Organize your reasons.

Study the following opinions and supporting reasons. Number the reasons in the best order, 1 being the least convincing and 3 the most convincing. The first one has been done for you. (There may be more than one way to arrange the reasons, depending on your own experience and understanding of each topic.)

1. Opinion: Our school needs vending machines that offer juice and power drinks.

Supporting Reasons:

• The addition of vending machines would greatly improve student morale. 2
• Vending machines would cut down on tardiness because students wouldn’t have to stop at the store. 1
• Students who can’t drink milk would have an alternative. 3

2. Opinion: Students shouldn’t use cell phones in school.

Supporting Reasons:

• Calls may disrupt classes.    
• They may lead to vandalism.
• Distractions like text messages, apps, and games keep the user from learning.

3. Opinion: Physical education classes should focus on physical fitness and conditioning.

Supporting Reasons:

• Students need to practice healthful living and fitness.
• P.E. classes have little meaning right now.
• Not all students like playing team sports.

4. Opinion: We need bike paths throughout the city.

    Supporting Reasons:

• The city streets are already busy with car traffic.
• Bike paths make it safer to use bikes.
• Bike paths may increase bike use, which is good for the environment.

5. Opinion: Community service promotes good citizenship.

Supporting Reasons:

• Community service shows students how their city works.

• It introduces them to all sorts of people, places, and problems.
• It prepares them for the real world.

6. Opinion: Every school day should start with 20 minutes of silent reading.

Supporting Reasons:

• With daily reading, students begin to enjoy books more.
• Daily reading helps improve the students’ reading skills.
• It gets students ready to learn for the day.

Evaluate objections.

Review these paragraphs. Mark each as fair or unfair, deciding if the writer uses fair and respectful language when discussing opposing ideas. If the paragraph is unfair, rewrite it to make it fair and respectful.

        It's true that adding a bike lane to all major roads in our city would be a significant expense, but we could take measures to lessen the burden on taxpayers. For example, we could apply for federal grants or ask for funds from private donors. Overall, adding bike lanes is worth the expense, for it will protect cyclists, lessen car traffic, and improve the quality of life.

Fair or unfair:

        Some people say bicyclists break too many rules of the road, and adding more will just cause more problems. That's an absurd argument. By that logic, no one should be able to use roads. After all, some car drivers break the rules, too. Should we ban cars from the road, too?

Fair or unfair:

        A common argument against bike lanes is that they are bad for businesses with storefronts on city streets, but studies actually show that streets that prioritize walking and biking have proven to boost local retail sales by 10-25 percent in cities around the world. So our local businesses may in fact receive an economic boost with the addition of bike lanes.

Fair or unfair:

Share your writing.

Have a partner read your essay and then respond to it by completing this form. A responder should try to list at least one strong point for each part and, if at all possible, one thing to improve.

Peer Response Sheet

Writer's name:

Partner's name:

Title:

I really like this about your persuasive essay:

Your beginning paragraph . . .

Your middle paragraphs . . .

Your ending paragraph . . .

Here are ways your essay can be even better:

Revise with a checklist.

Read each line. When you can answer each question with a yes, check it off.

Ideas

Organization

Voice

Word Choice

Sentence Fluency