Sample Persuasive Essay

Prompt: The South Kitsap School District is instituting a no-tolerance ban on student cell phones and
personal electronics while on campus during school hours. Write a persuasive essay supporting or
opposing this new policy.

Introductory paragraph
Attention Grabber: Currently, over 90% of all American middle and high school students own either a cell
phone or a personal MP3 player and a recent USA Today survey found that 98% of teenagers admit to using
their cell phones while in class at least five-ten minutes out of each school day.
Background information: Most teenagers own at least one piece of personal electronic gear in order to make
their daily lives easier or more entertaining: MP3 players, cell phones, e-readers dominate todays teenage
existence and there is no slowing of this trend. When teens arent engaged with entertainment and
communication at school, the Internet and television are ready and waiting at home. However, this prevalence
of media access and usage is infecting schools more and more.
Summary of the issues controversy: Currently, schools, parents, and students are holding discussions
regularly about how to balance school life, home life, personal lives, and their digital lives. Many schools like
South Kitsap High School argue that the best balance and solution is to remove all media and electronics from
campus during school hours. Parents and students, however have many strong objections as to why students
should be allowed to carry and sometimes use their devices throughout the day on campus.
Position statement: The South Kitsap School district must intervene in this debate by mandating that all
personal electronic devices be kept off school campuses during school hours because the education process
and the overall atmosphere of the schools will be improved by this ban.

Body paragraph Ethical

Topic sentence: Students across the school district have a fundamental right to learn in a safe, comfortable,
and distraction-free environment; thus, the ban on electronics will preserve this right.
Appeals with evidence and commentary: The quality of education will improve with more students focused and
less attention on electronic distractions. When just one student is distracted because the student or students
around him or her are listening to headphones too loudly in class and a student needs quiet to focus, that
students right to learn is being impeded. Students do not have rights to play with their electronics in school.
Additionally, many schools like South Kitsap have electronic policies but they do not enforce their own rules. By
being lax on this rule and others, students come to expect their electronics and then other rules to be ignored.
This lack of enforcement creates an atmosphere of rule-breaking across the board. Because of this improved
environment, the only moral and ethical step the schools can and should take is to ban cell phones and all
personal electronics. Schools have the obligation to create and maintain the best possible learning
environments, thus, if they know such a ban will help with this, then it is the right thing to do. Lastly, schools
have an obligation to protect student safety, but mass electronic use by students puts student safety in danger.
In a school with over one thousand students in the hallways during passing periods, students who are texting
while walking or who are zoned out with earphones pose a safety risk to themselves and others in the hallways
and on the stairs. This logjam and safety risks can be alleviated by the school stepping up to its
responsibilities, enforcing its current rules, and implementing a full ban on student electronic use during school
hours on campus.
Opposing argument/position: There are many students and their parents who believe that personal electronics
are private property, and therefore they believe they have a legal right to carry their property and use it with
them at all times.
Rebuttal/refutation**: While students personal property is 100% their own, when students who are minors and
who still are dependents of other adults walk on school campus during school hours, their rights are not the
same as full-fledged and independent adults. Therefore, the school has the right to limit their possessions and
actions as minors and students on campus during the school day.
Concluding sentence: Due to the rights of students to learn peacefully and the obligation of schools to protect
these rights and protect and ensure student safety, schools have no other option but to do the right thing and
ban students personal electronics.

**Concession of a point**: The fact that students and parents pay for and own their electronics and that this
makes electronics personal, private property is completely accurate and a fair point to consider. However, this
point doesnt discount the schools rights to limit individuals use of private property as minors while on campus.
 Sample Persuasive Essay

Prompt: The South Kitsap School District is instituting a no-tolerance ban on student cell phones and
personal electronics while on campus during school hours. Write a persuasive essay supporting or
opposing this new policy.

Introductory paragraph
Currently, over 90% of all American middle and high school students own either a cell phone or a personal MP3
player and a recent USA Today survey found that 98% of teenagers admit to using their cell phones while in class
at least five-ten minutes out of each school day. Most teenagers own at least one piece of personal electronic gear
in order to make their daily lives easier or more entertaining: MP3 players, cell phones, e-readers dominate todays
teenage existence and there is no slowing of this trend. When teens arent engaged with entertainment and
communication at school, the Internet and television are ready and waiting at home. However, this prevalence of
media access and usage is infecting schools more and more. Currently, schools, parents, and students are holding
discussions regularly about how to balance school life, home life, personal lives, and their digital lives. Many
schools like South Kitsap High School argue that the best balance and solution is to remove all media and
electronics from campus during school hours. Parents and students, however have many strong objections as to
why students should be allowed to carry and sometimes use their devices throughout the day on campus. The
South Kitsap School district must intervene in this debate by mandating that all personal electronic devices be kept
off school campuses during school hours because the education process and the overall atmosphere of the
schools will be improved by this ban.

Body paragraph Ethical

Students across the school district have a fundamental right to learn in a safe, comfortable, and distraction-free
environment; thus, the ban on electronics will preserve this right. The quality of education will improve with more
students focused and less attention on electronic distractions. When just one student is distracted because the
student or students around him or her are listening to headphones too loudly in class and a student needs quiet to
focus, that students right to learn is being impeded. Students do not have rights to play with their electronics in
school. Additionally, many schools like South Kitsap have electronic policies but they do not enforce their own
rules. By being lax on this rule and others, students come to expect their electronics and then other rules to be
ignored. This lack of enforcement creates an atmosphere of rule-breaking across the board. Because of this
improved environment, the only moral and ethical step the schools can and should take is to ban cell phones and
all personal electronics. Schools have the obligation to create and maintain the best possible learning
environments, thus, if they know such a ban will help with this, then it is the right thing to do. Lastly, schools have
an obligation to protect student safety, but mass electronic use by students puts student safety in danger. In a
school with over one thousand students in the hallways during passing periods, students who are texting while
walking or who are zoned out with earphones pose a safety risk to themselves and others in the hallways and on
the stairs. This logjam and safety risks can be alleviated by the school stepping up to its responsibilities, enforcing
its current rules, and implementing a full ban on student electronic use during school hours on campus. There are
many students and their parents who believe that personal electronics are private property, and therefore they
believe they have a legal right to carry their property and use it with them at all times. While students personal
property is 100% their own, when students who are minors and who still are dependents of other adults walk on
school campus during school hours, their rights are not the same as full-fledged and independent adults.
Therefore, the school has the right to limit their possessions and actions as minors and students on campus during
the school day. Due to the rights of students to learn peacefully and the obligation of schools to protect these rights
and protect and ensure student safety, schools have no other option but to do the right thing and ban students
personal electronics.
SKSD Electronics Ban Persuasive Essay - Activity

1.Indentify whether the essay is arguing for instituting this

ban or against the ban by arguing for allowing cell phones
and personal electronics.
2.In the introduction paragraph, identify
a.Attention grabber
b.Background information
c. Summary of the issues controversy
d.Position statement
3.In the body paragraph, identify
a.Topic sentence
b.Ethical appeals
c. Evidence for appeals
d.Commentary supporting evidence and appeals
e.Opposing argument
f. Rebuttal/refutation of the opposing argument
g.Concluding sentence