Persuasive Essay Examples – Read Before You Write!

Think of something you feel very strongly about. If it is an issue about which there are differing opinions, and you have formed your opinion over time, you have a good topic for a persuasive essay. Writing that essay, however, will take a little more skill. But you can really write a good one, if you follow the steps outlined here.

1. If you are concerned about structure, you must go back to the very basics – all essays have an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. There is no unique persuasive essay template, other than how to organize your points in those body paragraphs.
2. If you have your topic already, you must then develop your thesis statement – for a persuasive essay, this is really quite easy, because your thesis is your opinion. Suppose your topic is the decriminalization of marijuana and you in favor of such a policy. A good sample persuasive essay thesis might be: Marijuana is no worse a drug than alcohol or nicotine, and it should be decriminalized.
3. Before you sit down to create an outline for your essay, you need to brainstorm the specific points you want to make in your argument. And once you have done this, you will want to conduct at least some cursory research to get some facts to back up your opinions. One way to do this is to search online for some persuasive essay examples that address the topic of marijuana. You will find those that support your opinion and probably some that do not, but you should study the points that both sides made. Many of these essays will have factual information that you can actually use in your own essay!
4. You are now ready to prepare your outline. Unlike other essays, as you have probably discovered by reading some persuasive essay samples, writers will begin their first body paragraphs with the strongest of their points. They then introduce the other points of their arguments in descending order. This is important, because you want to hit your reader with the strongest argument right at the beginning.
5. Once your outline is ready, you should write your body paragraphs first, leaving the introduction for last. The reason? You want to have a holistic feel for what you are saying before you determine what your introduction should say.
6. If you paid close attention to each persuasive essay example, you will see how an introduction is written. Most writers will begin with a short shocking sentence or an anecdote and place their thesis statement toward the end of the paragraph. If you want to begin your essay on marijuana decriminalization, a great example persuasive essay opener would be something like this: Every 42 seconds, there is a drug arrest in the U.S. and we now have over 900,000 people in prison for either possession or distribution of marijuana, at a taxpayer cost of over $1 billion each year. You are now ready to include a few additional facts and then end that paragraph with your thesis statement.
7. Your conclusion should not add any new information, but it may call the readers to some kind of action – perhaps it is to contact their Congressional representatives and make their opinion heard.

Sometimes, you will not have the luxury of selecting your own topic. Instructors have their favorite topics and may give you some persuasive essay prompts from which to choose. Don’t panic. Do a little bit of research and read some sample persuasive essays on the topics. You will then be able to choose a topic that will be interesting to you, and you will also have and idea of which points you intent to include in your argument.