Class #______Name:______Period ______

“Wear these shoes, and jump higher!” “Use this lipstick, and look better!” “Drive this car and be popular!” Advertisers make claims like these all the time. They try to convince you that their products do amazing things. They promise that you will look more attractive, get better grades, win friends, gain respect from adults, or accomplish your goals. With claims like these, who can resist?

In this unit, you will be asked to write an essay that persuades others about the value of something. Persuasion is one of the most challenging kinds of writing because its purpose is to get people to act or to think is a new way. Your job is to convince readers to agree with your opinion. You must make a strong argument, yet you must also be truthful in what you say.

Kemper, Dave and Sebranek, Pat. Inside Writing: Persuasive Essays. Houghton Mifflin Company: USA. 2003

Fact, Opinion, Bias

Efficient readers are able to separate fact from opinion or bias.

" John F. Kennedy was a brilliant man, good president, and therefore the best role model for what an elected official should be."

Discussion:

Can the conclusion stated be proven?

Who made this statement?

Does he know what he is talking about?

Can the facts he stated be proven?

Does the conclusion relate directly to the facts given?

Was anything left out?

How thorough of a job did he do of supporting his statements with evidence?

Can it be tested to see if it is true or false?

Probably not, so it would be an opinion.

FACT STATEMENTS

Fact statements are either true or false. There are three tests that can be used to tell if they are true or false:

  1. Evidence. In some cases the quantity of evidence that supports the fact statement. In the statement about JFK has information you have read proven to you that these are valid statements?
  2. Personal Knowledge or Experience. In some cases you can verify the writer's truth or accuracy by using what you already know about the point. Do the supporting details hold up to all that you know about the topic?
  3. Research. Finally, you may want to start your own research to see if the writer is being factual or not and to what extent this is true. Is there anything you can research that confirms what the author is saying?

OPINION STATEMENTS

Opinion statements are judged in terms of the support provided. They are either well supported or not. There should be qualifying words at the beginning of statements such as in my opinion, I think, it is my belief, I feel. If a writer is using a certain amount of fact to support his opinion, he is said to have an informed opinion about this subject. One of the things to consider about a writer's opinion is his authority. To find out what authority he has, you would need to research the author. Ask yourself what qualifies the writer as an authority on the subject?

BIAS

Another problem readers confront in evaluating written essays or articles is bias. A writer may try to provide only facts that support his opinion and ignore or leave out the facts that do not. This is called slanted writing.

Ask yourself :

What did the writer leave out of his support for the points he made?

Did he show both sides of the issue in equal amounts? If not, why did he leave out information?

Balancing Appeals to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

You can support your opinion in several ways – Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. The Greek philosopher Aristotle introduced and used three ideas for persuasion. Here they are…

A General Summary of Aristotle’s Appeals…

The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else’s. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, or appeals, into three categories – Ethos, Logos, Pathos

Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, means convincing the audience of the character and authority of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the main problems of persuasion as an 8th grader is convincing your audience that you are someone worth listening to; in other words making yourself, as an author, into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likeable and worthy of respect. That’s where your grasp of logos comes in. See below…

Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning. This will be the most important technique we will use, and Aristotle’s favorite. Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation and cannot be emphasized enough. REASON: You appeal to reason by providing facts, statistics, and expert opinions that support your opinion. Appeals to reason ask the audience to use their intelligence. The best persuasive essays rely primarily on appeals to reason.

Example: According to the state dental association, all dentists agree that using dental floss correctly every day will have lifelong benefits for your teeth. (The fact – all dentists agree – from a reliable source – the state dental association – appeals to reason.)

Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader’s emotions. We can see this in stories, political campaigns, and advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Language choice affects the audience’s emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

Emotional appeals speak to feelings. Emotional appeals may be strong, but they seldom hold up over time. Read the examples below to understand several kinds of emotional appeals. Pathos can further be broken down into four sub-categories. They are:

Personal Approach (makes the audience want something): If you want to look and feel great, take Miss Purusha’s Yoga class on Tuesday’s.

