Learning guide: NAME: CODE:

HOW TO WRITE A PERSUASIVE ESSAY

OBJECTIVES: To analyze and understand the process of writing a formal piece of writing.
To write a persuasive essay about varied issues.

ACTIVITY 1 (at home): Watch the first part of the video (00:00- 01:50) in VS and complete the following mind
map.

How to write a persuasive Essay

How can I support After choosing my topic I must

What do I have to do first?
my argument? write the ...

That can be

Bad Good example:

example

example: example:

Watch the second part of the video (1:50-4:11) in VS and complete the following chart. Make sure you write the
names of the paragraphs and provide enough information as to what they entail.

What is the structure of a persuasive Essay?

Paragraph 1

IN

Paragraph 2

AR

Paragraph 3

CO

Paragraph 4

CON

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material shall be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for
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ACTIVITY 2 (At home) Read the essay titled: FREE SPEECH: SHOULD IT BE “FREE”? highlight with different colors,
and name the parts of the essay’s structure.

FREE SPEECH: SHOULD IT BE “FREE”?

How does free speech affect the life of those who use social networks? Free speech has been defined Hook
by the Oxford dictionary as: “The right to express any opinions without censorship or restrain”.
Introduction

However, this definition may seem insufficient since the appearance of social networks because
people around the world cannot only publish what they want about themselves, but they can also
be active participants in someone else’s online profile. Unfortunately, most men and women do not
know the limits to express in platforms, which can cause serious problems. Therefore, free speech
in social network should be controlled by authorities. (100 words)
First, free speech is causing cyber-bulling. According to studies carried out in Yale university, more
than 74% of people in the world have been victims of bullying in social media such us Facebook,
WhatsApp or Twitter. For instance, in 2015 a Colombian girl in Neiva suffered from this abuse when
Argument 1

someone close to her published her most intimate secrets in Twitter as a way of revenge causing
her serious psychological and self-esteem issues. As a result, free speech has increased bullying
because it can be performed online now. (88words)

On the other hand, opponents say that the free speech, as the word indicates, should be free and
Counter-Argument

therefore it cannot be censored by the government. However, when the free speech generates
violence or affects people psychologically, it should be limited. For that reason, the Supreme Court
of the United States announced that “free speech” cannot include expressions of violence as
threating terms, offensive speech and pornography shared in social networks. The Congress in this
country is discussing a law that attempts to punish severely those who continue using the social
media with that purpose. Thus, the authorities are trying to respect the first definition of “free
speech” but are also trying to establish some limits to avoid actions that may harm others. (123)
In conclusion, the term “free speech” is too wide and should be limited specially in social networks
Conclusion

where the impact is so harmful and fast. The reasons are mainly two; the risk of being cyberbullied
and the fact it can turn dangerous. This is why, authorities, specifically in the ICTs Ministries, should
establish certain rules to guarantee that internet and social media users can still communicate
“freely” but also responsibly. (68)
Adapted from a text written by a student in the period 2018-1

Hook Yellow
Background information Blue
Thesis statement Red
Topic sentence Purple
Supporting data Orange
Closing sentences Green
Opposing view Pink
Refutation brown
Re-statement of the thesis Red
Summary of main points Yellow
Strong ending sentence Blue

Copyright © 2019. Universidad de La Sabana, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Created by Fernandez, S. (2019) All Rights Reserved. No part of this
material shall be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for
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ACTIVITY 3 (in class): TOPIC ASSIGNATION
In class, you will be assigned at random one of the following actual social situations.

1. Over the last decade, parents in Latin American countries have decided not have as many children as in the
past. Consequently, the urban planners and construction companies have focused mainly on developing
high building projects rather than big houses. Do you think the most important capitals in Latin
America should invest exclusively in these projects avoiding building modern terraced or two-
storey houses?

2. Dealing with noisy neighbors has always been a problem for those who live in a flat. This situation has led
to fights among the community members who are tired of not being able to rest properly. Sadly, some
people have even died due to these episodes of intolerance. Do you think noisy people who live in a
building should pay a fine for their behavior?

