Persuasive Writing Topics and Lesson Ideas

Did you know that researchers have found that children's persuasive writing abilities develop more slowly than any other genre (Applebee, Langer, & Mullins, 1986)?  That means that it is essential that we get students writing persuasively as often as possible. One of the best ways to motivate students to write persuasively is with really fun and engaging writing topics.  In addition, when we give students different types of ways to write persuasively from speeches to critical reviews, we can really engage students.  

In the spirit of getting students writing, I've compiled 15 of my favorite topics and styles of persuasive writing. These ideas are sure to get your students excited about writing persuasively!

Students are bombarded with advertisements in their daily lives.  So why not capitalize on their experiences with advertising and get them writing their own ads?  When students write persuasive advertisements they're able to infuse the critical components of advertising like a memorable name, special features, and persuasive words and phrases into advertisements designed to get readers to do or buy something. 

Here are a few persuasive advertisement topics:

1.  Have students design a new product.  They love this!  It can be anything from a new type of sneaker to a machine that does a household chore.  Then, have students develop ads to convince people to buy their products. 

2.  Challenge students to write a commercial that provides positive information about a person or service.  Since commercials use persuasive language and advertising techniques, they're perfect for developing students' writing skills.  As an added challenge, commercials need to be 30-60 seconds long, so they encourage students to write concisely.

3.  Combine two things students know a lot about:  roller coasters and advertisements with this next idea.  First, develop background knowledge on roller coasters.  Then, have students design their own coaster.  So fun!  Finally, have students write persuasive ads about their coasters that convince people to give them a try.  

Speeches are naturally written to convince others to do, buy, or be something.  So, why not give students a chance to write their own persuasive speeches?  Here are a few ways:

4. Set up fictional or real elections for roles in your classroom or school.  Determine the different types of positions that students will be trying to persuade others to nominate them for.  Then, have students write campaign speeches to convince their classmates that they're the best person for the job.

5.  Combine research with growth mindset and speeches!  Have students research important leaders and change-makers in the world.  While researching, have students determine how their subject demonstrated a growth mindset.  Then, lead students through developing persuasive speeches that not only teach about their subject, but also convince their listeners that their subject used a growth mindset to succeed.

6.  Along the same lines as the growth mindset topic, create an award that students need to convince others that their research topic should earn.  For instance, students might research a president and write a persuasive speech about why he should win the "Best Leader of the 20th Century Award" like in this detailed unit.  Or you might have students write persuasive speeches about the person they deem to be the "Best Athlete of All Time" or the "Greatest Singer in this Decade."  The options are endless!

Persuasive letters are a great way to help students develop their writing skills and learn about the critical components of letter writing.  Once students write their letters, they can even send their writing to the actual people or organizations that they are addressing.  This make their learning even more authentic.  Here are a few persuasive letter ideas:

7.  Have students write persuasive letters to a company that they love.  In their letter, they'll need to persuade the company to improve or create a new version of one of their favorite products.  For instance, students might write to a skateboard company and persuade them to alter the wheels of the boards.  

8.  Task students to write persuasive letters to the principal or school board. They should take on a school issue (anything from school start time to uniforms to cafeteria food).  Then, after researching the benefits of their opinion, they should write a letter to a school leader persuading him or her to make a change. This  Opinion Writing Unit is designed to help students complete this task.

9.  Since students are typically good at persuading their parents to buy them things or let them do things, why not have them write persuasive letters to their parents?  A fun idea is to have students write persuasive letters explaining to their parents why they should no longer have to do a particular chore in their home.  As you can imagine, students get really into this!

The persuasive essay is a great way to get students to argue about topics that they have strong beliefs and opinions about.  One key to great persuasive essays in ensuring that students have topics that they truly care about.  That's why you might have students write persuasive essays about:

10.  Sports - Have students consider topics like "Is professional football too dangerous for players?" or "Should boys and girls play on the same sports team?"

