OPINION: Three Tips For Senators To Stay Motivated For Persuasive Writing

("Keyboard" by ericnvntr via Flickr)

 In my previous entry, I discussed the importance of a student senator’s ability to communicate and how, without this ability, he cannot represent his constituency. I commended senators to master the persuasive essay to be effective representatives. 

Yet now, a daunting challenge awaits him: actually doing the writing! Writing is difficult. People often do not know where to start and the foreign process can demoralize people to the point that they quit altogether. Given its difficulty, here are three tips to help beginner writers succeed in persuasive writing. 

First, remember that writing takes a process. It is easy to think that when we read other people’s essays that they probably wrote their essay in one try. That is, they sat down, typed some things on the computer and voila! A finished product. They must have finished in less than 15 minutes. Yet, this is not how good writing often occurs. 

Writing is more like baking a cake than it is like giving a winning answer on a game show. In a game show, a contestant opens his mouth, says a thing and bam! He wins! That’s all it took. The game is over.
Yet, in the cake baking example, the final product is a result of many previous stages of work done rightly and each previous step built on the other. From measuring the flower, mixing the eggs, to using the right pan size, all of these steps come together to make the final product. The same is true of writing. 

In persuasive writing, there is something that writers call “the writing process.” Readers do not see this part because it happens “behind the scenes”. They taste the cake, but they don’t see all the steps the writer went through to bake it.  

As The University of Lynchburg’s Alton L. Wilmer Writing Center Online Lab points out, the general writing process has five stages: Investigation, Prewriting, Drafting, Revising and Editing. Contrary to magically putting the words together in one swoop, most writers follow this process to arrive at their final draft. So, beginning writers should avoid trying to write like they are on a game show, having to only say something once before they get it right. Instead, they should think of essay writing like baking a cake. For just as it take a process to bake a cake, it takes a process to write an essay. 

Secondly, a beginning writer should submit himself to the writing process so he can develop his own approach to writing. I like to run three times a week. I often run the same course. By now, I know where the hills are and were the downhills are, too. I have learned to adjust my running accordingly. Either way, regularly running the course has helped me learn to adapt to the terrain. 

Likewise, by a beginner writer regularly going through the writing process, his journey becomes easier as he eventually learns how to adapt his experience with the process. He will learn to cope and this makes the journey easier to endure in the future. He will write with greater ease when he learns to develop his own approach to the writing. 

Finally, remember that basic competence is compelling. A beginner does not need to sound like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. before he can be persuasive. As it turns out, the persuasive essay’s structure is already compelling within itself. With its introduction, thesis, supporting reasons and conclusion: these are in a arrangement and with a presentation which readers find compelling. 

To expect a beginner to match The Greats before he can write anything at all is like expecting a beginner basketball player to be able to compete with Michael Jordan before learns to dribble the ball. Writers should not be discouraged even if they cannot dunk from the free throw line. Basic writing competence is compelling on its own.

Writing is hard. Unless student senators approach it with reasonable expectations, its difficulty could lead them to quit. Rather than give up, senators should remember that writing is a process, that it will get easier as they develop their own approach with practice and they should rest assured that basic writing competence is compelling in itself. A student senator who maintains his motivation to master the persuasive essay eventually will! He will have his writing skills and will advocate for his constituency effectively.

Twitter: @Jhescock12

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Feature Image: "Keyboard" by ericnvntr via Flickr