An effective persuasive essay requires research, if you want it to persuade…

In a persuasive essay, you must take a position either for or against something.

No matter the issue, you are writing to convince your reader to believe, or do something. In other words, there will be a call to action in a persuasive essay.

Politicians use persuasion, often very effectively, to get their reader or listener to accept their point of view.

You will find that most advertisements use the persuasive essay technique to their full advantage.

Opinions are not enough to persuade someone to your viewpoint. Therefore, the persuasive essay requires you to do research and present facts to support your opinions and statements. Without this additional support, you will write a poor essay.

As with all good essay writing, the persuasive essay requires an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

Your introduction, more than anything else, should capture your reader’s attention.

Techniques to pique the interest of your reader include the following:

• Introductions

Capture the reader’s attention!

• Use something unusual:

The town of Nice on the southern cost of France is said to be originally founded by the Greeks.

• Use a Quotation:

Thomas Edison once said; “most people miss opportunity because it’s wearing overalls and looks a lot like hard work”

• Use a strong irrefutable statement:

After heart disease, automobile accidents are the number one cause of fatalities in Greece.

• Use an Anecdote:

Be careful, an effective anecdote needs to be short and to the point if it’s going to work.

• Use an irrefutable statistic or fact:

State your source as the authority and use your statistic to add emphasis to your introduction.

• Use a rhetorical question:

If a tree falls in the woods and there’s no one there to hear it fall, does it make a sound?

• Use an Exaggeration:

The audience held its breath as the movie star jumped off the steep cliff to get away from his pursuers. Apart from capturing your reader’s attention, your introduction must do one more thing.

To learn what else the introduction of a persuasive essay must accomplish, click on the preceding link.