11.  Animals - Students might write persuasive essays stating that pets should be allowed in all public spaces or animal testing should be completely eliminated.


12.  School issues - Since students are experts at being students, they often have opinions about topics like school starting later, summer being longer, or homework being eliminated.

Reviews and critiques are a super engaging way to get students writing persuasively.  When students review movies, books, performances or products, they need to convince the reader to either give it a try or skip it completely.  Give students a chance to write a critical review with these ideas:

13.  Add a persuasive review to students' next book report.  After students report out on the book's plot, setting, characters, and theme, have them write a persuasive review about the book.  They could even add persuasive components to this FREE standard book talk.

14.  Since students love watching movies and television shows, challenge students to write a persuasive review about something they enjoyed watching.  Challenge them to convince others to watch their favorite movie or show, too.

15.  Have students write a persuasive review about a product (like a toy, school supply, article of clothing or food).  You could even bring in a selection of different sweet treats for students to try.  Then, they could write a persuasive review about the best cookie or candy.

Well, there you have it, 15 of my favorite persuasive writing topics and ideas.  I hope I've persuaded you to give at least one of them a try!

Thanks for stopping by,

Mary Beth

P.S. Find turn-key persuasive writing units here:

• Writing Persuasive Advertisements
• Roller Coaster Design and Persuasive Writing Unit
• Speeches:  Reading, Analyzing, Researching and Presenting
• End-of-the-Year Persuasive Writing Unit
• Opinion Writing Unit
• Doodle Book Review

5 Ways to Build Better Writers - Strategies for Cultivating Stronger Writers in the Classroom (+ Free Writing Resources)

As educators, our mission is to empower students with the essential skill of effective writing. Yet, navigating the path to building better writers can be a daunting task. Having a passion for teaching writing, I'm thrilled to share five impactful strategies to enhance writing skills within the classroom setting. Discover practical approaches that not only make the process enjoyable but also yield significant improvements in your students' writing capabilities.

And the excitement doesn't stop there – this post comes with a bonus! Explore two sets of invaluable FREE WRITING RESOURCES linked below to enrich your teaching toolkit and inspire your students on their writing journey.

I'm not sure about you, but I feel like in our standards-based world, creative writing has gone by the wayside.  And nothing makes me sadder!  Creative writing activities are my absolute favorite way to build better writers.  That's because they are quick, targeted, and usually a ton of fun.  Do you know what happens when students do something that is fun?  That's right!  They begin to actually enjoy it.  Gasp!  Just imagine your students excitedly writing!  It's a wonderful thing!  Creative writing demystifies writing.  It builds students' confidence in writing and develops targeted skills that can be transferred to everyday writing.

One easy way to bring creative writing activities into the classroom is by designating a day of the week or month as a creative writing day.  I called this day "Random Writes" in my classroom.  We did a random write activity after every spelling test.  Kids went nuts over the activities!  

I know what you're thinking...you're wondering how you can get your hands on some fun creative writing activities, right?  I've got great news for you!  First of all, I've put together a set of five FREE lessons that are sent right to your inbox when you sign up for the Brain Waves newsletter here.

If you're looking for more activities, you can find a set of 10 lessons in this resource.

Oh my!  I LOVE a good writing mini-lesson!  Mini-lessons are brief lessons that can demonstrate writing workshop procedures, explore writers' craft, and develop writing skills and strategies.  They are powerful nuggets of instruction that can drastically change students' writing.  Mini-lessons can be taught in response to a need that you're noticing in students' work or you might align them to a particular genre of writing.  I like to keep the lessons fairly short, and often they're great to teach in small groups!

When designing mini-lessons, here's what I like to include:
➽ An introduction of the topic.  This includes a definition and an overview of the skill or strategy.

➽ Examples. When teaching a mini-lesson about writing it only makes sense that you'll share examples of that skill.  I think it's particularly fun to gather a few text examples and then have students vote on the best one.  This simple activity gets students thinking critically about writing.

➽ More detail.  After students have a sense of the skill, it's time to dive deeper.  This is when I provide additional information about the topic.

