Using instructional system design, a learning activity was developed to teach students how to use the writing process to write a persuasive essay. The 20 students involved in the development of the activity attended East Meadow High School in Nassau County, New York, scored low on a standardized test of writing, were enrolled in an "Introduction to Occupations" course, and did not plan to attend college. The instructional unit was designed to take nine 40-minute sessions. The lessons and activities on persuasive writing included a pretest, brainstorming activity, first draft, revision, editing, and a posttest. Evaluation of the learning activity indicated that: (1) students seemed to enjoy the activity; (2) although the posttest scores were lower than expected, all of the students showed a significant increase in score; and (3) all students failed the pretest, yet 90% passed the posttest. (Eleven tables and three figures of data are included; the survey instruments, a task analysis, an outline of group and sequence objectives, evaluation instruments, lesson plans, and a guideline checklist are attached.) (RS)