Bandwagon Approach (makes the audience want to be part of a group): Everybody loves to win. Everyone who wins wears Zippy tennis shoes.

Flattery (makes the audience think they are special): You’re busy. You’re important. Don’t you deserve a Whammy smart phone?

Testimonial (makes the audience want something because an expert or a celebrity claims to use it): When Jen Olson was an Olympic speed skater, she relied on her Timely alarm clock to wake her for practice every morning. Jen owes her Olympic gold medal to Timely clocks!

Just Drink Water!

When you stop by the corner grocery on your way home from school, you can see the bottles of sports drinks lining the shelves. The candy-colored liquids catch your eye – bright blue, orange, neon green, and ruby red. The labels promise you all kinds of benefits – vitamins, minerals, and, above all, extra energy. However, if you look at the main ingredient, you’ll see that it’s water. So why not just drink water? Many doctors now think that water is the best thing for you. You should drink water instead of sports or energy drinks because water is a pure, replenishing, and healthful beverage.

First of all, water is pure and natural. It’s all around you in rivers and lakes, and it’s inside you, too. A large percentage of the human body is water, 72% to be exact. Water is the most important nutrient you need and it is vital to your health. Yes, it’s true that there are lots of other things in the human body, like minerals and salts. It’s also true that you need them too. But, you can actually get enough of what you need from a balanced diet and plenty of water. Many sports drinks and energy drinks have all kinds of chemicals in them that can actually harm you. You take a big sip and you take a big risk. Why bother when you can have a glass of water and know exactly what you’re getting?

Next, water is what the body needs to replenish during workouts and heat waves. When you work out or spend time outside when it’s hot, your body sweats and loses a lot of water. That’s why you need to drink water before and after any exercise, especially in the heat. Without enough water, you can become dehydrated, which could lead to serious health issues or even death. Sports drinks claim to contain salts and electrolytes that get lost when you sweat. But, doctors at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center say only super athletes and marathon runners lose significant amounts of those things. Most people can get those things from the food they eat. They say that water is just what people need.

In addition, water is healthy because it doesn’t have sugar. Sugar is one of those things that you can get too much of. Eat too much sugar, and you’ll gain weight. Drink too much sugar, and you might damage your teeth. Sports drinks claim to give you energy, but they are loaded with sugar. That’s where the energy comes from. However, if you notice, the boost doesn’t last long, and you are actually more tired than before you quenched your thirst. Water will never give you cavities, and it will never make you tired.

In conclusion, drinking water is one of the best things that you can do for yourself and your body. It’s pure, it’s natural, and it doesn’t have junk in it that your body doesn’t need. In addition, it’s free. You just turn on the faucet. So, the next time you are tempted to buy a sports drink, remember that it’s candy-colored sugar-and-salt water. Put it back in the fridge and walk away. Save your allowance for something really great – like that new video game you’ve been wanting – and drink water instead. Your wallet and your body will thank you for being so smart.

Persuasive Sample

Plug In America!

Okay, let’s face it; in your gut you know electric cars make sense. Yes, electric cars! Quiet,

ten years ago. Back in 1996, GM introduced the first electric car to Southern California, the “EV1”, but only leased them. They were fast and fun, but GM soon took them back, and crushed them. Why did they do this? Why did they kill the electric car? America should make electric cars a modern reality because they are cheap to operate, better for the economy, and produce no emissions.

