Student Writer Instructions:
What's good persuasion? Think of a time you saw a commercial for a cool toy, for a pair of shoes, or for a CD you wanted. When you asked your parent for the item and they said no, I’m sure you simply replied, “That’s okay. I don’t need it.” Yeah, right!
In the story I Wanna Iguana, we are given an insider's view to a correspondence between a boy named Alex and his mother. Alex desperately wants to adopt his friend’s soon-to-be-homeless iguana, and of course his mother says no. Alex is smart, however; he doesn’t simply whine and cry and stomp his foot--you know, the stuff that really annoys parents. Alex decides to get creative--and more importantly--persuasive.
In the series of notes, Alex uses real facts and some killer adjectives to win over his mom. His mother--not one for the “Because I’m your mom, that’s why!” argument--is equally as persuasive as she gives Alex just as many reasons not to adopt the lizard as Alex gives her to allow the adoption.
Just like Alex, we too are going to sharpen our persuasive writing skills through a friendly letter format. By pressing the buttons below, you will see a few ideas that may spark your interest. The first button will help you get an idea of whose point of view you will be writing from, and to whom you are writing. The second and third buttons contain ideas that you “wanna” or don’t “wanna” do.
Remember, your purpose here is to convince. Word choice will help you do this, and so will a sense of humor.
Once you have finished your friendly letter, you will pass your paper on to your partner, and your partner will pass his/her paper to you. You will write a response to your partner's letter, pretending you are the person that has been written to. Your job is to convince the letter's writer why the desire is unreasonable. You will write back and forth at least twice.
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