How to structure a persuasive essay?

The introduction

Do not start with an attack. If anything you want your introduction to lull people into a false sense of security. If you start out by attacking the beliefs of those you are trying to convince, then you will only convince them to stop reading. Make it gentle like Werner Herzog did with “Into the Abyss” (2011). He states that he is against capital punishment, but shows you both sides with equal passion. He makes it so that you agree with him but also see why people believe in capital punishment.

The thesis

This is where you tell the reader what you are going to convince them of. It can be made up of your principle argument, but it is often better to use a gentle touch, as people may still stop reading if you threaten to change their mind about something. Make your thesis something that is propped up by your principle argument without actually begin your principle argument.

Your principle argument

Your first argument should be your strongest. Some people leave the strongest argument until the end, but this is not a great idea for two reasons. The first is that you cannot assume that people are going to keep reading that long. The second is that people will ask that if you had such a strong argument, then why not mention it first.

Your counter argument

This is where you start to bring up counter arguments to your principle argument. You may have a lot of these, so you are going to have to handle them each one at a time.

Defending your principle argument

Once you have brought up a counter argument, you are going to have to remove that counter argument with your principle argument defense. You will have to do this for every counter argument that you can come up with. The more of these you have, then the stronger your principle argument becomes.

Your counter-counter argument

What if you dispel a counter argument with a great principle-argument defense, but then you find a hold in your defense. You need to plug this hole/objection/counter, with another piece of counter argument to further defend what you said.

It may appear a little complicated, but pretend you are arguing out an issue with a friend. It never happens where one person makes an argument and the other counters and then it ends. There is often quite a two and fro before one side triumphs. You have to put all of this into your essay too.

Your next principle argument

Now that you have finished the intercourse that goes with the first principal argument, you have to do it again with your next most important argument. This becomes complicated if you have to mix up quite a few arguments in order to defend the first, but proper planning will help you keep the flow and the point together.

Your pre conclusion

Do not label it your conclusion, unless you make it a preamble into the conclusion. This is basically a bit where you have a bit of a recap and wrap up of all the arguments that support your thesis.

Your conclusion

This is the bit where you restate your thesis and begin to show how your evidence, arguments, logic, etc. point to the fact that your thesis is correct. If you are having trouble putting yourself on one side of an argument above another, then do not sit on the fence in the conclusion. Sit on the fence in the thesis. So, with the capital punishment one, you could have a thesis that explained how capital punishment should not happen, but you could state that you see why people take comfort in it and why it may represent justice to some people

Lead people to a yes

Pretend you are selling a car in a way that keeps bringing people back to agreeing with you. The more that people agree with you then the more persuaded they become at the end. Even getting them to agree with you on small details will add up to them being more willing to agree with you on the bigger issues.

Leave no avenue of escape

This is what your counter and counter-counter arguments are all about. If a person can think of a reason why you are wrong, then you need to address that reason. If you do not, then they will simply think that they are right and close themselves down to any other possibility.