To begin, electric cars are extremely affordable to drive. Unlike a combustion engine, new electric cars use lithium-ion batteries to run. Because of this, electric cars require no oil and little maintenance. According to Bob Sexton, a mechanic, the only maintenance done on an electric car is changing the tires and refilling the washer fluid. That’s barely anything at all! That’s nowhere near the amount it costs to have maintenance on a regular combustion engine. Also, think about the price of gas people pay every week. Today, the price of a gallon of gas starts at four dollars and keeps increasing. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (“Emission Facts”), the average petrol car gets twenty-one miles per gallon. The average electric car gets ninety-five miles in one charge. That’s $2.30 to go ninety-five miles in an electric car versus the eighteen dollars spent in a petrol car to go the same distance! Although it is cheap to run, some people may be concerned about

the hundred miles that charge will get them. A hundred miles, that’s it? Yes, for now. That is still an acceptable range considering studies show the average American travels only forty miles a day (Sexton). “At night, all people have to do is plug in the car and let it charge. It’s that simple! No more visits to the gas station!” Sexton explains. “If people do drive more than one-hundred miles roundtrip there is still no reason to have range anxiety.” She’s right; the U.S. government is already placing electric charging stations all around the nation. They say, “By 2020 there will be more charging stations than gas stations.” Now the world is ready, this generation can start the new era of electric cars.

Along with decreased cost to drive, electric cars will no doubt help the economy! Every year, more and more oil is pumped and used for fuel. Electric cars don’t use oil, they run on electricity. This means the electricity used to power the car is produced locally, unlike foreign oil. Oil is not a reusable resource, meaning the world has a limited supply. The U.S. is the #1 oil consumer, importing four million barrels a day, at a cost of over one billion dollars. That’s one billion dollars a day spent on foreign oil (Lefton). The U.S. could be investing those funds at home, where its economy needs it. That money spent on foreign oil is not going anywhere good. Its going to countries like Nigeria, Columbia, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, which are all on the State Department’s Travel Warning List! Oil reliance from these countries could result in serious consequences for America’s national security. Some may think that the U.S. could just not survive without oil. That is definitely not true. Instead of spending a billion dollars a day on foreign oil, maybe the U.S. could invest that money and use it to develop renewable resources. America has the best wind resources in the world. If the government set up wind farms in North and South Dakota, that would produce enough electricity to power the whole country (Modern Marvels-Renewable Energy). Combine that with other wind farms in this nation, the U.S. could be powered totally by wind. Investing in electric cars would encourage the U.S. to take action in this industry of renewable resources and break away from its addiction to oil.

Lastly, electric cars run entirely on electricity, producing zero tail-pipe emissions. That means no pollution! Today this world sees a major threat in its environment’s health. There’s global

warming, pollution, and much more. Global warming is the result of the greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere. Cars and trucks produce twenty-two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions; half of those emissions are produced by the United States. Every gallon of gas burned adds nineteen pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere (Who Killed The Electric Car?). Now multiply that by the total gallons of gas used each day in the U.S., 3,802,680,000 (“How Much Gasoline Does The United States Consume?”). That’s 72,250,920,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted each day by the United States alone! That is just not acceptable! Why do they allow this? If every citizen of the United States drove an electric car, the U.S. would eliminate these gases from being emitted. No tailpipe means no pollution! On the other hand, some people think that electric cars produce just as much pollution as a regular petrol car. They say electric cars have “the long tailpipe” meaning a tailpipe that extends to the power source in which the electricity is provided. Most of America’s electricity comes from coal and natural gas, both polluting resources, so people think that the electric car pollutes even more than gas cars. Think again people! Studies show that even if an electric car gets electricity from coal, it is still not even close to the amount of pollution put out by a petrol car. Also, unlike a combustion engine, America’s energy sources are getting cleaner every day. People are developing new technologies and establishing more renewable energy plants. The future of clean energy is here; electric cars are just the beginning.

In conclusion, electric cars should be the main cars on the road because they are cheap to drive, they are a solution to the nations addiction to oil, and they will spark the new era of clean renewable energy. The year is 2012, and the government is finally taking action to make the world a cleaner and more environmentally friendly place. The electric car is a major step for this nation. It will spark new ideas for alternative energy and open the eyes of people that never knew of the world’s problems. Electric cars can solve this; they will solve this! Go out and demand a local car dealer to develop an electric car! Tell others to do the same! It’s time to stand up and make a difference. This generation is special; although it is the one making the mistake, it is also the one that will find the solution.