Writing Persuasive Essays

Under construction--watch this space


Topics from Media English
What do you think?
Can you give your point of view and support it?
Words to use in persuasive writing
compare/contrast (Levels I, II, III, IV)
conjunctions (Level I)
transition expressions (Level II)
subordinators (Level III & IV)
Examples
Compare/contrast
Level I
Level II
Level III
Level IV
Level I
Level II
Level III
Level IV


What do you think?
First, do not use the first person "I." In English we know it is your opinion: your name's on it. The topic you are discussing should be the subject of the sentence.
Do not say "In my opinion," or "I think," or even "I believe;" however, if you get desperate and have something that is very personal and probably very few people agree with you, you can use "I believe [that]...."
Second, make sure you have facts to back up your opinion.



Compare/contrast:
conjunctions: ,and
,but
Transition expressions: On the one hand,
On the other hand,
Transition expressions, enumerating suppoprts, reasons: First, Second, Third, Next, Last, Finally, In the first place, in the second place, Most importantly,

25 June 1997
KTZN, Stephanie Miller: "What should happen to the 'Prom Mom?'"
KABC, Michael Jackson: "What do they want? What do they know? What do you know?" Extraterrestrial space craft
KTZN, Katie Boland(?): At the Talk Radio Convention last weekend, KTZN was voted the best Talk Radio Station and Michael Jackson of KABC was voted the best Talk Radio Host
"Bachelor Parties are barbaric and should be banned."
KFI's Bill Handel and KTZN's Tracey Miller and Robin Abcarian: "The NAACP is considering abandoning the idea of integrated schools. Maybe we should rethink integration. Isn't bussing children out of the inner cities demeaning to the schools there? Why not support beefing up the schools in the black neighborhoods?"
KFI, Tammy Bruce: "Betty Shabazz' family 'doesn't see any reason to charge her grandson, Malcolm, with murder.' How about murder? Isn't that a good enough reason?"
KABC's Dennis Prager blames "the pro-choice forces" for the New Jersey Prom Mom's killing her baby--he has ridden a slippery slope from abortion, to abortion as birth control, to murder as birth control.
KFI's Bill Handel and KTZN's Tracey Miller and Robin Abcarian: Megan's Law and the new CD that is to come out with names, photos, and zip codes of registered sex offenders> "Will this cause vigilante-ism?" "Is this constitutional?" I try not to editorialize on this page, but I have to here. One point that was brought up on the radio is that "sex offenders" are not necessarily "child molesters." They may be men who have been literally "caught with their pants down" urinating in public, or who have solicited sex with a prostitute who turns out to be an undercover policewoman, or who have engaged in consentual (sp??) sex with a minor, a girl under 16. They may also be gay men who have been caught looking for partners in the restrooms of public parks. While Megan's Law is meant to provide a measure of safety for children, the information is dangerous in the wrong hands because all types of offenses, including urinating in public, are included in the general category of sex offenses. However, most people interpret"registered sex offender" to mean a person who kidnaps and rapes children, so these men have been harassed by parents putting signs up on their houses. One man on the radio even said that he would go to the house of any man he found on the list and shoot him. A sensible reaction came from a woman applying this knowledge in the spirit in which it is meant: She said that if she found one of these people were living near her, she would tell her child, "If that man ever talks to you or says he wants to show you a puppy or anything, you run straight home as fast as you can and tell me." That is a sensible approach to Megan's Law.
KABC, Michael Jackson: "What do you like or dislike about Talk Radio?" He remembers the pioneer of what has become today's talk radio, Joe Pyne
19 June 1997
KTZN, Joe Crummey and Merril Markoe: "If you were writing your memoirs, what would you start with?"
Dennis Prager: "Does a level of suffering in your life excuse you for doing evil?"
KTZN, Joe Crummey and Merrill Markoe: What does your car say about you? "Weird, weird Saturn people are like a cult
KABC, Dennis Prager:
Lack of Decorum in Graduation Ceremonies
5 June 1997
KTZN, Tracey Miller and Robin Abcarian: Radio Hoaxing as an act of cowardice. (Another radio station has fake callers calling in)


©Alison McMahon 1997-1998

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