European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu 10.5281/zenodo.160957 Volume 2│Issue 6│2016 DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS Arif Kaptan1i, Hüseyin Anilan2 1 Primary Teacher, Eskişehir, Turkey Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Education Faculty 2 Eskişehir, Turkey Abstract: The present research was conducted with the aim of determining the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills. This research was carried out with grade students who were studying at schools in Eskişehir/Tepebaşı in fifth - 2012. In this research, relational survey model was used. A measuring tool (rubric) of persuasive writing was used for the analysis of the students persuasive essays. “ccording to the findings from this study, it can be seen that the levels of the students persuasive writing skills are not adequate as it is desired. Additionally, it has been found out that the levels of the students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variables that are gender, the socio-economic level of their schools, having bookshelf, having internet, TV programs they watch and reason types they use. The research also shows that among the primary fifth grade students, females, students who have internet, bookshelf at home and watch documentaries and competition programs, students whose schools have higher socio-economic levels and the students who use logical, emotional, ethical reasons have higher level of persuasive writing skills. Keywords: Turkish teaching, writing, persuasive writing skill Introduction Persuasive skills have been used in daily life since the moment people first communicated with each other. However, it can be said that the awareness of this fact is fairly low. Transmitting feelings and ideas to another person or a community, the effort Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved Published by Open Access Publishing Group ©2015. 99 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS to persuade is necessary. At the same time, to adopt an ideology and an idea it is necessary to be persuaded. There are many examples of the using persuasive skills in daily life. For example; a seller should persuade the customer to buy something, film posters or images of a fragment should persuade the audience, and the advertisements that are published on television should affect and persuade the buyers of the product. In addition, the use of persuasion for law is obvious. It is expected that the results and ideas of the research reports which are written in consequence of a scientific research persuade the interested people. The students should persuade the teachers with their writings in their exams, so they can get a passing grade. The examples may vary substantially, nevertheless the common point shows that persuasion is a part of daily life. Persuasive writers aim to change the readers opinions with the information they transfer “kfırat, . In the persuasion, the message, which is transmitted with a compeller strength or indirect compeller factor, makes the recipient change their behaviour. (Miller, 1987, s. 451' den akt., Al-Khatib, 1994). When we say persuasion , many concepts come back and all of these have positive meanings. For this reason, persuasion has meanings of influence, convince, and attract (Murphy 2001). Digs (1964), who declare that some people try to persuade in an unethical way, emphasizes that it forms an opinion about the usage of persuasion art is mostly abused. As Yüksel (2005) describes, persuasion is to convince someone about a subject, to persuade to do something, spoof, in other words it is a conversation process that aims to influence someone s manner or behaviour without any force. It can be said that it is a contradictive subject when it is considered ethically that trying to persuade someone by using the threatening factor and leaving someone in the lurch. In their studies, Martinson ve Baker (2001) indicated that there are five principles for an ethical persuasion. These are; rightness of the message for the ethical persuasion, realism of the persuader, respect (to the variables readers have), equality, social responsibility. When all of these descriptions of persuasion concept are considered within the framework of good intentions and ethical values, expecting the students to gain the persuasion skill and knowing this situation influences their lives positively reveal the fact that it is necessary to gain this skill. Persuasion comes up not only in the spoken language but also in the written language. For example, letters, petitions, advertisement, films, show posters are some of them. In addition to these products, academic studies, papers, theses at a postgraduate level as well as, articles in the scientific journals belong to the group of persuasive writings (Dinler, 2000). European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 100 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS It doesn t matter whether it is written or oral, saying that the persuasive products are a part of the daily life is not wrong. Such a skill which takes part in daily life should be obtained by the students. When this fact is taken into consideration, this skill is necessary in education. Persuasive writings are maybe the most difficult writing type for students. Persuasive writings are the ones which motive the readers to do something or believe in something. On the other words they indicate the writers opinion and show persuasive reasons to convince the readers of the writer s point of view. The writer should persuade the reader with reasons that are submitted, so they should be of the same opinion (Farris, 2005). Persuasive