Thirty Days to Unlock FCAT Writing Success - Polk County School ...

Using “DRAPES” for Elaborating Persuasive Writing: Draw and Shade Your Ideas
Objective: Students will produce a layered paragraph or essay using the DRAPES strategy to elaborate
their initial ideas.
• The day before, direct the students to generate ideas on a given persuasive topic. (e.g. High
school football programs should be abolished.)
• Students are to
• take a position on the issue and
• develop 3 – 5 reasons to support their position.
• The next day, write out the following explanation of DRAPES and discuss the meaning of each:
• D = Dialogue
• R = Rhetorical question
• A = Analogy
• P = Personal example
• E = Example
• S = Statistics
• Ask for student volunteers to share one of their reasons for their position on abolishing football
programs. Write it down so everyone can see it. (e.g. Football is a big money-maker.)
• Explain that once they have given a reason for their position, that reason then needs explanation
which proves this reason to be true. This provides needed elaboration for a well written essay.
• Next, ask the class to generate ideas that relate to DRAPES to prove that football makes money
and to show how they know that.
• Write their responses next to the appropriate letter from DRAPES.
• A sample response to each would be:
• D (Dialogue): Carlos Rodriguez, our athletic director, said, “Last year, profit from football tickets alone
made $18,000 for the school.”
• R (Rhetorical question): Do you know how much an average spectator spends at a game?
• A (Analogy): Football games bring in cash the same way that rain brings in crops.
• P (Personal example): Last Friday, my friend Ebony and I went to a football game, and
this is what we spent…
• E (Example): One example of profit is from concessions. Hot dogs alone bring in…
• S (Statistics): 62% of our student body bought at least one ticket to a game this month at
the cost of $3 each.
• Instruct students to use DRAPES to write a well-developed paragraph supporting their
position on abolishing football. Note: this can be expanded into a full essay by using a different
reason for each successive paragraph.
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