English Paper Assignment

Reading about Issues

"Persuasive Writing"

Compiled by :

Adinda Angel Aulia (11180260000106)

Isna Dayanti (11180260000111)
Ulil Albab (11180260000136)
Pramesty Putri (11180260000112)
Muhammad Reza (11180260000132)

Class : 3A
Faculty of Adab and Humanities
Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University of Jakarta
2019

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Contents
Preface ................................................................................................. 3

Chapter I ..............................................................................................

1.1 Background of the paper ................................................................. 4

1.2 Purpose of the paper........................................................................ 5

Chapter II ............................................................................................

2.1 What is Persuasive Writing? ........................................................... 5

2.2 Why Persuasive Writing is Important? ........................................... 6

2.3 The Principles of Persuasive Writing ............................................. 6

2.4 The Aims of Persuasive Writing ..................................................... 8

2.5 How to Read Persuasive Writing .................................................... 10

Chapter III ...........................................................................................

3.1 The College Scam ........................................................................... 12

3.2 Disarming the Hooligans Among Us .............................................. 15

Chapter IV ...........................................................................................

4.1 Conclussion ..................................................................................... 16

References ............................................................................................ 17

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 Preface

Assalamu’alaikum wr.wb

In the name of Allah Almighty, Most Merciful, we give thanks for His
presence, who has bestowed upon us His grace, mercy, and guidance, so
that we can complete the papers on Persuasive Writing.

We have prepared this paper seriously and have received assistance from
various parties so as to facilitate the development of this paper. For this
reason, we would like to express our gratitude to all those who
contributed to the development of this paper.

Apart from all that, we also fully realize that there are still many
shortcomings both in terms of sentence structure and grammar.
Therefore, with open arms we accept all suggestions and criticisms from
Mrs.Mira as a lecturer so that we can improve this paper.

Finally, we hope that this paper on Persuasive Writing can provide

benefits and inspiration to readers.

Wassalamu’alaikum wr.wb

Ciputat, 10 December
2019

Author

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CHAPTER I

1.1 Background of The Paper

Understanding persuasive writing is a key skill for students - whether

they're reading it or writing it. But where, in the real world, are they

likely to come across it? The most common place we see persuasive

writing are in advertising, political speeches, and opinion pieces.

Persuasive writing intends to convince readers to believe in an idea or

opinion and to do an action. Many writings such as criticisms, reviews,

reaction papers, editorials, proposals, advertisements, and brochures use

different ways of persuasion to influence readers. Persuasive writing can

also be used in indoctrination.

It is a form of non-fiction writing the writer uses to develop logical

arguments, making use of carefully chosen words and phrases. But, it's

believed that fiction writing should also be persuasive.

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2.1 Purpose of The Paper

The purpose of this paper is to complete our assignment in a critical

reading course taught by Mrs.Mira. This paper talks about the part of

Critical Reading, namely Persuasive Writing. And how to practice all of

that Critical Reading Materials.

CHAPTER II

2.1 What is Persuasive Writing?

Persuasive writing is a piece of writing that tries to convince or

influence a reader to believe what you believe about a certain topic.

Persuasive writing intends to convince readers to believe in an idea or

opinion. The writer uses to develop logical arguments, making use of

carefully chosen words and phrases. The argument must always use

sound reasoning and solid evidence by stating facts, giving logical

reasons, using examples, and quoting experts. The goal of persusasive

writing is to make the reader change his viewpoint to the writer's

viewpoint.

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2.2 Why Persuasive Writing is Important?

Persuasive writing plays an important role in our everyday lives.

From the TV chef telling us to cook healthy meals, to a magazine article

detailing why we need to exercise regularly – providing a point of view

and backing it up with facts to persuade the reader, is a critical skill for

us to learn. Persuasive writing helps us to formulate specific reasons for

our opinions, and provides an opportunity to research facts related to our

opinions. As developing an understanding of how writing can influence

or change another's thoughts or actions, we can begin to understand the

persuasive nature of the marketing they are exposed to through

television, the Internet, and other media.

2.3 The Principles of Persuasive Writing

The primary purposes of nonfiction prose are to please, to instruct,

and to persuade. In this part, we will explore more about one of its

purposes. However, to persuade means to convince or to change one’s

mind, recommend, argue, influence, and last but not least to give advice.