writing is generally neglected in elementary school curriculum. It is because, organizing, analysing, synthesizing reasons of the claim which is espoused, needs formal and functional skills. The skill of persuasion is considered to be functional and it is for performance and therefore it seems to be difficult for children (Burkhalter, 1995). According to the research, about the persuasive writing skills of 7-13 year-old children, it is observed that all children which are at these ages can express something and explain their ideas with logical reasons. When the younger children fail at persuading another person by explaining their reasons with an egocentric approach, 10 year-old children contradict themselves in their expressions (Tompkins, 2004). A writer should persuade his readers because an unconvinced reader does not have the desire to read. The readers which start to read will give up, so the writer s aim to persuade will not come true. Considering the researches which are done about the persuasion and the persuasive writing assessment scales in the literature, these give an idea to determine the features of a persuasive text and the factors a persuasive text should have. A persuasive text needs to have at least one sentence which handles the subject, a claim, at least two evidence which support the claim and a conclusion sentence. Including these necessities, in a persuasive writing, a construction which includes an introduction, two (or more) development paragraphs and a conclusion paragraph should be formed (Butler et al, 2005). Yüksel (2013) indicates that in persuasive communication, introduction and conclusion are the principal chapters which affect success. He indicates that the introductory chapter needs to aim at riveting the attention of the audience, arranging the wording for the audience, creating a goodwill and engaging the audience s attention on the content. He indicates that the conclusion chapter should be concluded well and effectively. The person who has the aim of persuading should make a short summary of European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 101 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS the subject and the claim which takes part in the conclusion chapter and emphasise the effective words. Crowhurst (1990) indicates that in a persuasive essay, the young writers do not include the result expression, even if using it is a calling and an appeal, there is not any termination comment which is suitable for a persuasive composition. In the development paragraph of a good persuasive essay, at least three body chapters should be included. The writer should include the reasons which support the claim and the view that are mentioned in these paragraphs. The writer should promote all the reasons that support the claim with statistical information, quotations, expert opinions, examples, anecdotes and present evidence to persuade the reader (Robb, 2012). While presenting the claim, a persuasive writer should deliberate the opposing views that are supported strongly and confute it objectively. The writer should present the claim with the powerful reasons in the introduction and conclusion paragraphs. In addition, the writer should explain the claim on a particular subject clearly, support the claim with reliable evidence and powerful reasons, and present the reasons in a logical way (Lutzke and Henggeler, 2009). Because an unclear and nebulous essay cannot be understood, the persuasion power of a not-understood essay is said to be low. The writer should explain the claim persuasively with the valid reasons and the evidences which support the reasons. According to Tompkins (2004), while persuading the audience, the writer s supporting the claim with reasons, giving the reasons with logical generalizations and powerful possibilities, including effective results persuade the reader. At the same time, the person who wants to persuade should support the reasons with powerful evidence. Because providing the reliability by giving evidence to professional and reliable people increases the persuasiveness. In addition, showing graphically evidence with understandable, memorable examples and statistics, increase the effect of the persuasion (Harvard Business, 2008). According to Frank (1992) and McCan (1989) (as cited in Nippold, WardLorergan and Fanning, 2005), people who are around the writer should have an awareness of information, value and belief they have. They emphasize that an effective persuasive writer should guess the opposing arguments which the reader can reveal and reply these opposing views properly. While expressing the reasons that support the claim, the writer should try to persuade the reader by considering the reasons with logical, ethical and emotional perspectives. Additionally, explaining the conditions that are advantages for the reader is also effective to persuade the reader. Rank (1968) indicates that to persuade, using ethic, logical and emotional reasons is more persuasive. