Teachers can walk middle school students through the writing process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. They can model the procedure with a sample prompt first, then as a class activity. First showing students how to research and plan before attempting the rough draft, they next show how to go back and revise, testing their arguments as well as editing for grammar before producing a final draft. Then students begin writing independently and ultimately learn how to publish a polished work of writing.
Logic is the primary support for a claim or stated opinion. Teachers can direct middle schoolers in identifying appropriate sources for their research. Facts, statistics and expert opinion provide excellent logical support for the student's claim. Another powerful technique is syllogism, a logical sequence used to prove a point. During the writing process, students evaluate whether their logic supports their claim in the revision step.
In middle school, students learn that the power of persuasion includes emotions. Teachers can offer students examples, often utilizing advertisements to show how much power persuasive appeals can have, then guide them in ways to engage readers' feelings. Examples of emotional appeals in persuasive writing include telling anecdotes that support the claim or choosing words carefully for emotional impact. Teachers can remind the students that their goal is to make their readers receptive to agreeing with their claim. Since this is a new concept, teachers often model this writing during the planning stage and follow up throughout the writing process.
Readers will not agree with an argument if they do not trust the source, so middle school teachers can show their students how to establish credibility. One way is to acknowledge the opposing viewpoints, thus showing they are fair and have a good understanding of the topic, since they can see both sides. The quality of the sources for the students' research also enhances their credibility and teachers can model and encourage this practice during the planning stage. Finally, an error-free draft illustrates that the writer is a conscientious person worth believing, so revision is essential and teachers can emphasize this while modeling the editing stage of the writing process.