Write-On: Exploring Persuasive Writing

A Persuasive review

Hi Everyone, 

Today we will be talking about the third strand in the language curriculum: writing! Developing good writing skills plays a huge role in the self-development of students. Through writing, students can be able to convey thoughts, ideas and facts in a clear and concise manner. That is why it is so crucial that writing is taught in a way that encourages students to delve into their writing and find their own unique voice, tone, style and structure. During our professional  conversations about this strand of the curriculum, our class explored persuasive writing. After this conversation, I was truly convinced that persuasive writing was a style that should be introduced to students at a young age and that teachers should spend a good chunk of time throughout the year revising and practicing this style with students. So, for this blog post I was searching for an educational resource that specifically addressed persuasive writing. The resource that I found (through Pinterest) uses Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) thinking as a blueprint to introducing students and brainstorming with students on a persuasive review. 

*Click on the image below to access resource

Connections to the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum p.12 

Students will: 

1. generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose

and audience;

2. draft and revise their writing, using a variety of informational, literary, and graphic

forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience;

3. use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language

conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively;

4. reflect on and identify their strengths as writers, areas for improvement, and the strategies

they found most helpful at different stages in the writing process. 

This activity begins by the teacher listing a number of generic writing strategies that contribute to a well written review. This sets the stage of what is to come which involves having the students identify elements of persuasive text and be able to explain what it means. After doing so, students go back and they expand on each point. For example, one of the writing strategies involves ‘hooking the reader’ which they explained could be done by making a strong statement or asking a question. The next writing strategy is describing what occurred which is then followed by the ‘State your opinion’ —divided into pros and cons. This pros and cons list aides students in formulating an opinion because through this list they are able to compare and contrast their ideas. This self-reflective strategy is crucial in a persuasive review, one has to be clear of where they stand because it makes finding evidence to support your opinion much simpler. Finally, this chart recommends that students give a star rating out of 3—this will allow students to complete their review. Although this is not mentioned in this resource, I would have students, during their writing process, use peer-editing. I think this is crucial because proof-reading is part of every writing style.This resource also includes a students’ review as an example of the writing process—this modelled writing approach allows both students and teacher to dissect a piece of text and see how they can use it or modify it to fit their own personal style. What I love about this resource is that it can be applied to other subject areas or units—this resource states that you could use persuasive writing to review restaurants, books, games, places etc.