Master the Art of Persuasion for Your Essays

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” – was the begging of the greatest speech in the history of humanity. It was the speech that in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar turned the Romans against Brutus and helped justice triumph. Neither actions, nor events could change the wheel of history. The fact is that Antony’s speech was the sole force that made people change their mind.

That is what you have to achieve when writing a persuasive essay – persuade your readers to adopt your point of view and take a particular action. As it proved to be in Julius Caesar, you need to go through thick and thin in order to prove your case and utilize logic and reason to show that your idea is more legitimate than another. But the result is worth the efforts.

So, be sure to master the art of persuasion that will come in handy while writing persuasive essays. Below you will find helpful tips that will make writing persuasive essays as easy as pie.

1. Choose Your Persuasive Essay Topic

Pick up the topic that interests you and raises certain feelings within you. It is also important that your persuasive essay topic deals with urgent matters, and interests people round you. Before getting down to writing a persuasive essay make sure you have enough relevant information for the essay.

A good persuasive essay topic could sound like:

1.      Hate should not be tolerated;

2.      The status of women in Islam is rather ambiguous;

3.      Boxing should be banned because it promotes cruelty.

No matter which topic you will choose, you have to approach essay writing with full responsibility, seriousness, and accuracy.

2. Brainstorm and Define Your Point of View

Before writing an essay, brainstorm! It will help you come out with the conclusion for your persuasive essay topic and define your attitude on the matter you’ve chosen. You can try free writing, clustering or listing—anything that will be effective and helpful for you.

After thorough consideration and brainstorming you must be able to express clearly and convincingly why you have chosen this particular position on the subject of your persuasive essay.

3. Test Your Thesis

Your thesis statement, that is your point of view, should be debatable. Otherwise, there will be nothing to prove and nobody to convince. The best way to check whether your thesis is right is to write down a thesis statement directly opposing your own. If you find that possible, you may be sure that the argument for your persuasive essay is right up the street.

4. Understand Another Point of View

Try to step in your antagonists’ shoes and figure out what makes them think different. It is the proven way to counter the opposite point of view, since you will be able to provide contrasting evidence or find mistakes and inconsistencies in the logic of the opposing argument. 

5. Study the Prospective Audience.

Be sure to know who will be reading your essay, so that to know what to press on. Try to decide if your audience agrees with you, is neutral, or disagrees with your persuasive essay topic. This choice will help you incline people to your point of view.

6. Use a Pleasant and Reasonable Tone

Antony did not call Brutus names, nor did he accuse him of the Caesar’ death. Instead, he called Brutus “an honourable man,” what turned out to be a brilliant way to pull him down.

Follow the same strategy in your persuasive essays. Use a pleasant and reasonable tone and avoid referring to yourself or addressing your readers. Be careful not to fly into temper and mix up your emotional attachment with your beliefs. Set your emotions aside and analyze all aspects of the persuasive essay topic.

7. Examine Your Persuasive Essay Topic

You need to know your persuasive essay topic from cover to cover if you want to add credibility to your words and make the readers trust you. That goes without saying.

Thus, to be an adept of you persuasive essay topic, use as many legitimate sources as possible. In order to find reliable information, go to the library or interview people who are experts on your persuasive essay topic. It’s also necessary to go beyond your own knowledge and experience.

8.  Structure Your Persuasive Essay

Think over the structure of your essay. Make sure that your ideas are well-organized, clear, concise, and up-to-the-point. Try to design your essay by figuring out the order in which you will present your evidence.

Remember to consider your purpose, audience, and your topic while writing an essay. Do your best to give the readers the feeling that you are well-informed about the subject you are dwelling upon.

9. Provide Evidence for Your Arguments

Arguments must always use sound reasoning and solid evidence. Otherwise, you will not establish credibility of your case and lose your readers’ support. Therefore, make sure to use the following evidence for your arguments:

1. facts that come from your reading, observation, or personal experience;
2. statistics that come from responsible sources;
3. quotes from leading experts that support your point of view;
4. examples that will make your ideas concrete and be a proof of your ideas.

No matter which one you will choose to use, make sure the evidence is reliable and comes from original sources.

10. Present a Strong Conclusion in Your Persuasive Essay

Conclusion has the profound impact on the reader. A good conclusion brings the persuasive essay to the satisfying end when your readers hold the same point of view and are ready to defend your statements.

As you close your persuasive essay, clearly redefine the topic and restate the most compelling evidence cited in original form. You should keep in mind that this is the last chance to remind the readers and convince them to accept your position. 

Antony’s way to conclude the speech was to mention his devoted love to dead Caesar. It was the last stroke in his immortal speech that made Romans take drastic action against the conspirators. Use something as strong as that.