Persuasive writing ks2 can be tricky as students are asked almost for the first time to shape and style their writing in a certain way. However, there are some persuasive writing ks2 tasks that children can do to improve their understanding of the process.

Before we detail our own section of advice and guidance, here are the persuasive writing ks2 resources that are recommended by Writing Arena:

Activities for Teaching Persuasive Writing for Ages 7-9
Activities for Teaching Persuasive Writing for Ages 9-11
Brilliant Activities for Persuasive Writing - Activities for 7-11 Year Olds
Learning Persuasive Writing and Argument: part of the Teach your Child Good English series: (KS 2-3 +) (ages 8-14 years) A Core Guide for All Students

Starting Out

The first step with persuasive writing ks2 is to make children understand exactly what persuasive writing is using information and examples that are easy to digest.

Start by asking the student or group you’re teaching if they understand the word ‘persuade’. Regardless of whether they do or not this is an excellent starting point to work from.

Once you’ve got the definition understood you can ask for examples of where people might try to persuade you.

Some good (and fun) examples to use are advertisements, perhaps for films or specific products. This is an opportunity to introduce some visual aids.

After hammering home the idea of persuasion, the link can then be made to persuasive writing.

Persuasive Writing KS2

Explaining that writing is another way to persuade people is the first step.

It’s then a good idea to use a sustained example so that students can almost subconsciously begin to understand persuasive writing. A good topic to choose is ‘Smoking’ as children from a young age know that smoking is bad and they shouldn’t do it.

If you can get hold of stop smoking material (like from here: http://gosmokefree.nhs.uk/) then you can show students how it is possible to use writing such as leaflets and posters to persuade people to stop smoking.

Ask them to read through the material and write down 4 or 5 reasons why people should not smoke and then discuss them to ensure they’re on the right track.

Setting the Task - Persuasive Letter Writing KS2

For the first persuasive writing ks2 task you set students, it should never be an essay. Building up their understanding of the codes and conventions of persuasive writing gradually is important for getting the best results.

An ideal first task for persuasive writing ks2 is to write a letter persuading the person to take your point of view on a subject. So, carrying on with the stop smoking theme you can set the following task:

Tom smokes but is thinking of giving up but can’t decide. Write him a letter persuading him to give up smoking and telling him why it is a good idea.

You can tell students to use the 4 or 5 examples you asked them to write down earlier and simply incorporate them into a letter. This is a nice plan for slowly building up their understanding of persuasive writing.

Building up Persuasive knowledge

After writing the persuasive letter to a good level and understanding the basic codes and conventions of persuasive writing, ks2 students should then be taught more in-depth stylistic essay writing techniques.

Moving from a letter to an essay shouldn’t be too difficult, providing students are made aware of the right way to go about writing a persuasive essay.

For example:

Structure: An introduction to explain why you’re writing. So in this case it would be to persuade someone to stop smoking.

Paragraphs offering evidence and explaining why each piece supports your point of view.

A conclusion summing up everything you’ve said.

Attract, Engage, Inform - These are three words that follow students around from ks2 to ks3 and even up to GCSE and A Level.

Students must:

Attract the readers attention. They can do this by starting with a hard hitting first sentence that readers can’t forget.

Engage - The writing style must be friendly and easy to read. Use overly descriptive language so instead of ‘good’ use ‘excellent’ or ’superb’ to emphasise points.

Inform - Explain the evidence and why it supports your point of view.

The Persuasion Checklist

A good handout to give is a checklist of all the things that should be in a persuasive writing ks2 text. This might look something like:

Have I used?

An opening statement of the case
Techniques to attract and engage
Evidence and examples
Persuasive language
Powerful reasons and benefits
A closing statement to reinforce

Persuasive Writing KS2

This is just one method for teaching persuasive writing ks2, whether it be to a group of students in school or to simply supplement what a child has learned in the classroom.

Here are some additional texts that will also help support persuasive writing ks2:

Activities for Teaching Persuasive Writing for Ages 7-9
Activities for Teaching Persuasive Writing for Ages 9-11
Brilliant Activities for Persuasive Writing - Activities for 7-11 Year Olds
Learning Persuasive Writing and Argument: part of the Teach your Child Good English series: (KS 2-3 +) (ages 8-14 years) A Core Guide for All Students