3. Cosmopolitan cities are growing fast making it difficult for the governments find available areas to build.
Thus, many of them have decided to start building in unprotected natural areas that were used for people’s
recreation in order to solve the increasing housing demand. Do you think governments should prohibit
construction companies to build in those areas?

4. There are natural and architectural mysteries whose characteristics seem to be out of this world. The Nazca
lines, the pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge among others have been studied based on extraterrestrial
theories. Do you think that traditional engineering should accept aliens’ intervention as possible
answers to those constructions?

5. Technology has definitely made people’s lives easier. mBanking has become practical solution for those who
prefer not to carry around cash for safety reasons. Making voice transactions such as paying bills, buying
products and managing your saving account seem to be very practical. Do you think banks should
eliminate paper money, debit and credit cards?

Copyright © 2019. Universidad de La Sabana, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Created by Fernandez, S. (2019) All Rights Reserved. No part of this
material shall be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for
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ACTIVITY 4 (at home): RESEARCH

 Read the prompt that describes the situation you were assigned and find three articles from a reliable
newspaper, magazine, journal or video.

What does the article say? (Paraphrase. Use your own words to report the information. remember to give the author
credit for his/her ideas by using phrases such as "according to the author", "the author believes", "the author reports", etc.
Otherwise, you will be committing plagiarism)

Citation Citation: Brown (2001) claims that one data collection method for research purposes is the surveys
which…xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
EXAMPLE
Reference: Brown, J. D. (2001). Using surveys in Language programs. Cambridge University
Press.

Citation option 1:

Possible Reference 1:

Citation option 2:

POSSIBLE
CITATIONS
FOR Possible Reference 2:
ARGUMENT
1 Citation option 3:

Possible Reference 3:

ACTIVITY 5 (at home): ESTABLISH YOUR THESIS

Based on your research it is time to take a position.

1. Read the situation you chose again (Activity 3)

2. Answer the question. Do you think XXXXXXXXXX (YES OR NOT)

3. Look at the thesis you highlighted in red in ACTIVITY 2

4. Write the thesis statement of your essay below. Don’t forget to include the modal verb SHOULD or
SHOULDN’T (Avoid proposing solutions. You will be doing that in level 7)

Therefore,

Copyright © 2019. Universidad de La Sabana, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Created by Fernandez, S. (2019) All Rights Reserved. No part of this
material shall be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for
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ACTIVITY 6 (IN CLASS): CLUSTERING- It is time to prioritize!

Argument 1 Supporting data

THESIS

(You must use should or Possible Counter- Your Refutation

shouldn’t) argument

ACTIVITY 8 (IN CLASS): WRITE YOUR OUTLINE .Remember to use bullets, slashes, key words,
arrows, etc. (Take a look at activity 7)

NAME:

Hook
Introduction:
Paragraph 1

Background (context
for the reader)

Thesis Statement

Topic Sentence

Supporting evidence
Argument 1

(Example, author’s
opinion, statistics, reports)

Closing sentence

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material shall be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for
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ACTIVITY 7 (AT HOME): FILL IT OUT!

When writing an outline, you ONLY WRITE SHORT PHRASES that convey the overall idea in each section. Complete
the sample below with the information from the essay in Activity 2. Avoid including connectors at this point.

Hook How free speech affects online users

Introduction:
Paragraph 1

Background (context
for the reader

Thesis Statement Free speech should be controlled

Topic Sentence
Yale university study more than 74% of people /victims of bullying in social
Supporting evidence media
(Example, author’s
Argument

opinion, statistics, reports) Ex: Colombian girl in Neiva/ 2015. Someone published her secrets in Twitter

Closing sentence

Topic sentece (Opposite

view)
Counter-argument

Refutation

Supporting evidence
(Example, author’s
opinion, statistics,
reports)
Authorities Try to respect : definition of “free speech” / they should establish limits
Closing sentence too

