Identify your point of view and position.

What is it that you are trying to say? What subject are you going to be discussing and what stand are you going to be taking?

Understand Your Subject.

This is the research time. Allow yourself to go in and learn about your topic with an open mind. You may be reasarching capital punishment, for example, and be totally against it, but after doing some research, find that you want to write your essay in support of the topic. After you've come to a difinitive position, ask yourself the following:

• What kinds of evidence support this position?
• How substantial is the evidence?
• If the evidence includes statistics and authoritative opinions, are they reliable or are they flawed for some reason?
• What are the objections to each position? How can the objections be countered?
• If the issue involves taking some action, what are the consequences of this action?

Identify the Audience.

Are you speaking to a seventh grade class or to the debate team at Yale? Is your audience lawyers or construction workers? Deciding your audience will help you pick which facts to pick. Let's stick with the capital punishment example. If your audience is a religious group, you may want to refer to the Bible. However, if your audience is therapists, you may want to refer to scientific studies of crimal minds. Different audiences will respond to different topics and it is your job to find what each audience will respond to.Considering your point and the audience, find the strongest supporting facts.

Identify the Strongest Opposing View.

It never hurts to be too prepared, and that means in your essay as well. If you write a good, thought provoking paper, people will come up with a rebuttal to your facts. Why not include their rebuttal and your own response as well? Show that you see other points of view, and use the facts to support your position even more.

Use Personal Experience.... but Cautiously.

Personal experience can often be an effective tool in arguing, but it is important that you look at your experience carefully. Again, ask yourself the following questions before including your own anticdote.

• Will significant numbers of people have had similar experiences?
• Am I giving enough information to help my readers understand how I came to my conclusions?
• Am I allowing for those who might respond to this situation differently than I did?
• Have I been careful not to over generalize the experience?
• Have I been careful to take into consideration all possible factors that influence my response to the experience?

Keep in mind, a persuasive essay is not the correct forum for you to simply state your opinions. Whatever position you take must be supported by facts.