Persuasive Terms
Author’s Belief
Persuasive Tools
The Other Side
Author’s Documentation
Organization of the Essay
- Author’s Purpose: the reason why the text was written. *There are three main purposes to an author’s passage: persuade, inform, or entertain.
- Major claim/thesis (argument): most important or central thought of a piece of writing; a statement of what to expect within the writing
Persuasive Tools
- Evidence: facts, shared values/experience, specific examples, and/or statistics that support author’s claim
- Call to action: author asks the reader to do something
- Loaded language: words with strong connotation that create an emotional response within the reader
- Appeals: writing that influences the reader’s beliefs; types include- ethos (ethics), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic)
The Other Side
- Opposition: opposite side of your argument
- Counter-claim/rebuttal: opposition’s claim; what the other side of the issue would claim
Author’s Documentation
- Direct quote: Words taken directly from the source, word for word. Quotation marks are used at the beginning and at the end of the phrase that is copied.
- Paraphrase: a phrase or sentence from the source written in your own words and cited
- Summary: should include title, author’s name, main idea and key points from throughout the article written in your own words in complete sentences
- Plagiarism: to steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one's own without crediting the source
- In-text citation: in-text credit for a source
- Parenthetical citation: located in parenthesis after the information, it identifies the source of and contains the author’s last name and page number (if available)
- Works Cited: alphabetized list of sources used within the essay
Organization of the Essay
- Introduction: opening paragraph of your essay which includes your thesis statement
- Body: paragraphs that contain supporting details and evidence to prove your thesis
- Conclusion: summarizes the most important details and makes a call to action