Persuasive writing at GCSE level needs to be approached properly with all of the techniques from the previous key stage levels incorporated with other added elements. With this in mind, make sure you read through the persuasive writing ks2 and persuasive writing ks3 tips to get a sound understanding of the basic principles of persuasive writing. This page will go through more advanced techniques to give students the edge at GCSE level.

Right, lets get down to it. So you understanding the basic principles of persuasive writing but want to ensure you get higher grades in your GCSE work. Well here are some bonus tips that even some teachers might not tell you about.

Make sure you repeat yourself to be successful with persuasive writing. This doesn’t mean writing the same sentence over and over again but using different pieces of evidence to emphasise your main point. Every time you deliver a valid point to support your point of view, make sure you hammer home how it proves you’re right and that the reader should agree with you.

An important word in GCSE persuasive writing is ‘consistency’. This is a similar point to what I was talking about with regards repetition. The consistency theory is a tried and trusted method for persuasive writing. How it works is, your first and strongest point is something that your reader can’t fail to agree with so you get them on your side right from the beginning. So for example, if you were writing a persuasive essay about carbon emissions you’d start with something like, ‘carbon emissions have an incredbly negative impact on the environment…’ and go from there. From that point on, you should keep reminding the reader about your strongest point and make sure you remain consistent and don’t stray too far from this original statement.

Make sure you address the opposite points in any persuasive essay. Remember there are always people with a different point of view and part of your job with a persuasive essay is to shoot down the opposite argument. By spending a few paragraphs shooting down the opposite point of view, you can significantly reinforce your own opinion. If you don’t address obvious points that go against your point of view, then you’re likely to miss out on the higher grades. By the same token though, don’t dwell on the ‘other view’ as your essay should mainly be about why you’re right and not why the other person is wrong. A 70/30 split is probably about right.

Deliver as many hard facts as you possibly can. If you can build up your own credibility and demonstrate to the reader that you know what you’re talking about then half the battle is already won. It’s an old saying, but people buy the person first and the product second (the product being your work). If you’ve got a long list of facts, make sure you own deliver the ones that are relevant to your point. Facts that have nothing to do with what you’re talking about will more than likely be discounted.

If you’ve got a really strong point that you want to place emphasis on then make sure you build it up properly. People are always looking for ‘reasons’ to support your point of view so with strong evidence its worth building up to it with a statement like ‘and the reason is this, …’ the comma and the slight pause gives the reader a second to take a breathe before digesting your brilliant fact and that alone can make a world of difference.

Start strong and finish strong. The skeleton structure of a persuasive essay at GCSE level is:

1. Here’s my point and why you should agree with me…

2. Here’s my evidence…

3. Here’s my original point again just to remind you and finally a strong statement to finish with to leave you with a good impression of my work.

By understanding the fundamentals of persuasive writing and following this basic structure, you can’t go too far wrong with a GCSE level essay.