To teach students to write a persuasive letter, it is important for them to see a non-example and as many examples as possible. Analyzing examples will allow students to view a variety of styles and to learn that writing can always be made better. It's best on their first attempt at persuasion to address an audience they know well, so the audience, in this lesson, will be their parents, or another family member.
The Power of Persuasive Writing
Begin by engaging students with a non-example. Read an entertaining non-example, like Earrings by Judith Viorst [Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1993]. Ask students how the storyteller could have been more persuasive.
Discuss the persuasive technique of determining the audience’s probable arguments and then developing convincing counterarguments.
Next, give each student an example/touchstone of an effective persuasive letter. Discuss the author’s RAMP (Role, Audience, Mode, and Purpose). Like a proficient bike rider, a proficient writer needs to be able to stay on the RAMP.
Using the touchstone, ask students how the author grabs the audience’s attention? And what the audience’s probable arguments are? Also, what are the author’s counterarguments? Are they well explained? Discuss the final paragraph. Does the author keep the audience thinking?
Help Students Form Arguments and Counterarguments
Model the prewriting/brainstorming process. Think of requests or things you want badly, don’t already have, and can possibly get. Put a star by the best.
Have students make a similar list. Their lists should have many, varied, and unusual ideas. They might want to ask for a privilege, like going to a UK ball game; or a thing, like a trampoline.
Model a list of probable arguments from your audience which state why they don’t want to, or can’t, say yes. Star the best 3. Again, the list should have varied and unusual ideas. Have students follow the example.
Discuss solutions/counter-attacks for each argument. Inform students that in their letter, they will logically present solutions for each argument, leaving no stone unturned, putting every detail they can think of to convince the audience that what they want is possible.
- Give students a home learning challenge. At home, they need to talk to their audience, tell them their requests or the thing they want badly and the listen to the arguments.
- Afterwards, they need to reflect on whether what they are asking for is feasible. If so, are their probable arguments in sync with their audience's real arguments, and do the counterarguments seem persuasive enough to get what they want?
Organizing Ideas in a Persuasive Letter
Review outlining, and outline a touchstone with the students' help. Look carefully at arguments and counterarguments.
Model an outline of your ideas. Then, help students develop their outlines.
Revising and Editing to Persuade
Model drafting paragraph 2 of the letter. Revise and edit. Think aloud during this work.
Reread paragraph 2 of the touchstone. Do “Likes and Wishes” by asking the students to discuss what they like best and what they wish the author had done. Using “Likes and Wishes,” have students pair share paragraph 2. Afterwards, they can revise and edit their own work.
Continue the process above with paragraphs 3 and 4. Always begin by modeling.
Writing the Lead
Before drafting paragraph 1, discuss the purpose of leads – to grab the audience’s attention. In a persuasive letter, one way to grab the audience’s attention is to share a similar memory – one that will warm the hearts of the audience. Make sure that the lead relates to the request.
Help the audience see the memory. If the student is asking for a bicycle, he can imagine a time the wind blew through his hair and he was smiling ear to ear. For the most convincing letters, students should not ask for what they want too soon. Instead, they should put the request at the end of the opening paragraph.
Reread paragraph 1 of the touchstone. Discuss the lead and request.
Model writing paragraph 1. Have students draft their opening paragraph. Then revise and edit with partners as before.
Teaching Students to Write the Best Clinchers
Prior to drafting paragraph 5, discuss the purpose of clinchers. One way to close a persuasive letter is to write a future memory of when the wish comes true.
Students should see themselves with the item or at the place they have asked to go. They need to picture the images that they see and help the audience see it too. If they are asking for a teddy bear, they should hug it, kiss its nose, and dance with it.
Reread the closing paragraph of the touchstone. Discuss.
Model the closing paragraph. Have students draft, revise, and edit as above.
Publication of Students' Work
Review the format of a letter. Again use the touchstone. Now students can write their own final copies. Have students write their final copies.
For a home learning activity, have students share their letters with their parents. At school the next day, let them discus their success. Were they persuasive enough to get what they wanted?
Teaching students to write effectively is a step by step process. By beginning with a persuasive letter and writing to an audience they know well, students will be able to master the form and style. The key elements to remember in this process are to model each step and use examples and non-examples.
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