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 102 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS A persuasive essay should be at the suitable level to be understandable for the audience. An essay that is overcomplicated and includes technical terms can be boring for the reader. If these terms are really necessary to be use, the writer should identify the claim clearly and explain the evidence carefully (Hamm and Dunbar, 2006). The writer should pay attention to the connections while making a sentence. The expressed opinion should be explained with the right words and the words should be used in the right places because the sentences that are formed with the same words but different connections cause the different meanings (Borg, 2012). In a persuasive essay, correct usage and purposive selection of the words will be effective to persuade. Using the language clearly and effectively influence the opinions as it is expected. The conjunctions have some tasks like connecting the sentences and paragraphs to each other and providing transitions. To begin a sentence or a paragraph with conjunctions like and , but is one of the rhetoric techniques. These conjunctions can play an important role for the consistency among the paragraphs and serve a function in paying attention by emphasizing the sentence and paragraph that are after it. In this way, paragraphs become more fluent (Bush, 2008). In addition, the consistency and integrity among the sentences and paragraphs affect the fluency of the essay positively. That a fluently written text does not disturb the reader is one of the reasons why the reader reads. Otherwise, the reader feels uncomfortable and gives up reading and as a result persuasive effort fail. According to Steigner (1996), wording is identified as a taste in an essay, so the writer should be aware of how an audience the writer address and write with respect to their needs (as cited in: Özkara, 2007). In the process of the persuasion, persuader includes the audience in the subject, express their opinions and perspectives in the persuasive essay. Writer s this approach affects the audience to be persuaded (Cogner, 1998). In addition to all mentioned above, in a persuasive essay, there should not be any grammar mistakes, misspellings or function errors because these mistakes deform the fluency of the essay, disturb and distract the reader. Besides, the punctuation errors can also change the meaning and cause the misunderstandings. This situation can also affect the persuasion negatively. A number of features of persuasive essays that are mentioned above are already in literature. In this context, it can be said that, persuasive essays are important for the development of the language skills. The persuasive essays, which play a part as a persuasive text type like narrative and informative type, show that these essays having a structure which can take part in another text types, the width of its usage and its importance. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 103 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS The researcher is interested in this subject in order to determine the fifth grade students ability to use about persuasive essays that can come up everywhere and every moment in daily life and is expected to be gained by the fifth grade students according to curriculum. “nother aim of this research is to determine the level of the fifth graders persuasive writing skills. The Method This research, that aims to determine the persuasive essays of the fifth grade students with a grading key (analytical rubric), is a descriptive study. In this research, relational survey model was used. Survey models are the approaches that aim to describe a past and present existing condition as it is. The event, object and person of the research s subject can be described in its own conditions Krathwohl, , cited in Kılcal, . The Population and Sample In this chapter, there is some information about the population of the research and the sample of the research that is considered to reflect the population. The population of the research consists of all the fifth grade students who studied at Eskişehir Tepebaşı in -2012 academic year. According to the information that is obtained from The National Education Directorate in Eskişehir/Tepebaşı, the number of the students the population consists of is given in Table 1. Table 1: The numbers of the students that consist of population Gender The numbers of the students Female 1685 Male 1768 Total 3453 Because it is impossible to include all the students into the study, it is necessary to take sample. In this research, that evaluate the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills, 857 students were chosen from the schools that are at the different socio-economic levels for the research sample with the stratified sampling. The stratified sampling is a sample method that provides subgroups in the universe are determined and represented, with their rates in the universe, in the sample (Büyüköztürk et al, 2008). European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 104 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS Table 2: The gender and typefont frequencies of the students that attended the sample Gender f % Male 407 47.5 Female 450 52.5 Total 857 100 According to Table 2, the research was carried out with 407 male and 450 female students. In the research, the selection of the schools was done by taking into consideration of the schools socio-economical levels. A lot of research, that were done before, reveal the effect of the socio-economical level on the educational status. So, this factor was also considered in this research. The Findings and Comments In this chapter of the research, the problem sentences aimed at determining the levels of fifth grade students persuasive writing skills are indicated below: 1) What is the fifth grade students use case of the factors that should play a part in a persuasive essay? 2) Do the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to their gender? 3) Do the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to their having bookshelf at home? 4) Do the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the socio-economic level of their schools? 