Persuasive Writing – PDF

Persuasive Writing is a Writer’s Workshop unit that teaches you how to get people to come around to your point of view.  We recommend starting this with kids who are 10 and up, although there are plenty of exercises that will appeal to younger kids as well if you have a wide age range of kids.

You can use this unit any time after completing Writer’s Workshop Jump Start.

This unit teaches persuasive writing techniques such as choosing a topic, hooking your reader, fact versus opinion, evidence and statistics, the structure of a persuasive argument, ethos, pathos, and logos arguments, types of language to use in persuasion, absolute and qualified arguments, arguing both sides of an issue, persuasion in advertising, persuasive writing thesis statements, and more.

Here’s how to use Persuasive Writing:

Step 1: Mini-Lesson

Your writing day will begin with a mini-lesson, a short lesson about grammar, punctuation, word choice, persuasive writing skills, and more.  Mini-lessons appear in sidebars on every page so there are lots to choose from.  You don’t need to do all of the mini-lessons in the unit, just pick and choose the ones that look interesting or are skills your kids need to hone!

Step 2: Exercises

All through the unit are exercises to warm your kids up to writing and teach them the skills they need for learning to love writing and get used to the writing process in small, easy bites.  The exercises are fun and high-interest.

The exercises mostly end up in your Journal. They are not graded and are private unless the writer wants to share them.  Spelling, grammar, and mechanics don’t matter.  This is about getting ideas down on paper!

Like the mini-lessons, you don’t need to do all the exercises.  Pick and choose the ones you like.  You’ll come back to this unit more than once so it’s okay to save some ideas for later.

Step 3: Writing Project

To finish off Persuasive Writing, each writer will choose a piece of writing from his or her Journal to take through the writing process.  That piece of writing will be expanded, corrected, revised, and then published for an audience (probably your family!) where it will get applauded.

Then Mom, Dad, or another mentor will carefully and thoughtfully evaluate the finished writing project with help from the Persuasive Writing guide.  Kids and parents will talk together about what the writer learned and can improve on.

Printable Pack

This unit comes with a Printable Pack of printables that go with exercises and sidebar mini-lessons.

Supplemental Links, Videos, & Resources

There are Pinterest boards, weblinks, and a YouTube video playlist that go with this lesson on a separate page for Writer’s Workshop.