I cried over my first college essay until I learned this one trick for persuasive writing

[Goben]

Okay, I need to share this because I was literally sitting in my dorm room at 2 AM last week with tears streaming down my face over a 5-page persuasive essay for my composition class. My professor said "make me believe something" and my brain just... blanked. I've never felt so stupid in my life!

I'm a first-gen student and honestly, no one ever taught me how to actually persuade anyone with writing. In high school, I just summarized what other people said and got A's. But now? My TA handed back my first draft with like 47 comments, mostly saying "so what?" and "why should I care?" I wanted to drop out honestly.

Then I went to the writing center (best decision ever!!!), and this angel of a tutor taught me something that changed everything about persuasive writing. She said: "Before you write ONE word, you need to answer three questions."

1. What do I want my reader to believe? (Not just "climate change is bad" but "our university should divest from fossil fuels by 2025")
2. Why don't they believe it already? (Are they misinformed? Do they have different values? Are they worried about money?)
3. What's the ONE thing that would change their mind? (This became my thesis!)

Once I answered those, the essay basically wrote itself! I'm not kidding—I went from crying at 2 AM to getting a B+ on my revision and my professor wrote "MUCH stronger argument!" in the comments.

For anyone else who feels like they're drowning in persuasive essays: THE WRITING CENTER IS YOUR FRIEND. Also, answering those three questions before you start actually works. You've got this! We've got this!

 

[Thomass]

Thank you for posting this. Seriously. I'm also first-gen and I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I got my first essay back last week with "vague thesis" written in red and I wanted to crawl into a hole. The part about summarizing in high school? That's literally all I know how to do! I'm screenshotting those three questions and taping them to my wall. Also, I've been too scared to go to the writing center because I thought they'd judge me for being dumb, but your story made me schedule an appointment for tomorrow. You might have just saved my GPA, Goben. Thank you.