5) Do the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to whether they have internet are not at home? 6) Do the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the television programs the students watch? 7) Do the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the reason types the students use? European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 105 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS Table 3: The results of Kolmogorov and Shapiro Test that shows whether the data distribution is normal or not The Normality Test Kolmogorov-Smirnov Statistic Free Degree Shapiro-Wilk p Statistic Free Degree p Claim .298 857 .000 .812 857 .000 Reasoning .404 857 .000 .655 857 .000 Spelling Rules .214 857 .000 .878 857 .000 Wording .269 857 .000 .828 857 .000 Selection of The Words .267 857 .000 .780 857 .000 Surface Characteristics .263 857 .000 .856 857 .000 Sentence Fluency .252 857 .000 .804 857 .000 Writing Organization .263 857 .000 .821 857 .000 Organization Introduction .373 857 .000 .701 857 .000 Organization Development .437 857 .000 .608 857 .000 Organization Conclusion .488 857 .000 .483 857 .000 Total Score .089 857 .000 .966 857 .000 According to Table 3, the p rate of all the elements are lower than . p<0.05). So, it can be said that the data did not distribute in a normal way. According to the test results, because the data did not distribute in a normal way, non-parametric tests were used in paired and triple comparisons. Accordingly, Mann Whitney-U was used in paired comparisons and Kruskal Wallis was used in triple and more comparisons. The fifth grade students’ use case of the factors that should play a part in a persuasive essay The findings of the question What are the fifth grade students use case of the persuasive writing s factors The existence of Claim, State a Reason, Spelling Rules, The Wording, The Selection of Word, The Surface Characteristics, The Sentence Fluency, The Writing Organization, Introduction Paragraph, Development Paragraph, Conclusion Paragraph ? are indicated in Table . European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 106 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS Table 4: The distributions of the points that the fifth grade students take by writing persuasive essays with the rating scale of the persuasive essays Rates Persuasive Writing Factors Existence of Claim State a Reason Spelling Rules Wording Selecion of Word Surface Characteristics Sentence Fluency Writing Organization Introduction Paragraph Development Paragraph Conclusion Paragraph Total 1 point 2 point 3 point 4 point Avg. f 58 436 332 31 2.392 % 6.8 50.9 38.7 3.6 f 554 275 27 1 % 64.6 32.1 3.2 .1 f 111 310 316 120 % 13 36.2 36.9 14 f 225 446 169 17 % 26.3 52 19.7 2 f 363 399 85 10 % 42.4 46.6 9.9 1.2 f 152 409 253 43 % 17.7 47.7 29.5 5 f 340 374 135 8 % 39.7 43.6 15.8 .9 f 220 446 184 7 % 25.7 52 21.5 .8 f 519 261 74 3 % 60.6 30.5 8.6 .4 f 603 235 19 - % 70.4 27.4 2.2 - f 699 143 12 3 % 81.6 16.7 1.4 .4 100 Persuasive Writing Total Point 19.953 857 100 1.387 857 100 2.519 857 100 1.974 857 100 1.698 857 100 2.218 857 100 1.779 857 100 1.974 857 100 1.487 857 100 1.318 857 100 1.205 857 According to the first sub-problem, that is stated to determine the using levels of the persuasive writing factors by the fifth grade students in their persuasive essays, these results reveal the followings the average of the existence of claim is . ), the average of state a reason that support their persuasive essays is . , the average of spelling rules that the students pay attention while writing is . , the average of wording skill that the students gain while writing persuasive essay is (1.97), the average of the selection of word that the words students use is surface characteristics that shows the paper cleaning is European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 . . , the average of , the average of 107 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS sentence fluency is . , the average of students organizing the essay is . , the average of paragraph is . . writing organization that includes , the average of introduction paragraph is development paragraph is . , the average of conclusion . “ccording to the measuring tool, the highest point is (44.00). But, the average of the levels of students persuasive writing skills is . . Consequently, it can be seen that the total points students took are under the average. When the rates of Table 4 are examined, it can be said that, the students attempt to assert a claim in their persuasive essays. ”ut, it is also seen that, the average of state a reason that support their claim and compute the opponent thoughts is low. So, it can be said that, the students did not state a reason that support the claim or the reasoning types of students used in their persuasive essays were generally logical reasonings, so, it was not enough to persuade. It is seen that, a persuasive essay s surface characteristics like paper layout, cleaning and spelling rules and the characteristics of the writing organization have a higher average than the other sub features. It can be said that, it is the effect of students gained during their education. Additionally, it is seen that the students do not have adequate information about how the wording they should use while writing a persuasive essay. At the same time they are inadequate in the selection of words and the level of the sentence fluency. According to the average points of the introduction, development and conclusion paragraphs, it can be said that they have a low average to be persuasive. On the other hand, it can be said that the reasons of this condition are that the levels of the students writing skills are not adequate and the students do not know