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material shall be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for
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 TASK FULFIL. 0.75 0.6 0.45 0.3 0.15
WRITING DRAFT 1 - LEVEL 6
RELEVANCE 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
NAME Grade
GROUP
COHERENCE 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2
CODE GRAMMAR 1.25 1.0 0.75 0.5 0.25
VOCABULARY 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2
ACTIVITY 9 (IN CLASS): MECHANICS 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
Write the first draft of your Introduction and argumentative paragraphs. You should write words 160-
180 words. Have a look at the useful expressions and vocabulary on the next page in order to write two well-structured Teacher’s comments
paragraphs.
Introduction
Argumentative paragraph

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distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for permission to reproduced all or parts of this material should be directed to
fld@unisabana.edu.co
References:

Before handing it in make sure:

1. You complied with the word number requirement 160-180 words.
2. Highlight the following sentences using these colors:

Hook Blue
Background information Yellow
Thesis statement Red
Topic sentence Purple
Supporting data Orange
Closing sentence Green

Copyright © 2019. Universidad de La Sabana, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Created by Fernandez, S. (2019) All Rights Reserved. No part of this material shall be reproduced, transmitted,
distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for permission to reproduced all or parts of this material should be directed to
fld@unisabana.edu.co
 USEFUL EXPRESSIONS AND VOCABULARY

To introduce your thesis

Thus - Therefore - Having this in mind - considering the above mentioned - Hence - Consequently

To insert your topic sentence To insert supporting To insert your closing

information sentence
As a result,
First of all –firstly – to begin with For instance… Hence,
Secondly - another reason to hold this This is the case of… Therefore,
opinion is According to… Consequently
For example… Thus,

USEFUL PHRASES FOR A CORRECT CITATION

Copyright © 2019. Universidad de La Sabana, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Created by Fernandez, S. (2019) All Rights Reserved. No part of this
material shall be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for
permission to reproduced all or parts of this material should be directed to fld@unisabana.edu.co
Copyright © 2019. Universidad de La Sabana, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Created by Fernandez, S. (2019) All Rights Reserved. No part of this material shall be reproduced, transmitted,
distributed or commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for permission to reproduced all or parts of this material should be directed to
fld@unisabana.edu.co
 RUBRIC FOR INTRODUCTORY AND ARGUMENTATIVE PARAGRAPH
Name Code Group

CATEGORY MEETS EXPECTATIONS MEETS MOST EXPECTATIONS SHOWS CONSISTENT PROGRESS NEEDS IMPROVEMENT SHOWS MINIMAL PROGRESS
Grade: 5 Grade: 4 Grade: 3 Grade: 2 Grade: 1
* Addresses the 6 requirements of the task Addresses most of the requirements of the Addresses some requirements of the task *Addresses a few requirements of the task. *Addresses none of the requirements.
(Introduction with a hook, background and thesis (Introduction with a hook, background and *Word number is somehow reached *Word number is not reached.
statement. One argumentative paragraph with a thesis statement. One argumentative *Word number is hardly reached
topic sentence, support and closing sentence. paragraph with a topic sentence, support and *There is evidence of plagiarism in
TASK FULFILLMENT closing sentence. one or more paragraphs ; therefore
15% *Word number is outstandingly reached the grade is 0.0.
0.75 *Word number is mostly reached
0.6 0.45 0.3 0.15
 There is evidence of relevant information  There is evidence of information search  Citations are included but not the sources/  There is no evidence of information  There is no evidence of
INFORMATION search, and in-text citations and references and citations and references are included references (or vice-versa). Information search is search, nor citations / references were information search, neither
RELEVANCE AND are included (at least 1 citation). (at least 1 citation) somehow evident. included, or information is based on citations nor references were
CRITICAL THINKING  The ideas presented evidence relevance and  The ideas presented analyze the subject  The ideas presented are somehow relevant and commonsense. included and the information/
in-depth analysis. matter sufficiently analyze the subject matter superficially.  The ideas presented lack relevance and analysis presented has no
10%
0.5 0.4 the analysis is rather superficial. 0.2 relevance at all. therefore, the
0.3 grade is 1.0 0.1

