Persuasive/ argumentative essay

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nouamaneer

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Hello,

I know it is a bit stupid to ask about this, but is a persuasive essay similar to an argumentative essay or are they different? I'm a bit lost here. I've come across some references that equal them both and deal with them under on single heading.

Thanks all,


P.S: I would be really grateful if you had a magic way to teach how to write a persuasive/ argumentative essay.
 

Gillnetter

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I define them rather easily. When writing a persuasive piece, do it gently with care and compassion. When writing an argumentative piece, use your hammer. So, the GOP is a group of nice, but misinformed people, which we can, with care, bring to a reasonable understanding of reality (This is persuasion). But...the GOP is a group of grasping blunder-heads who not only can't tell the difference between black and white, who must have been tutored by the Devil himself, and furthermore, are locked into their idiotic philosophy because of a latent defect in their heritage (This has got to be an argumentative position).
 

nouamaneer

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Thanks a lot.
 

Raymott

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Hello,

I know it is a bit stupid to ask about this, but is a persuasive essay similar to an argumentative essay or are they different? I'm a bit lost here. I've come across some references that equal them both and deal with them under on single heading.

Thanks all,


P.S: I would be really grateful if you had a magic way to teach how to write a persuasive/ argumentative essay.
Argument is based on reason. You can write a persuasive essay using all sorts of rhetorical devices but without giving any good arguments at all. Also, I would have reversed the definitions that Gillnetter gave. If you have good arguments, you don't have to become abusive. You give your arguments for a position and counter possible objections (counterconsiderations). Assuming you're not trying to persuade, that's all you have to do.
Persuasion usually requires more, because most people don't function purely rationally. If "care and compassion" are not going to work with your audience and the point you have to make, you don't use it.
In practice, they probably mean the same, as you've found in your research. If you're making an argument, you're usually trying to persuade and vice versa.
 

konungursvia

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I always thought of them as practically synonymous but I see my colleagues' distinctions as sensible.
 

HanibalII

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Argumentative, you force somebody to see only your point of view that you're talking about in the writing.

However with a persuasion essay, you use facts and well sounded reason to help the reader see your point of view.

Keeping in mind, both must still use an academic register.
 

Raymott

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Argumentative, you force somebody to see only your point of view that you're talking about in the writing.

However with a persuasion essay, you use facts and well sounded reason to help the reader see your point of view.

Keeping in mind, both must still use an academic register.

Why do you require facts and well-rounded reason in a persuasive essay, when the main goal is to persuade? Couldn't an essay full of lies and bad reasoning be just as persuasive to some people? How do you explain, say, religion otherwise? What about advertising? That is more persuasive than argumentative. An ad. need simply say "Drink Coke". That might be persuasive, but there's no argumentation there.
How do you force someone to see only your point of view in an essay?

To me, an argumentative essay is one that uses argument, regardless of what a persuasive essay is:
ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
 

HanibalII

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Why do you require facts and well-rounded reason in a persuasive essay, when the main goal is to persuade? Couldn't an essay full of lies and bad reasoning be just as persuasive to some people? How do you explain, say, religion otherwise? What about advertising? That is more persuasive than argumentative. An ad. need simply say "Drink Coke". That might be persuasive, but there's no argumentation there.
How do you force someone to see only your point of view in an essay?

To me, an argumentative essay is one that uses argument, regardless of what a persuasive essay is:
ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY


Sorry, but no, it couldn't be. The point of an academic essay is to provide sound facts and knowledge with credible sources. An essay based on lies would not be an academic essay as it wouldn't be using credible sources.
 

Raymott

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Sorry, but no, it couldn't be. The point of an academic essay is to provide sound facts and knowledge with credible sources. An essay based on lies would not be an academic essay as it wouldn't be using credible sources.
I take it you mean, "Yes it could be (just as persuasive), but it wouldn't be acceptable as an academic essay."
Even that depends. There's no reason why, in a Creative Writing or Rhetoric class, say, that a teacher shouldn't set a topic that required a persuasive argument that used whatever means the writer felt most persuasive. Anyhow, I'm not sure where academia came in. You can open any newspaper and find persuasive essays that rely less on facts than on rhetorical devices.
A persuasive speech by a politician rarely contains the whole truth and purely factual information. If it did, it wouldn't be so persuasive.
In any case, I was assuming that the idea of writing a "persuasive essay" was as an exercise in persuasion per se, not just any essay like "The Fall of Rome", in which you are attempting to persuade your teacher that you know what you're talking about and that s/he should give you a good mark.
 

Gillnetter

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Argumentative, you force somebody to see only your point of view that you're talking about in the writing.

However with a persuasion essay, you use facts and well sounded reason to help the reader see your point of view.

Keeping in mind, both must still use an academic register.
I've heard of, and read a few, writings by Herr Hitler, one time ruler of Germany. The facts he presented were usually twisted and the reasons employed were usually anything but reasonable. His writings can be seen as persuasive ones. In the real world, academic protocols hardly ever apply.
 
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