Writing to a Prompt - Persuasive

Brenda Hill
Jun 01, 2009

Research supports writing across the curriculum as a means of raising student achievement in all disciplines. Schools that have shown significant increases in student achievement have consistently focused on nonfiction writing. (Douglas Reeves, 2006).  Students write for various reasons, for different audiences, and from different perspectives. To help students produce a quality writing product, it is imperative that we teach them how to organize and pace themselves to effectively meet state writing standards. Narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive writing prompts are great ways to prepare students for formal and informal assessments.

Persuasive writing is consistently required of students, especially older students, on state-mandated tests.  Essays and business letters are the most common organizational formats for these types of written products.  The chara cteristics of persuasive writing are:

  • persuades or convinces

  • shares and supports a point of view

  • contains proven facts

  • presents a logical argument

  • may be written as an expository passage

Students need multiple, varied opportunities to experience and practice persuasive writing.  Practice and preparation allow students to feel confident in their ability to effectively construct support in order to convince others to accept their argument, opinion, or point of view.

Examples of persuasive writing prompts:

  • Construct an argument to support the statement: Recycling should not be an option, but a law.

  • Write a letter to your congressional representative to support a decision: Should the U.S. adopt the metric system - yes or no?  Support your position.

  • What do you think is the perfect food?  Support your choice with valid reasons.

  • Do you think school uniforms should be mandatory?  Write a paper to construct support for your opinion.  Be sure to include 2-3 reasons for your choice.

There are endless possibilities for subjects/topics for persuasive writing (everybody has an opinion or point of view).  Challenge each of your students to become great persuasive writers through encouragement, support, and practice.  Persuasive writing prompts provide these practice opportunities.  Good luck as you grow and develop effective persuasive writers!!!!

See the LEARNING-FOCUSED Literacy Collection for more ideas on writing.