(Spears, Deanne: 42, 2013)

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 The art of persuasion is a worthwhile skill to develop inasmuch as

regarding its function that could be useful in practical terms. Moreover,

giving not only reasons, but also evidences could make the

argumentations being stronger. The implementation of persuasive

writing might be more powerful, if we could see that the target is on a

good mood. Furthermore, considering the right time to persuade either

the readers or the target shows that you understand about the tactics of

persuasion, and it can yield tangible rewards.

Learning to persuasive prose with understanding and a critical eye

also yields rewards. It is the basis on which our democratic society is

built. A significant part of being a good citizen is learning about the

issues of the day, weighing the arguments for and against proposed

policies, and coming to a decision on your own, not one imposed by

someone else.

The right to make an informed decision on one’s own is one of

many rewards of living in a democratic country with a free pressure and

freedom to express opinion without fear of punishment, retaliation, or

censorship, as occurs in repressive societies or in dictatorships. To sum

up, learning in order to see issues from variety of perspectives, not

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merely from one person’s point of view, is an important part of

becoming a well-educated citizen.

2.4 The Aims of Persuasive Writing

In modern American culture, we are bombarded daily with oodles

of persuasive messages such as advertisements, political nonsense,

guidelines on proper social behavior, romantic nothings. The persuasive

purpose is used to convince, or persuade, the reader that the opinion, or

assertion, or claim, of the writer is correct or valid. Persuasion is more

selfish than argument (debate). Argument attempts to arrive at a logical

solution to an issue. But persuasive writing is concerned primarily with

convincing the reader at any cost. Various appeals are used to

manipulate the reader. Persuasive writing has a definite bias, or lack of

objectivity. Its function is to change the mind of the reader or to move

the reader to action.

Because of its goal, the persuasive purpose is usually the primary

purpose in a piece of writing. The author may supplement the persuasive

purpose with any of the other purposes. But when combined with other

purposes, the persuasive purpose rises to the top. The attempt to

convince the reader overrides all other goals in the writing.

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 Most people have strong views on controversial topics (ones that

inspire extreme points of view or opinions) and are often very willing to

share those strong views. However, imagine you are having a discussion

with someone who is only willing to share a particular point of view,

ignoring yours, which may be in opposition. The ideas presented by that

person would be very narrow, almost as if the person has tunnel vision

and is merely expressing a personal opinion. If that person does provide

you with facts, they may often be skewed or not from a credible source.

After the discussion, there is only a slight chance you would be

convinced of the other person’s point of view. You may have new ideas

you had not considered before or a new perspective, but you would

probably not be thoroughly convinced because that person has not made

any attempt to present a well-rounded, fact-based point of view. This is

why it is essential for you to not only provide your reader with strong,

substantiated evidenced, but also to ensure you present an argument that

looks at the topic from multiple angles.

How to persuade the reader:

 Pull your audience in with an interesting hook in your introduction

 Explain your point of view

 Reasons will help your audience be persuaded

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 Sway your audience

 Use convincing language

 Address possible alternative points of view, with reasons to

counteract them

Kinds of Persuasive Writing:

 TV commercials or print ads

 Newspaper editorials

 Personal opinion or thought pieces

 Political speeches and literature

 Songs and poems

 Love letters

2.5 How to Read Persuasive Writing

When you read the opinion pieces in this text and in other sources

like your daily newspaper, first you decide on the aim of the article or

opinion piece. By definition, persuasive writing presents a controversial

issue that is open for discussion. Also by definition, a persuasive piece

presents the writer’s subjective opinion.

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 But there is wide latitude in what persuasive writer do: some

writers presents two or even three pointsof view and leave you to make

to make up your own mind about where you stand. Other writers present

only one side, an obvious attempt to change your mind or to get you to

adopt their position. Still other writers may resort to bias, slanted

language, emotional appeals, and other manipulative devices, like lying

and exaggerating their points.

Whichever technique the writer uses , the most important step and

your starting point is to determine his or her central argument, also called

the claim, the proposition or idea to be backed up and defended that lies

at the heart of the piece. Like the thesis statement in an informative or

expository essay (discuss in part one), the claim or argument in a

persuasive piece may be stated directly or impled. Those who study

argumentation classify claims into the types: claim of fact, claim of

value, and claim of policy. Study the explanations and examples that

follow.

