How to write persuasive essays

CXC English A exam: persuasive essay writing

How to write 'advantages and disadvantages' essays

You are asked to write persuasive or argumentative essays for the CXC CSEC English A exam. This type of essay is presented in section 4, paper 2 of the English A exam.

This video clip tutorial provides guidance on how to write one type of persuasive essay.

One type of persuasive essay is the essay where you are asked to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the essay topic. Sometimes you are not asked outright to dicuss the advantages and disadvantages but you have to do so anyway. The examiners expect that you will understand when they say "discuss" you are to present arguments 'for' and 'against' the essay topic.

This video clip tutorial assumes that you already know the basics of writing an essay, so it focuses on how to organize an essay when you have to show the advantages and disadvantages of the essay topic.

Please comment and let us know if you find this tutorial useful. Please note that CXC penalizes exam candidates for writing more than the stated number of words, not less.

We have been advised that CXC does not penalize CSEC English exam candidates for writing beyond the suggested word limit for section 3 - the short story/ descriptive essay, or for section 4 - the persuasive essay.

So to recap: For the CSEC English A exam, you cannot go beyond the suggested word limit for section 1- the summary question, but you can go beyond the word limit for sections 3 and 4.