* Develops well-framed, coherent and organized * Develops a sufficient coherent and
paragraphs based on the task requirements. organized paragraphs based on the task
*The supporting evidence is highly related to the requirements.
COHERENCE AND arguments and/or the arguments to the thesis. The supporting evidence is mostly related to
COHESION *Makes outstanding use of cohesive devices and the arguments and/or the arguments to the
20% discourse markers thesis.
1 * Although, there are sufficient and varied
cohesive devices, they aren’t always properly
used.
0.8
*Expresses ideas and responses with ease in well- *Expresses ideas and responses in controlled
controlled sentence structure and tenses. sentence structure and tenses.
* Uses a variety of simple and complex grammar *Uses enough variety of simple and complex
GRAMMAR structures (modal verbs and passive voice) with a grammar structures with some minor mistakes.
25% few minor mistakes.
1.25 1 0.5
* Shows highly varied and related vocabulary. * Shows enough varied and related vocabulary
*Uses an outstanding variety of expressions to with a few mistakes that do not affect the
VOCABULARY present and to support a position and its global meaning.
20% arguments for academic writing. *Use proper variety of expressions
*Makes accurate word choice. to present a position and its arguments.
1 *Makes consistent word choice.
0.8
*Shows accurate punctuation, capitalization, and * Shows accurate punctuation, capitalization,
MECHANICS spelling. and spelling in spite of some errors that do not
10% * Formal language prevailed throughout the text distort the message.
* Formal language was frequently used (Third
person, no abbreviations )
0.5 0.4
* Develops partially coherent paragraphs, but loses
organization.
The supporting evidence is somehow related to the
arguments and/or the arguments to the thesis.
* Although, there are some cohesive devices, they are
not always properly used.
*Organization may be somehow loose (poor).
0.6
*Expresses ideas and responses with enough control of
grammatical forms and proper sentence structure.
* Fair use of variety of simple grammar structures.
0.75
* Shows fair use of related vocabulary which
occasionally may be repetitive.
* Uses some expressions to present a position and its
arguments with some mistakes that somehow interfere
with meaning.
*Makes fair word choice. 0.6
* Shows somehow appropriate punctuation,
capitalization, and spelling in spite of some errors.
* There are a few abbreviations and informal language (I,
we, my, our, me, us) that do not correspond to formal
language style.
0.3
* Develops paragraphs which lack
appropriate structure. There are confusing
ideas that turn repetitive and miss
coherence.
* The supporting evidence is often
unrelated to the arguments and the
arguments to the thesis.
*Makes ineffective use and/or overuse of
connective devices.
0.4
*Expresses ideas and responses with
frequent inconsistent and fragmented
sentence structure.
* Shows several inconsistencies with
grammar usage.
* Shows limited vocabulary that is little
related and often repetitive.
*Has limited control of word choice and
expressions for academic writing.
*Uses words mostly in an inaccurate
manner.
0.4
*Attempts punctuation, capitalization, and
spelling but frequent errors impede
reading.
* There are many abbreviations and
informal language (I, we, my, our, me, us)
that made the text somehow informal.
0.2
* Paragraph structure is not evident
and most ideas are disconnected.
The supporting evidence is not
related to the arguments and/or the
arguments to the thesis at all.
*Lacks of basic connective and
devices
0.2
*Expresses ideas and responses with
inconsistent and fragmented
sentence structure.
*Shows inconsistencies with grammar
usage.
0.25
* Shows lack of vocabulary that is
unrelated and repetitive.
*Lacks of word choice control.
*Uses words in an inaccurate manner.
0.2
*Lacks punctuation and capitalization.
* Spelling but frequent errors impede
reading constantly.
*Informal language prevailed
throughout the text
0.1

Copyright © 2019. Universidad de La Sabana, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Created by Fernandez, S. (2019) All Rights Reserved. No part of this material shall be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or
commercially exploited, except with express written permission from the copyright holders. Enquiries for permission to reproduced all or parts of this material should be directed to fld@unisabana.edu.co