Writing persuasively

This page has a worked passage from our teachers.

What persuasion is

Persuasive writing appears in several IGCSE and International GCSE English tasks. In directed writing you must convince a named reader.

In composition you may argue a case with feeling. The aim is easy to say and hard to do: change what the reader thinks, feels or plans to do.

A report informs, and a discursive essay weighs both sides. A persuasive piece wants something from its reader, and it does not hide that.

What separates good persuasion from bad is control. A reader can tell when they are being pushed too hard, and then they resist.

Your task is to move someone while keeping their trust. You want to sound like a person worth listening to, not a salesperson raising their voice.

Six steps to persuade

1. Know who you are moving. Picture a specific reader. What do they already believe? What would change their mind?
2. Decide the one thing you want. One clear request lands. Five requests weaken each other.
3. Open with attention and goodwill. Use a striking image, a shared frustration or a question the reader has quietly asked themselves. Make them feel understood before you argue.
4. Give reasons wrapped in feeling. Each point needs a reason the reader can accept, carried by an image, an example or an appeal.
5. Answer the objection. Say what a doubtful reader is thinking, then reply. An objection you name has less power.
6. Close with the request, made vivid. End with what the reader can do and why it matters to them, not to you.

Choose your rhetoric on purpose. Use a list of three for rhythm, direct address to close the distance, a rhetorical question to make the reader supply your answer, and contrast to sharpen a choice. Use a device because the sentence needs it, not to fill a quota.

A worked passage

This passage is our own, written for teaching. It argues for keeping a local library open.

You do not notice a library until it is gone. It is just there: quiet, warm and free, the one room in town that asks nothing of you but silence. Then one morning the doors are locked, and the children who did their homework there, because home was too loud, have nowhere left to go.

We are told the town cannot afford it. But ask what we can afford to lose. A shop closes and another opens. A library closes, and something in a place goes dark for good.

The passage opens with a shared truth that people rarely notice. It puts a real child in the reader’s mind.

It answers the obvious objection, cost, by turning it into a question about loss. The rhythm of the last two sentences does as much work as their meaning.

Common mistakes

• Mistaking volume for force. Capital letters, exclamation marks and insults make the writer look upset, not right.
• A device dump. Techniques pile up until the reader sees the machinery and stops believing.
• Vague claims. Big statements have nothing concrete under them.
• Forgetting the reader. The writer just vents, so nobody is persuaded.
• No request. The piece stirs feeling and never says what to do with it.

Examiners reward persuasion that stays in control. The calmest and most concrete writing is often the most moving, because the reader trusts it.

How to practise

Practise openings first. Choose a cause and write only the first two sentences.

Aim to make a reader feel understood before you argue. Write several, because openings often decide the piece.

Then practise objection and answer. Write your claim, then the reader’s most stubborn objection, then a two-sentence reply. This one move improves persuasive writing more than any device, and most students skip it.

Finally, cut a piece you wrote by a quarter without losing an argument. The shorter version usually hits harder. Read it aloud to catch sentences that sag.

Also read persuasion critically. When an advertisement or a campaign poster tries to move you, name the move it makes. Ask whether it works on you or makes you resist.

Where students usually get stuck

The weakness differs. One student relies on exclamation marks, another forgets to make a request, and a third never pictures a real reader.

In 1-to-1 lessons, our teachers read your persuasive writing, name the habit and drill the fix. This is part of writing-paper focus teaching in First Language English.

Tuition starts from RM70/hr. Book a paid one-hour trial and bring a persuasive piece. The teacher who would continue with you will show you how to move a reader without losing them.

What to read or try next

Study the annotated model response for persuasive writing, then try the practice tasks. Then read how to analyse word choice and how to analyse sentence structure for effect.

Next, visit our original practice tasks to try the skill on a task of your own. Our IGCSE English tuition page explains how lessons run. When you are ready, the paid one-hour trial is the first step.