One of the basic elements of an argument is to understand the "opposing side"; in this case, the opposing side is the student's parents. Students will write a letter to their mom and/or dad in which they try to persuade their parents to let them do something their parents normally would not let them do. For this assignment, the final letter must be typed and the tone should be respectful with at least three fully developed paragraphs of at least five to six sentences each. The letter should follow a business letter format, and there should be an additional paragraph in which the student acknowledges why the parent would have objections to the student's request; the student, however, should put those objections to rest with gentle persuasion and good reasoning.
In this activity, students get into groups of four or five and come up with a stance on an issue important to them. Once they come up with a stance, they present that stance to the class along with their reasons. Each of the other groups in the class state whether or not they agree with the group's stance, based on the evidence presented. The group with the most other groups "persuaded" gets a prize.
The thesis is the cornerstone of the entire argument. In this exercise, students will look at a thesis in five different ways based on the story "The Princess Bride." They will then look at their own thesis in these five different ways in order to get a stronger sense of clarification of their own main idea.
In this activity, students assess junk mail to see what kind of persuasive techniques advertisers use in order to persuade people to buy what they are selling. After you collect junk mail for a long period of time, distribute it to your students and ask them how the company is using persuasion, what the company is selling, why you would want to purchase this item and what kind of logic that decision is being made on -- whether it is a rational decision or an emotional decision.