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LenaVan
English49
ProfessorJohnRall
6 April20ll
Howto Write aPersuasive
Essay
Whenapproachingthe issueof legalizingmarijuana,c,ertainshategieswill help you get
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yo* poiit across.Exarnplesof somestrategiesyou canusewhenmakingan argrrmentative
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speechtowardsan audienceareusingrepetition,metaphors,storiesto help the audiencehavea
betterunderstandingof what you'retrying to get acnoss,andrelationto what the audiencehas
beenthroughso that they canrelateto whereyou arecomingfrom. Thesestrategiesarevery
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helpful in termsof gettingyour argunent acnossandwbat you want the audienceto know. They
arealsovery well known andareusedby many scholarssuchas,Hzun Tzu andMencius,just to
rume a few. ln this paper,I will showyou how to write an argumentativepaperon the
legalizationof marijuanaandwill give you examplesof how well thesestrategiescanbe when it
comesto making a strongthesisstatement.
ln orderto write a strongandvery well approachedargumentativepaper,we shouldfirst
look at sfategiesandhow well they will help us discussthe legalizationof marijuana.In the
persuasivespeechbetweenMenciusandhis.fellow peers,a techniquethat helpedMencius
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follow throughwith his speechwas{netaphors.'Thatrnancanbe madebad showstbat his nature
is no different from ttrat of water in this respect."(Mencius160)This wasa metaphorthat
Menciususedwhenhe wasgettinghis point acrossthat t$dmen arelike waterand canbe made
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bad.Menciususedmanymetaphorsin his conversationwith his studentsto get his point across
that menarenot born goodor bad.To discussaboutthe legalizationaboutmarijuan4 you should
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put in metaphorsto help readersandlistenersunderstandwhat sideyou are on in orderto help , :
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your audienceimagineandempathizewith what you areproposing.
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In the article, Man's Nature is Evil, written my HsunTzq the most effectivestrategy
HsunTzu usedwasrepetition.After abouteveryparagraph,HsunTzu basicallywrote the same
sentencein which he wastying to get his point across.This strategywasto boldly stateout that
this is whathe wantsthereadersto know.'lfthis is so,thenbenevolence,
righteousness,
and
properstandardsmustbe baseduponprincipleswhich canbe knownl'(Hsun Tzu 6) HusnTzu
repeatedthe words,benevolence,righteousness,
andproperstandardsa lot in his essayto try to
questionthe readerswhetheror not menreally havethesequalities.This strategyis usedto
embedin the readersmindsthat menarereally evil andto persuadethemto takehis sideof the
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Repetitionmay alsohelp you in arguingaboutthe discussionof legalizingmarijuana
You may bring out a main point, for example,you cansay,marijuanahasno real harmful
substances
aspeoplebelievethey do. To getthis mainpoint across,you may repeatthis line but
rewordit in different waysto subliminally embedin readet'smindsthat this is what you want
themto know andunderstand.To rewordthat marijuanahasno real harmful substances,
you
may alsosay,'l{arijuanais provento be the leastharmfulsubstance
out there."Repetition
is a
very effectivestrategybecause
it reallyputsan impacton whatreadetsarereading.This getsthe
point acrossand statesto the readersthat this is what you want themto know.
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Anotherway to persuadeyour audiencethat marijuanashouldbe legalizedis conversing
with the audienceso that they canhavea higherunderstandingof whereyorfre comingfr,om.In
Me'lrcius'speech
of how menaneborn neithergoodnor evil, it looks like Menciusis conversing
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with his studentswith a type of questionandansw€rtactic. Menciuswould tell his students
something,his studentswould askhim a questionrelatedto what he is safing, andhe will
approachthat questionwith a story to help the studentshavea betterunderstandingthat men are
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neithergoodnor evil.'Tlurnannaturecanbecomegoodor it canbecomeba4 andthat is why
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with the rise of King Wen andKing Wr1 the peopleweregiven to goodness,nfrile with the rise
of King Yu andKing Li, they weregrren to cruelty:'(Mencius162)This strategywasvery
effectivefor Menciusbecausehe wasableto tell different storiesthat relatedto menbeingborn
neithergoodnor bad.This wasso that his studentsaskingthe questionsweneableto relateand
empathizewith wherehe wascomingfrom andhow he cameto the understandingabouthow
men arebom.
To makea goodargumentativepaper,you shouldrecognizewho your audiencesareand
understandwherethey are comingfrom. After you do this, you canhavea bettercorurectionwith
your audiencemembersso that they canempathizewith you and seewhereyou arecoming
from. In orderto do this, you cantell your audiencemembersa story aboutmarijganaand a
positive impactit hadhadon you. Whentelling a story,your audiencesare ableto seean image
in their headsandempathizewith whereyou arecomingfrom. Whenthey seeandhearabout
your own personalexperiences,
they will seethat you know what you aretalking aboutandthat
you havea high level of understandingaboutthe topic. After you do this and get the audienceto
understandwhereyou arecomingfrom, you may be ableto haveu Uigg", impacton the audience
members.They will most likely take your sidebecauseof the fact that they areableto empathize
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with you and seewtrereyou arecomingfrom. Therefore,they will seethat yorn
sideis the right
side.
To get the audienceto understandufrat you areproposingin the discussion
of legalizing
marijuana someeffectiveshategiesyou may be ableto useis repetition"using
andconversingwith your studentsso that they canempathizewith you and
manymetaphors,
feel closerto you asa
person'Hzun Tsu andMenciusin their argumentof whethermenare
born goodor
evil used
thesestrategiesvery effectively.In the eird of both of their essays,you wer€
ableto easily
understandboth sidesof the story andunderstandwtry FIan Tzu or Mencius
would think that
way andwhy they would believethat way abouthow menareborn.
In orderto get your audienceto be on yorn sideof legalizingmariju^na,
the strategies
tlrat I haveproposedto you canbe very helpful to useandmay give you positive
resulrcin the
end' Your audienceswilt most likely sidewith you after effectiveuseof these
shategies.
Whetheryou areutriting a persuasiveessayon legalizingmarijuanaor opening
up the borderof
the United States,thesestrategiesI havewent over with you may help you get your
audienceand
readersto sidewith what you aneproposing.Most importantly,you should
evaluateeverything
you ttrc going to sayandmakesurethat theseshategiesar€usedefrectively
andefficiently so
that you will know that your audienceandreaderswill takeyour sideof the
argumentandhavea
benerunderstandingof what you areproposing.
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