the features of a persuasive essay s introduction, development and conclusion paragraphs. The students persuasive writing total point is . . It is equal to according to the hundred point type. And it can be said that this result is not a good grade. The analysis of the results from this research indicate that the students did not do any activity or work about the persuasive writing before, the Turkish lesson curriculum do not mention about this skill apart from the gain write the persuasive essays . We can say that this skill is not interested in Turkey as much as in abroad. The difference between the success of the persuasive writing and the gender The findings, concerning whether the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills significantly differ according to the gender or not, are indicated in Table 5. In the research, Mann Whitney-U Test was carried out to determine whether there is a significant connection between the fifth grade students skills of using the persuasive writing methods (persuasive writing skills) and the gender or not. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 108 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS Table 5: Mann Whitney-U test results that is carried out to determine whether in the fifth grade students persuasive essays, the success of the persuasive writing differ according to the gender or not Persuasive Writing Gender n Mean Rank Total Rank Female 407 517.79 210741.00 Male 450 348.69 156912.00 Total 857 u z P 55437.000 -10.001 .000 p< 0.05 According to Table 5, there is a statistically significant difference in the average of the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills in favor of female students (p<0.05). This condition shows that, at the persuasive writing level, the fifth grade female students essays are significantly higher than the male students ones. The difference between the success of the persuasive writing and the variable of having a bookshelf at home The findings, concerning in the fifth grade students essays using the persuasive writing factors , whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of having a bookshelf at home or not, are indicated in Table 6. Table 6: Mann Whitney-U test results that is carried out to determine whether persuasive writing skills differ the variable of having bookshelf at home or not The Persuasive Having Bookshelf Writing Skill At Home n Mean Total Rank Rank Yes 638 458.10 292269.00 No 219 344.22 75384.00 Total 857 u z p 51294.00 -5.883 .000 p<0.05 In Table 6, according to the results of Mann Whitney-U Test, that was carried out to determine whether there is a significant difference between the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills and the variable of having bookshelf at home, a significant difference is seen as (p<0.05). The points of the students who have bookshelf at home are higher. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 109 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS The difference between the success of persuasive writing and the variable of the socio-economic level of their schools The findings, concerning whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the socio-economic levels of schools they study at or not, are indicated in Table 7. Table 7: The results of Kruskal Wallis Test, that was carried out to determine whether the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the socio-economic levels of the schools they study at or not Persuasive Writing Socio-Economic Skill Level Schools Economic Levels n Mean Standard Rank deviation Good 300 517.05 Medium 285 436.66 Bad 272 323.86 Total 857 2 χ2 p 87.55 .000 p<0.05 According to the results of Kruskal Wallis Test, that was carried out to determine whether in the essays the fifth grade students wrote, there is a significant difference between the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills and their schools socioeconomic levels or not, there is a significant difference between the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills and their schools socio-economic level (p<0.05). “ccording to Table , the levels of the students persuasive writing skills, who study at schools which have high economic level are higher than the students at other schools. The difference between the success of persuasive writing and the variable of having internet at home The findings, concerning whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of having internet at home or not, are indicated in Table 8. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 110 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS Table 8: The results of Mann Whitney-U Test that was carried out to determine whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of having internet at home or not Persuasive Having Internet Writing n At Home Skill Mean Total Rank Rank Yes 560 471.86 264239.00 No 297 348.20 103414.00 Total 857 u z p 59161.00 -6.970 .000 p<0.05 According to Table 9, there is a statistically significant difference between the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills and the variable of having internet at home in favour of the students who have internet at home (p<0.05). This result shows that, the essays that were written by the students who have internet at home are more meaningful than the other essays that were written by the students who do not have internet at home. In fact, some reasons can affect these results, for example, the internet expose the students to so many stimulations and the students may come across the advertisements and related essays that help to persuade subconsciously. The difference between the success of persuasive writing