Persuasive Essay: Big City vs. Small Town

We are working on our first persuasive essay.

Here is the prompt. You will notice that it gives three different directions (highlighted: Read... Think... Write...), but I only want  you to pay attention to the direction that says, "Write an essay..."

Persuasive Prompt Page

To be persuasive, you have to pick a side. You can't pick both sides or refuse to pick any side at all. You have to go with one or the other. You should always go with the side you can prove the best, with the best reasons.

Here is the brainstorming page we did for each side:

Brainstorming: Big City vs. Small Town

We discussed both sides. At this point, you have to pick a side:

Pick a side and give your two best reasons why that side is the best.

Next, we use a HELP chart to figure out how to support our two reasons. 

HELP Chart

Your evidence can come from anywhere, as long as it's detailed, and it proves your thesis.

H = History. As in, all of human history, ever. You can use anything that has happened in the past to prove your point. All nonfiction.

E = Experience. This is personal experience - anything that has ever happened to YOU.

L = Literature, but not just literature. All stories, all fiction. Movies, TV shows, comics, anything.

P = Pop culture. This is anything that is happening right now. 

Next, you need to stop and think. What side did you pick and what reasons did you give for that side? Do you have something on your HELP chart to prove that side, with those reasons?

Once you have a side, reasons for that side, and examples picked out to prove those reasons, you may proceed to write a thesis!

Here is my thesis:

My thesis.

Pick a side, give reasons, and then add it all together in the last box. My thesis is okay at this point. I've picked a side and given reasons... but to be honest, it's not great yet. It doesn't sound like me yet. I made it from a formula of boxes, so of course it's not sounding like me yet.

So, I juiced it up by consulting a thesaurus and changing some words and word order:

Purple: My improved thesis
Red: Paragraph planning.
TS = Topic Sentence
EX = Example

I changed my thesis a bit. Instead of "big city," I wrote "large metropolitan areas," because that sounds more authentic to how I actually speak. If you compare my original thesis (in the box) to my completed thesis (in purple), you can see that I made a series of small changes.

In red, I planned what my first paragraph and my second paragraph will be about.

Here's my first paragraph:

Paragraph 1

And here's my second paragraph:

Paragraph 2

Make sure you have two body paragraphs written before class on Friday. You can do it on the outline pages provided, or use your own paper.