Name: Due: Persuasive Paper Prompt: Persuade the reader to action by Protecting your family from fire Introduction A. Ask a question (rhetorical question) Describe the setting Use Onomatopoeia (Sounds) Describe the setting Use a quote B. Thesis Statement ( A thesis statement communicates your essayʼs main/controlling idea. The thesis for this paper is Protect Your Family From Fire! C. Method Statement (Supports/Proves the thesis statement). How does one protect his or her family from fire? Protect your family from fire by installing smoke alarms, preparing and practicing a home escape plan, and using caution with holiday decorations to prevent a home fire. II. Body Paragraph I A. Topic Sentence: To begin with, you must protect your family by fire by installing smoke alarms today. (Notice that there is a transition, the prompt is stated in the topic sentence, the first of idea of the method is topic of this paragraph and the ONLY topic, and the tone of the topic sentence is persuasive.) 1. Use examples and descriptions of how installing a smoke alarm will save lives and prevent fires. 2. Use quotes to support the topic sentence and build secondary and third level support. 3. Compare a responsible adult to one who is not responsible in preventing home fires because he or she did not install a smoke alarm. 4. Use pathos (emotion) as a means of persuading by appealing to the readerʼs emotions. How would you feel if you were asleep to find your house in flames with no time to rescue your beloved from the burning inferno? Could you ever forgive yourself for not installing a smoke alarm? This could have been avoided if you had installed a smoke alarm! What are you waiting for? Do what is right for yourself, your home, and most importantly, your loved ones. 5. Use logos (logic) as the means of persuading by the use of reasoning. 6. Use ethos (Credibility) as a means of convincing by the character of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth
listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect. B. Closing Sentence: Thus, preventing and protecting your home from fires must be done by installing smoke alarms. (Notice that the closing sentence restates the topic sentenceʼs idea, but it is not word for word the same sentence. It has a persuasive tone, and there is an appropriate closing transition, which lets the reader know that the writer has finished with this point. Body Paragraph II A. Topic Sentence: In addition, protect your family from fire now by using caution with holiday decorations to prevent a home fire. 1. Comparisons and analogies of people who take precautions to avoid placing flammable objects near or around Christmas trees and describing those who are careless. For example, what adult would place flammable materials around a Christmas tree as it is like leaving a stick of TNT on top of a stove and thinking, It is not lighted. Nothing with happen. 2. Examples of accents that could occur from careless holiday decorating. For example, when one uses a string of lights to decorate his or her home, make sure that he or she examines the wires carefully. Having lights in a box for over a year could have cause the wiring to become defective as small animals could have gnawed on the wires. When one puts up a string of lights around his or her home that is defective, he or she may have covered his or her home in a potential fire. 3. Use quotes or citations. 4. Use pathos (emotions) 5. Use logos (logical) 6. Use ethos (credibility). For example, my cousinʼs home caught on fire last Christmas because his family did not do a safety check on the lights. After storing the lights in box up in the attic, mice had chewed on the wires, but my cousinʼs family did not look over the lights. When they plugged the lights in, there was a short, and a fire started. Do you want this to happen to you. Trust me, I was terrified thinking about what could have happened to my cousin. B. Therefore, home fires need to be intercepted, so check holiday decorations carefully before using them in the home. Paragraph III Topic Sentence: Furthermore, you must stay in kitchen when cooking as this will protect your family from fire. 1. Detailed examples of how staying in the kitchen when cooking will protect your family from fire. 2. Use quotes. My mom always tells me, Never leave the kitchen for even a second when you are cooking something. My mom is right because it only takes a second before a kitchen is consumed in flames. 3. Use analogies.