and the variable of the television programs the students watch The findings, concerning whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of television programs they watch or not, are indicated in Table 9. Table 9: The results of Kruskal Wallis Test, that was carried out to determine whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of television programs they watch or not Persuasive Writing Skill Tv Programs Tv Programs n Mean Standard Rank Deviation Soap Opera 239 377.43 Film 232 396.99 Cartoon 171 471.73 Documentary 39 522.46 Sport 32 467.03 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 7 χ2 p 34.055 .000 111 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS Music 10 497.45 Entertainment 59 448.76 Competition 75 505.44 Program Total 857 p<0.05 According to the results of Kruskal Wallis Test, that was carried out to determine whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of television programs they watch or not, there is a statistically significant difference in favour of the competition programs and documentaries that the fifth grade students watch. According to these results, it can be said that watching competition and documentary programs affect their skills of writing persuasive essays positively. The difference between the success of the persuasive writing and the variable of the reason types the students use The findings, concerning whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of the reason types that the students use in their essays or not, are indicated in Table 10. Table 10: The results of Kruskal Wallis Test, that was carried out to determine whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of the reason types that the students use in their essays or not Persuasive Writing Skill Reasoning n % Mean Standard Rank Deviation Logical 318 37.1 454.72 Emotional 119 13.9 420.90 No Reason 253 18.0 213.92 Reasoning Types The Logical- 154 .7 711.35 Students Use Emotional Logical-Ethic 6 .4 746.75 Emotional-Ethic 3 .5 490.17 Logical- 4 29.5 836.38 6 χ2 p 417.03 .000 Emotional- Ethic European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 112 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS Total 857 100 p<0.05 According to Table 10, it is seen that, the students use mostly logical reasons to persuade. Then, they use emotional reasons but they hardly ever use ethic reasons. In addition it is seen that, in effort to persuade, the numbers of students who use both logical and emotional reasoning are %18 (154), but the numbers of students who use logical-ethic and emotional-ethic reasoning are very few. According to the literature, it is seen that, in the good persuasive writing, expression, logical, emotional and ethical reasons should be used. In these research, it is remarkable that numbers of the students using ethic reasoning are very low. Evaluating this condition referring to Kholberg s moral development hypothesis clarify the subject. “ccording to the level of the fifth grade age, it can be said that moral development s and conscientiously values just beginning is an explanation for the students did not use ethic reasons. It can be considered that, after this age, the students will use ethic reasons in the beginning of the abstract with thinking and moral development. According to the results of Kruskal Wallis Test, that was carried out to determine whether the levels of the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills differ according to the variable of the reason types that the students used in their essays or not, there is a statistically significant difference in favour of the students who used three reasons; logical, emotional and ethic. Results and Discussion When the students persuasive writing skills are considered according to their gender, it is seen that, there is a significant difference in favour of the female students. It is seen that, this condition is not about using persuasive writing skills; it is about the female students success of using spelling rules and paper cleaning etc. This condition is similar to the works in the literature. The research, that was done to study on the written expressions of elementary second-level students, was carried out with 193 students in Kütahya and in this research written expression rating scale was used. It is determined that, female students did fewer mistakes than male students did “rıcı and Ungan, 2008). Additionally, in the research, that was carried out to determine the levels of the eighth grade students using spelling rules and punctuation marks, it is seen that female students levels of using spelling rules and punctuation marks are higher than male students ”ağcı, . European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 113 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS In the research, that was done by “rı , the success of the sixth and seventh grade students writing narrative texts is favour of female students. It is seen that, other results that are mentioned above are similar to the results of this research. In the research, it is understood that, the success of the fifth grade students using the elements of persuasive writing significantly differ in favour of female students. The levels of the students persuasive writing skills significantly differ according to the variable of having bookshelf at home. According to this, persuasive writing skills of the students who have bookshelf at home are better than the students who do not have bookshelf at home. The levels of the students persuasive writing skills significantly differ according to the variable of the socio economic level of their schools where they study at. The persuasive writing success of