Bit Of Extra Time Means Better Understanding

Sometimes going the extra mile is critically important for people to understand what they’re actually doing.

Recently, in Language Arts, we’ve started persuasive writing. Our teacher explained how to do it a tiny bit by giving us articles to read and sound book work, but it didn’t really explain what a great persuasive essay is like. Our assignment was to write a persuasive two-chunk paragraph about why or why not to go to college, then transform it into a speech.

Persuasive Paragraph

First I had to actually find what topic I wanted to focus on and understand it. I knew I wanted to write about supporting going to college, but why should you? I made a document and started finding sources, taking pages of notes, and looking at polls and studies. I eventually found what about the importance of college i wanted to write about. Guess what? Our teacher gave us four or five sources to use… but they weren’t easy to understand and were confusing. I did my own hours of research and out of that, I didn’t just get a lot of information, but I also understood the topic better.

Argumentative Speech

Like I said, we didn’t really get a good explanation of what a persuasion essay and speech were like. I was completely lost on how to do it. I decided to figure it out on my own. I looked at YouTube videos such as Science of Persuation and 5 Most Persuasive Words for information and I used a little bit of prior knowledge. What to do with all this? I made 11 slides (link to slides) that focused on the basics, tips and tricks, science behind, and how to write persuasion. After hours of doing this, I finally understood what I was doing and how to do it.

Doing a little bit of extra work (instead of what? Netflix?), will greatly improve your understanding of anything. If you’re confused, do your own research. Watch some videos. Find a way. It may take an hour or two, but in return you’ll have lots more knowledge and actually understand your subject.