As you begin to practice the form, it's a good idea to think carefully about your topic. Often we use an inductive thinking process; that is, we think of individual points and move toward a general rule, a conclusion, or a general truth about that topic. When you reason your way through the evidence and arrive at a supportable conclusion, you have a thesis, a claim that you can support. The writing form described here may appear to be the opposite: you state the conclusion first, then guide your reader through your detailed reasoning about the evidence. Your thinking will still be inductive, but your model of expression appears to be deductive.

Writing the apparently deductive form enables you to present your claim immediately; your readers know what you want to say. They can pinpoint your "main idea" --your claim about the topic --and recognize your honest approach it. You will have a reason to present the supporting evidence, and that support will help to persuade your reader to accept your claim. This model, with its early presentation of thesis, is also efficient. When your time is limited, in an exam for example, you present your primary response first, as your thesis, and then you give reasons to support it. If you begin by presenting the reasons and you run out of time, you may not even state your answer to the question. Learning to think inductively and then to present your ideas in a seemingly deductive fashion enables you to clearly and succinctly persuade your audience.

Beware, however, of a fully deductive model that does not directly prove the thesis, but, rather, takes the thesis for granted and moves on to illustrate it or discuss the consequences of it. If your readers didn';t agree with what you took for granted, a few examples won';t persuade them, and they won';t care about your alleged consequences. Remember: you are out to prove your claim.

As you read persuasive text, look for the parts of the form. Not all persuasive writing follows this form in exactly this order:

But a good essay will follow some logical structure that uses evidence to support a claim. Looking for the elements of the form in articles that you read will help you understand it conceptually, not just as a mechanical formula --and that understanding will help you use it creatively in your own writing.

You may find that most persuasive essays contain background information (history, a list of individuals involved in a project, description of parts, etc.) in one or more paragraphs early in the essay. Obviously, if the audience is not familiar with the topic, the author must supply sufficient information to enable the reader to understand the author';s proposition and the means by which it is explained or proven.

But why in our form does this information follow the thesis paragraph and not come at the very beginning of the essay? The reader can provide a good answer to that question; the reader wants to know what the essay is about before wading through a paragraph of detailed description about the topic. Presenting an occasion, thesis, and projected organization helps the reader grasp the author';s intention without having to wonder why all this history or all these definitions are relevant.

Consider, too, how the background information, and later the details that explain the thesis, are presented. Are the details just listed, or are they otherwise organized; has the author presented the information chronologically in a historic sequence from beginning to end, psychologically by juxtaposing ideas or adding elements of surprise, or rhetorically in a logical order that proceeds from strong to weak or weak to strong details? Is a problem merely described, or did the writer provide a personal perspective and a claim relative to that problem? What kinds of evidence or expert testimony have been provided to support the author';s claim?

Also notice how the writer supplies needed details and connects them to the central proposition or thesis. Does the writer connect the evidence to the central claim by simply listing details and hoping the reader will make the connection, or does the writer explain how the details prove what s/he says they prove? Look for transitional words or phrases, and reasoning terms such as because, since, or therefore, and how they';re used to foster smooth reading and understanding. By reading carefully and studying the ways in which experienced writers persuade their audiences, you will find many techniques that can serve as useful models.