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CHAPTER III

Analyzing a Short Passage

3.1 The College Scam

Analyzing on Text 28 “The College Scam” (p. 375-376)

As we know from the previous materials, the aims of persuasive writing

are to convince you to accept particular point of view, to convince you to

change your thinking, to convince you to take action, to convince you to

at least consider that another point of view has merit. (Spears, 2013:365)

In this passage, the author intends to convince us to accept his point of

view that was mentioned in the 8th paragraph:

“8 That’s why I say: For many people, college is a scam.”

He also try to convince us to change our thought. It was mentioned in the

1st to 4th paragraph:

1 What do Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Mark

Cuban have in common?
2 They’re all college dropouts.
3 Richard Branson, Simon Cowell and Peter Jennings have in
common? [sic]
4 They never went to college at all.
5 But today all kids are told: To succeed, you must go to college.
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Next, the author is persuade us to take some actions. For instance, it was

shown in the last paragraph:

29 We need to wake people up.

Also, the author is convince us to consider that at least another point of

view has merit. The example of this is in the paragraph 22:

22 For some reason, this upsets the left. A Slate.com writer called
Thiel’s grant a “nasty idea” that leads students into “halting their
intellectual development . . . maintaining a narrow-minded focus on
getting rich.”

He also deliver it in the paragraph 28:

28 Despite the scam, the Obama administration plans to increase the

number of students getting Pell grants by 50 percent. And even a
darling of conservatives, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, says college
is must: “Graduating from high school is just the first step.”

As we said in the previous materials, persuasive writing presents a

controversial issue that is open to discussion. In this passage, the topic of

“The College Scam” is so controversial because it certainly invites many

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arguments from many aspects from the people who consider that college

is important for us and from the people who agree with author’s point of

view that college is only scam. Also by definition, a persuasive piece

presents the author’s subjective opinions. Some writers present two or

even three points of view and leave you to make up your own mind

about where you stand. Other writers present only one side, an obvious

attempt to change your mind or to get you to adopt their position. In this

passage, the author leave us with two points of view that we can consider

where we stand. Still, the author keep convince us to think twice that

college is a scam, college is not how it seems.

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3.2 Disarming the Hooligans Among Us

Analyzing on Text 30 “Disarming the Hooligans Among Us”

(p. 385-387)

This passage shows an opinion from the author that nowadays, Fans’

actions toward the opposing team’s fans will go beyond just emotional or

angry to sometimes threatening and even violent.

So in this passage, the author tend to convince us to take an action. It

was mentioned in the paragraph 12:

12 Let’s not fool ourselves—this is a form of free speech. No one can

control how fans use social media. But the NFL, teams and players

can step up and use these same channels to set the tone and shape the

behavior of fans. They’re certainly good at using them to get us

revved up for the game. How about reminding us what it means to be

a good fan, a civil fan, a true sportsperson? If Eli Manning and Alex

Smith jointly recognized and rewarded fans who act as role models,

we think that would make a real difference.

They also convince us to change our thinking. As mentioned in the last

paragraph:

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 13 Ultimately it’s on all of us. We, the fans, can stop the hooligans

because they’re some of us. Think twice before posting that nasty

message, “liking” a fel-low fan’s expletive-ridden diatribe or sharing a

video of fan-on-fan violence. On social media, we don’t have to risk

getting our nose broken when we break up a fight. So tell your

Facebook friends who do those angry unacceptable things that you’ll

not be a part of it. You—we—are better than that.

In this passage, the author present only one side, an obvious attempt to

change our mind. It’s a good example of persuasive writing on how the

author make us aware about something and persuade us to take an action.

Chapter IV

4.1 Conclusion

Persuasive text is persuade. Point from the Persuasive is Persuade.

A persuasive text typically consist of a statement of the viewpoint,

arguments and evidence, possibly some arguments and evidence

supporting a different view, and final summary all recommendation.

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References

Milan Spears, Deanne.2013.Improving Reading Skills : contemporary

readings for college students/Deanne Spears.-7th ed.Mc Grade Hill:
New York.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/technicalwriting/chapter/supplementa
l-reading-2/

https://www.grammarcheck.net/ten-important-triggers-for-persuasive-
writing/

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