finally Consequently Hence So Therefore Thus To summarize: Briefly In brief Overall Summing up To put it briefly To sum up To summarize To conclude: Given these facts Hence In conclusion So Therefore Thus To conclude

After viewing these lists, let’s take a look a persuasive essay and see where transitions have been added. Forcing well-behaved students to wear hideous uniforms is a bad idea. I disagree with the idea for several reasons. In fact, requiring students to wear uniforms can be very expensive, they do not show the results that leaders are looking for, and furthermore, uniforms take away student individuality. First of all, making students wear uniforms can actually turn out to be more expensive and difficult than buying normal clothes. Even though you are buying the same clothes, you have to buy enough of them to last you at least one week. Thus, families in poverty will have a difficult time meeting these expectations The next reason I don’t believe in uniforms is because they don’t make any difference in a students education. Many adults believe that having uniforms will help kids stay more focused, clean up there attitudes, and prevent any gang related activity from going on. This is simply not true, uniforms won’t change any of that. Finally, I want to ban any type of uniform talk it the fact that kids our age use clothing as a way of expressing them elves. Kids like to use clothing as a way of defining who they are and what they do. For instance, a basketball player would like to wear his favorite team jersey to school, but can’t because it isn’t worth getting detention. Taking on this new policy will cause great havoc at our school. Given theses facts, I am anti-uniform for three strong reasons. Most importantly, they are to expensive, they don’t serve any purpose for helping students, and last, uniforms will take away the idea of self expression and individuality.

Now let’s look at the same essay without the transitions words. Forcing well-behaved students to wear hideous uniforms is a bad idea. I disagree with the idea for several reasons. In fact, requiring students to wear uniforms can be very expensive, they do not show the results that leaders are looking for, and, uniforms take away student individuality. Making students wear uniforms can actually turn out to be more expensive and difficult than buying normal clothes. Even though you are buying the same clothes, you have to buy enough of them to last you at least one week. Families in poverty will have a difficult time meeting these expectations I don’t believe in uniforms is because they don’t make any difference in a students education. Many adults believe that having uniforms will help kids stay more focused, clean up there attitudes, and prevent any gang related activity from going on. This is simply not true, uniforms won’t change any of that. I want to ban any type of uniform talk it the fact that kids our age use clothing as a way of expressing them elves. Kids like to use clothing as a way of defining who they are and what they do. A basketball player would like to wear his favorite team jersey to school, but can’t because it isn’t worth getting detention. Taking on this new policy will cause great havoc at our school. I am anti-uniform for three strong reasons. They are to expensive, they don’t serve any purpose for helping students, and last, uniforms will take away the idea of self expression and individuality. *Even though the main ideas of the essay are the same, transitions create an easier read with more fluency and tone.