the students who study at a school, that is at a better socio-economic level, is higher than the other students who study at a school, that is at a worse socio-economic level. There is a significant difference between the fifth grade students persuasive writing skills and the types of reasoning they used to persuade. According to this statistic result, that supports the literature, the persuasive writing skill is favour of the students who indicate logical, emotional and ethical reasons in their texts. So, it is seen that, the students who used these three reasoning s, write persuasive texts more successfully. However, the students use mostly logical and emotional reasoning s. In the research, that was carried out by the Ministry of National Education in 2008, the effect of the students habits of watching television on their linguistic performance was also investigated. And it is indicated that the television affects linguistic performance negatively (Ministry of National Education, 2008). In this research, the results are similar to one above mentioned. According to this, there is a significant difference between the levels of fifth grade students persuasive writing skills and television programs they watch. The persuasive writing skills show meaningfulness in favour of the students who watch documentary and competition programs on television. So the students who watch generally documentary and competition programs on television are more successful in persuasive writing than the students who watch other programs. Recommendations According to the research results, among TV programs competition and documentary programs increase the persuasive writing skills of the students who watch these programs. In this sense, parents must be careful about the programs that their children watch and their watching duration. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 114 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS In the classrooms, factors which are necessary to take place in a persuasive article must be discoursed and the persuasive writing studies must take place in the classes. With the activities as in-class creative drama, case studies and impersonation, the students must be noticed the persuasive factors in the passing events. In an article, indicating logical, emotional and ethical reasons are the factors that increase the persuasiveness. For this reason, the students must do some sentence studies which necessitate reasoning, aim-result, and reason-result. Because this kind of exercises affect the persuasive writing skills positively. Recommendations for the researchers: 1. With the aim of evaluation of persuasive writing skills, rubric can be carried out with the different age groups. 2. A research can be done to develop a new scale for the persuasive speaking skills. 3. New studies about the students' persuasive speaking skills must be done. Conclusions It can be said that the levels of the fifth grade students' persuasive writing skills are below the average with 45.13 point on the scale of hundred and the students have low average point. It can be said that female students are more successful at writing persuasive essays than male students do. It can be said that students who have bookshelf at home are more successful at writing persuasive essays. It can be said that students who have internet at home are more successful at writing persuasive essays. It can be said that students who study at schools which have high economic level are more successful than the students who study at schools which have lower economic level. It can be said that students who watch documentary and competition programs are more successful at writing persuasive essays. It can be said that students who use logical, emotional and ethical reasons in their essays are more successful at writing persuasive essays. Acknowledgements This article was received from Arif KAPTAN's master's thesis with the name "Determining the Levels of the Fifth Grade Students Persuasive Writing Skills". European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6│ 2016 115 Arif Kaptan, Hüseyin Anilan DETERMINING THE LEVELS OF THE FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS About the Authors Arif Kaptan is a primary school teacher. He got a master's degree in Elementary School Teaching from Eskişehir Osmangazi University. At the moment, he is doctoral student of Elementary School Teaching at Eskişehir “nadolu University/Turkey. arifkaptan87@gmail.com. Hüseyin Anilan is an Associate Professor of Department of Elementary School Teaching Faculty of Education at Eskişehir Osmangazi University/Turkey. hanilan@ogu.edu.tr. References 1. “kfırat, S. . 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Influencing, effective communication and persuasive talking, E. Eroğlu and A. H. Yüksel (Ed.), Effective communication Techniques, Eskişehir Republic of Turkey Anadolu University Publication. Creative Commons licensing terms Author(s) will retain the copyright of their published articles agreeing that a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) terms will be applied to their work. Under the terms of this license, no permission is required from the author(s) or publisher for members of the community to copy, distribute, transmit or adapt the article content, providing a proper, prominent and unambiguous attribution to the authors in a manner that makes clear that the materials are being reused under permission of a Creative Commons License. Views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this research article are views, opinions and conclusions of the author(s). 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