Persuasive writing is the writing for the purpose of arguing logically, giving other points of view, and persuading others to change opinions or to do something. Dedalus (2010) states, "Persuasive writing, also called argumentative writing, is a type of communication that seeks to influence or alter a reader's opinion." Persuasive writing can be performed by an appeal to reason, character, and emotion. Since persuading itself is difficult even for adults, teachers are prone to presume that children don’t know how to persuade, so this writing style is not appropriate tothem. But in reality, children can persuade and have been persuading others in daily life. Wilkinson and his colleagues (1980), after investigating the ability of children to write persuasively, they found that children at all ages could state an opinion,and not surprisingly, that as children grew older, they were better able to provide a logical justification for their opinions (cited in Tompkins, 2008, p. 270). Thus, teachers should teach children with different writing types depending on their level. That is, persuasive poster is for the low level, persuasive letter is for the middle level, and persuasive essay is for the high level.
According to the material that Soohyun Kim posted on her blog, in order to write a persuasive letter, a writer need to have the reasons why his opponent should follow his suggestion, as well as the reasons why his suggestion might not be the best. That’s exactly right. To persuade somebody successfully, a writer should see a given topic from both his perspective and his opponent perspective. It reminds me of one proverb, "If you know your enemy and yourself, you can win every battle."
References
Dedalus, D. (2010). Persuasive writing activities and lessons. eHow, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/list_6547676_persuasive-writing-activities-lessons.html
Tomkins, G. E. (2008). Teaching writing: Balancing process and product. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
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