4. Use ethos 5. Use pathos 6. Use logos. Logos is an argument based on logic or reason. Using statistics will help support your logical claim. For example: Unfortunately, according to National Fire Prevention Association, 99% of all home fires occur in the kitchen because home owners leave the kitchen while cooking. Would you leave a baby in the middle of an intersection to play? Of course not because you are smart and realize that the child may get hurt or killed. Leaving a stove on and not being in the kitchen is like leaving a small child in the middle of an intersection--an accident will occur. B. So, protect your family from fires by staying in the kitchen when cooking, and home fires will no longer become a hot problem. V. Conclusion A. Restate Thesis with Method Statement: Families must be more conscientious and protect their family from fires by installing smoke alarms, using caution with holiday decorations, and staying in the kitchen when cooking. B. Authorʼs Comment 1. Warning 2. Quotation 3. Prediction 4. Question 5. Echo setting 6. Prediction for the Future **************************************************************************************************** Your persuasive paper should: 1. Have an effective beginning with a hook. 2. Writing is focused on the prompt. 3. Organized in chunks of related information and a persuasive voice NOT linked together by time. 4. Have an introduction, a body, and a closing. 5. Use second and third level supporting details. In other words, prove what you state! 6. Have an effective ending to wrap up the writing. 7. Check that you have correct sentences, punctuation, and spelling. 8. Use at least one semicolon as a form of punctuation between two complete sentences that are related. 9. Use at least one direct quotation. (Remember if you are directly quoting someone, a comma must be placed after the speaker and before the direct quote; the first word of a direct quote is capitalized, and all punctuation occurs inside the quotation marks. 10. Start a sentence with a prepositional phrase, present participle, or a subordinating conjunction to attain different sentence structures. 11. Use sensory details to relate the event and convey the dominant emotion. 12. Use at least one simile in your essay.
13. Use persuasive language and have a strong voice throughout the piece. ************************************************************************************************* Possible topic sentences: 1. Fire extinguishers can create a pathway to safety. 2. Smoke alarms provide vital early warning of fire danger. 3. Check the batteries of your smoke alarm and replace your smoke alarm every ten years. 4. Prepare and practice a home escape plan. 5. Inspect your home and make sure the electrical wiring is safe. 6. When using your stove, stay in the kitchen to avoid a home fire. 7. Do not sit or lie down when smoking or your home may go up in flames. 8. Check your natural gas line to avert a home fire. 9. Be careful how you use a space heater, or a home fire may occur. 10. Maintain your fireplace correctly to ward off a home fire. 11. Use caution with holiday decorations to prevent a home fire. **************************************************************************************************** Possible Grabbers Bold = grabber Italics = thesis underlined = method statement Question Do you want your dreams and home to go up in flames and be devoured by acrid smoke? Of course not. You can protect your family from fire by installing smoke alarms, using caution with holiday decorations, and staying in the kitchen when cooking.
Describe the Setting You are in a hurry, and you leave your stop top on while going into the other room to watch your favorite show, American Idol. You are enjoying the program and oblivious to the fact that you set your kitchen towel too close to the burner. In a matter of seconds, your kitchen is in flames, and not only have you been eliminated from watching your favorite show, but now your carelessness has cost you your home. You can protect your family from fire by installing smoke alarms, using caution with holiday decorations, and staying in the kitchen when cooking. Fragments Flames licking and devouring your possessions. Fear and anguish fill your body. Fumes and smoke consume your lungs. This is what one may feel during a home fire. You can protect your family from fire by installing smoke alarms, using caution with holiday decorations, and staying in the kitchen when cooking. **************************************************************************************************** Possible Closings Bold = Restate Thesis with transition Underline = method italics = authorʼs comment Warning caution with holiday decorations, and staying in the kitchen when cooking. If families are not responsible their American dream may go up in smoke. Question caution with holiday decorations, and staying in the kitchen when cooking. Would you rather be safe than sorry? Echo/Setting caution with holiday decorations, and staying in the kitchen when cooking. The next time you are cooking and your favorite television show comes on in the next room, shut off the oven.
Prediction for the Future caution with holiday decorations, and staying in the kitchen when cooking. If every family would take precautions around their house to prevent house fires, dreams and houses would never go up in flames. OKAY, GET COOKING. LETʼS SEE SOME HOT PAPERS!