Persuasive Essays Are Pointless

Essay by Anonymous UserCollege, UndergraduateA+, March 1997

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The definition of "persuade" in Webster's New College Dictionary is: To induce one to believe or do something; to argue into an opinion or procedure; to plead with, urge. I have always thought that someone who let his own opinion be changed by someone else is a person who lacks a strong will. I understand that some people have a certain talent for convincing other people, but I personally would not change my mind about a subject unless I was unsure about that subject in the first place.

I became aware of one personal trait when writing this paper -- that is I do not really care about much. I have no intention of letting other people know about the few things that I do care about either. I found it pointless to try to write a persuasive essay about a subject for which I do not care. The only thing I could think to try to convince people to do was to refuse to write a persuasive essay ever again.

I faced a kind of moral paradox with this, though. If I wrote a persuasive essay telling people not to write persuasive essays, what kind of example would I be? I was convinced that I was not going to do this paper, but in a showing of my own lack of will, I was bribed into writing this essay. (I find myself getting bribed into doing a lot of schoolwork these days.) I realize that teachers would be angry about this somewhat counterproductive essay, but nevertheless students should refuse to write persuasive essays unless their own will convinces them to do so.

People of my age do not really have many reasons to complain. Most persuasive essays written by adolescents are fluff in the eyes of...