March 24, 2011 Persuasive Research Essay

Persuasive Research Essay…

We’re preparing to write a persuasive research essay.  I have been helping the students think about how they can select their topic.  They must have at least three arguments and three counterarguments. 

I’ve told them to choose a topic that they know something about and that they are passionate about.  Now my example isn’t a topic you would normally pick, but I wanted something that they wouldn’t pick either, so I chose to write about Iceland.  It is pretty neutral, but it is a country I know something about.  I lived there for thirteen months.  I actually was an exchange student there.

I plan to tell them what I know about it and then go into the reasons that I think they should visit it someday.  Of course explaining what that they would say that counter my opinion.

I could use things such as;

1. They would say they don’t speak Icelandic and would be worried about the language.  No problem, most Icelanders speak English.

2. What about the cost to fly over there and maybe they don’t like to fly?  I had to raise

money be an exchange student and I asked others to help me.  I would be willing to help

them to raise the funds.  I had someone help me.  As to the not flying, there are

medications to help those people who don’t like to fly.

3. They would say they don’t know anything about it and it must be very cold there.

Aren’t there Eskimos there?The country is very beautiful and the people are interesting.

I would show them some pictures or include pictures in my essay.  It doesn’t get that cold

there. The gulf stream runs through Iceland.  They have mountains, glaciers and volcanoes

there on their island. I would show research that it is a legend that Iceland was named

"Iceland" by the Vikings and they named Greenland so people would not bother them,

because Iceland is really “Greenland” and vice versa.

Of course, their information would be based on their research and I will show

them how the research can help them. They have already completed one research

paper this year, but it was very simple and this will be more extensive.  Thanks for

reading this.  (Sorry for the weird typing but I copied this in after I typed this in Word

 and it did something funny) Happy Slicing! J