➽ Guided Practice.  By now students have a sense of the skill, so it's time to give it a try.  I like to create writing tasks that they can practice.  The easiest way to do this is provide samples of writing that students need to makeover using the skill.

➽ Apply.  Finally, I like to close mini-lessons with a longer writing prompt or if students are working through a writing unit, I like to have them improve their current piece of writing using the new skills they practiced.  

If you're on the hunt for print-and-teach writing mini-lessons, then you'll love this set of 10 lessons.  

They address everything from writing leads to adding voice to writing dialogue.  Check them out HERE.

In Ralph Fletcher's book, A Writer's Notebook, he explains that a writer's notebook "gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of day."  

He encourages everyone to find a simple notebook and get writing.  I love that!  Just like that, writing becomes a part of everyday life.  It's not tied to a genre or an assignment.  Instead, inside the writer's notebook students get to just write.  It's like an artist's sketchbook.  

Here's the best part.  When we encourage our students to write regularly, they'll amass a ton of ideas.  Then, when it comes time to choose topics in class, it's as easy as thumbing through their notebooks.  If you're thinking about implementing writer's notebooks in your classroom, be sure to check out Fletcher's book.  He has a ton of ideas.  And, since students are going to need an actual notebook, I love these reporter's notebooks. 

They're small enough to carry around and the empty page is way less intimidating!

Another idea is combine writer's notebooks with writing units.  For instance, in this Memoir Writing Unit, students spend five days responding to prompts in a writer's notebook.  

Then, when it comes time to pick a topic for the memoir, it's super easy!  Plus, they already have a head start on the writing process.  You can add a writer's notebook component to any writing unit!

Have you ever heard the expression, "good writers are good readers?"  Well, in my experience, that's absolutely true.  Reading excellent books and stories is a wonderful way to build students' writing skills.  The more we expose students to strong mentor texts and entertaining pieces of writing, the more they will be able to see what to emulate and imitate in their own writing.

One way to get students to pay attention to the craft of writing while reading is with a simple post-it note.  Give each student a post-it note and ask them to select a sentence (or two) from the text that proves that the writer is skilled.  Then, give students a chance to read and record their examples.  Finally, have students share the sentences they chose with the class.  Discuss students' examples and ways that they might emulate the author's style in their own writing.  You could even assemble all the post-it notes onto a bulletin board for display.

Another way to get students to pay attention to writing while reading is with this FREE set of bookmarks.  Each bookmark is designed to encourage students to investigate the craft of writing while reading a book or story.  

As students read, they need to jot down examples of strong writing from the text.  The idea is to help students recognize and celebrate phenomenal writing.

CLICK HERE FOR FREE BOOKMARKS.

If we want to build better writers, then we're going to need to create some engaging writing units. Here's the truth...if we don't provide students with writing topics that interest them, then getting them through the writing process is going to be a whole lot harder!  

That's why it's essential to craft units around interesting topics.  Some of my students' favorites are writing persuasive advertisements for a roller coaster that they design or descriptive paragraphs about imaginary pets like lions.

Oh, and the historic news article and 3D growth mindset research reports are always a hit.  The idea is make students actually WANT to write.

Another tip is to make sure that the writing units are focused and concise.  The easiest way to turn students off to writing is with a long, drawn-out writing unit.  That's why I like my units to be just ten days or two school weeks long.  Shorter units mean that it's easier to hold students' attention and they can write a variety of pieces all year long.

There you have it!  Five ways to build better writers.  I hope you've found a few ideas that you can use in your classroom!  Here are the links from today's post:

➽ Exclusive Freebie - Creative Writing Lessons (set of 5)
➽ 10 Creative Writing Lessons
➽ 10 Lessons to Build Better Writers
➽ Memoir Writing Unit (with writer's notebook)
➽ FREE Bookmarks
➽ All Writing Units

Thanks for stopping by!

Mary Beth

* This post contains affiliate links.