Middle school students need to see well-written models from the genre they are writing. These models, called mentor texts, are an instructional staple in middle school writing workshop classrooms. In a persuasive writing unit, teachers should provide students with editorials and columns from magazines, newspapers and the Internet, published essays, and even exemplary student work. Students analyze the craft, style, structure and organization in the mentor texts, then emulate the best qualities in their own writing. Lessons on support in persuasive writing would focus on the details in the bodies of the mentor texts that writer uses as evidence to support an opinion or proposition.
Facts are sturdy support a writer can use to prove a thesis in persuasive writing. Statistics, expert opinions, historical examples and references to authoritative books, journals and Internet sources hold together the body of the paper. To learn how to use support, students should read a selection of mentor texts, locate the writer's claim in each piece and identify the support evidence the writers use. They should also pay attention to the words and phrases writers use to introduce evidence. For example, "according to ... " introduces expert opinions. "A recent survey found ... " could lead into statistical evidence. Once students know types of evidence they need, they can begin research in the library or on the Internet. Then, they can use mentors to guide them in writing their supporting evidence.
Writers often use anecdotes, stories from personal experience or stories about other people, to illustrate a problem or solution in a persuasive situation. Real-life anecdotes can help clarify the writer's proposition for the reader. Teaching students to write anecdotes starts with reading mentor texts focusing on how and why skilled writers use these stories to support their claims. After analyzing anecdotes in several persuasive pieces, students need to find the anecdotes they want to use. The anecdotes may come from personal experience or from classmates' experiences. Students may need to venture out of the classroom for research and interviews. When they have anecdotes that fit, students use their mentors to guide adding the stories into essays.
Many writers support their claims with a pre-emptive strike against an opposing point of view, otherwise known as a rebuttal. Looking at mentor texts will show that rebuttals can occupy a single paragraph in the essay, be woven throughout the paper or form the structure of the entire piece. Writing a rebuttal is a skill that requires students to see the potential weaknesses in their own arguments and anticipate the opposing arguments against their claim. Adolescents enjoy vibrant class discussions and debates on controversial topics. Debates can show students the weaknesses in their own arguments and provide the rebuttals for their essays.