✈️ In a persuasive essay, an author tries to convince readers to do something or believe something. A persuasive essay usually includes a main claim, supporting claims, and evidence.

• The main claim is the author’s central argument.
• The supporting claims are the reasons that support the author’s main claim.
• The evidence backs up the supporting claims. Evidence is often information like facts or statistics.

✈️ Besides these parts of the essay, an author may use other strategies to persuade readers. For example, the author may introduce an opposing claim, or a claim that disagrees with the essay’s main claim. The author might explain the opposing claim and give reasons why the opposing claim is weak.

✈️ When you read a persuasive essay, consider how it uses supporting claims, evidence and other strategies. This will help you decide whether the author’s argument is reliable and reasonable.

Let’s practice!

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A Fluent Advantage

When schools go through budget cuts, foreign language classes are often placed on the chopping block. School administrators often do not understand that foreign language study is important in order to make sure that students are ready to succeed in the real world. Rather than cutting language classes, schools should be providing them for all students. Studying a foreign language strengthens students’ minds and helps prepare them for future careers. So these classes should be required in school.

Many studies have indicated that multilingual people—people who speak more than one language—are better at certain tasks. Specifically, multilingual people have better executive functioning skills than people who speak only one language. Executive functioning is the way the brain handles all the information it’s given. When you juggle different tasks and decide which to focus on, you are using executive functioning skills. In brain scans, multilingual people show more blood flow in the areas of the brain that control executive functioning. Researchers have guessed that this advantage exists because multilingual people must constantly decide which words from which language to use. As a result, multilingual people get lots of practice with executive function. Their brains can then apply those skills to other tasks. This effect is especially strong for people who grow up speaking more than one language. The earlier students start language classes, the more they may benefit from language study.

Language skills are also in high demand on the job market. Today, more and more businesses work in many countries across the world. As businesses become global, they need people who can communicate easily across national borders. To prepare for their careers, more students should be learning foreign languages. From 2010 to 2015, the demand in the United States for workers who speak a second language more than doubled. This trend included workers of all skill levels and backgrounds.

Of course, foreign language classes should not just make students memorise new words and sounds. They must also teach students about new cultures. Foreign language classes should be required to include lessons about history, literature, customs and government along with the languages themselves. These subjects will help students become better global citizens and support their studies in other subjects.

Making students study a foreign language doesn’t just sharpen their brains. It also helps students become productive members of today’s global society.