An important thing to remember when you're writing a persuasive essay is that you're writing for an audience. You should keep your audience in mind and present your information in a logical order. Make sure to offer definitions to help them understand. In this exercise, you are trying to persuade someone to agree with your argument. Back up your argument with credible facts; this is the most important part of this type of research. To make a good argument you must be able to define your terms, show research or statistics that support your claims, counteract the other side of the argument, and always cite your sources.
Define your terms: this is important for you and your audience to understand exactly what you're talking about. Try Credo Reference for Online reference sources. This is the best place to begin your research.
Show research or statistics that back up your argument: this is the main focus of your research. Your argument is only as credible as the sources you provide. Opposing Viewpoints is an excellent database for this type of research.
Counteract the other side of the argument: you should be able to convince people why your argument makes more sense than the other side. Research both sides of the argument to make yours more effective.
Always cite your sources: this is essential! Keep track of your sources as you find them. Look under the "Citing Your Sources" tab for more information on citing.
North Shore Community College subscribes to several databases that are especially useful when searching for information about current issues. Some of these are:
Access to many of the database links on this guide requires NSCC authentication - users must sign in with their NSCC My Northshore (formerly Pipeline) username & password