Persuasive Writing

Higher Writing Folio

Learning Intention

You are going to research a topic in order to produce a persuasive piece of writing.

This will be included in your Higher Writing Folio and contribute to 10% of your overall grade.

Think/Pair/Share

On your own, THINK about a time you tried to persuade someone to believe you/get them to do what you wanted/agree with you etc.

In PAIRS, discuss your experiences and identify HOW you tried to persuade someone.

Finally, in groups SHARE your ideas and create a list of the different techniques you used in order to persuade.

How do you persuade?

• Use language which will make your audience react emotionally

• Ask questions• Give scenarios• Give facts• Give reasons• Hyperbole• Etc.

Being Persuasive

When you try to persuade someone you need to consider the following aspects:

• What is your purpose?

• Who is your audience?

Adverts

As consumers, we are bombarded with persuasive messages through adverts, Government initiatives, health campaigns etc..

Persuasive techniques can be found in all of these examples and some are so subtle that we don’t even realise we are being persuaded.

Adverts

Look at the following examples of adverts/health campaigns and identify HOW they are trying to persuade you.

Cheryl Cole ‘because I’m worth it…’

Watch the following advert and identify how the advertisers try to persuade you to buy their product.

Persuasive Devices

• In writing we need to make use of language to persuade, having the same impact that a picture/video would have on its viewer.

Putting it into words. . .

Rhetorical Questions

A question which doesn’t require an answer.

As a tool, it can be used in debate. It allows us not to make an outright declaration but still effectively make a point.

In court

A question that suggests what the answer should be but also makes the answer seem obvious.

You were at the scene of the crime, correct?

YOU ARE ASHAMED AREN’T YOU?

Political

• A thought-provoking gesture. A way to stimulate discussion during debate.

How corrupt is the Government?

This doesn’t have to have a concrete or measurable answer, but creates further discussion and debate.

Social

Rhetorical questions have long been directed towards children. When a child exclaims that EVERYONE is allowed to do something that they are forbidden to do, parents can reply…

If they jumped off a cliff, would you?

Emotive Language

• In order to get their points across, writers often use language which is chosen to make the reader see their point of view. This language often appeals directly to the emotions of the reader.

• For instance, is you wanted to say something was really bad you might use the words “vile” or “evil”. Or, if you wanted to describe a day with very bad weather, you might use the words “appalling” or “miserable”. Words like this might arouse feelings in the reader.

Emotive Language

• Read the following passage from a leaflet about the battery farming of chickens. Write down as many examples of language which shows how the writer feels about the subject.

“Do chickens kept for their eggs fare better? After all you’ve seen all the ads and egg boxes that proudly declare “country fresh” and “fresh from the countryside”, “farm fresh”. Surely this means hens are free to roam the fields and woods? ‘Fraid not! Unless an egg box actually has the words FREE RANGE, it is certain that the eggs are from intensive systems – battery unit, barn or deep litter sheds. However most of Britain's eggs are produced on battery farms, were the hens are squashed together in small cages. They can never spread their wings, scratch in the earth, perch or make a nest, dust0bathe, search for food that is tasty and natural, or even walk or run. Instead, five hens are packed into a cage slightly bigger that your average microwave oven and are never allowed out again until they are taken for slaughter.

The average wing span of a hen is 76cm – so movement and natural behaviour is severely restricted. Thousands of cages are stacked into windowless sheds – with artificial lighting for about 17 hours a day to promote egg laying. Up to 90,000 birds are packed into these sheds and they are all fed, watered and their eggs collected by an automatic system. Birds of a 18 weeks old are put into these cages and are not removed until they are 18 months to two years old, when they are killed. Try to imagine the frustration, the boredom, the anger that this system creates. Hens in more natural conditions will often live for 7 years – sometimes much more. Slaughtered battery hens are processed into soups, baby foods, stock cubes, school diners or used in the restaurant trade.”

Task One

You are going to read an example of persuasive writing.

Identify:• The use of rhetorical question• Emotive language

Be prepared to explain why they are effective.

Repetition

• Employed as a means of highlighting specific points to ensure that a particular idea is understood.

• In persuasive writing, you can repeat:

Words Statements Points

You will have to arrive at the same conclusion using various other devices.

Repetition of words

Evil minds will use evil means.

Repetition of Statements

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

Repetition of PointsI have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists,

with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.“ This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Anecdote

• To illustrate your views and opinions on the topic you can provide the reader with an anecdote.

An anecdote is a story or personal experience used to exemplify the pint.

This can be on a small or large scale.

Task Two

• Read ‘Sexual Acts on a Butterfly’.

• Identify the point the writer is trying to make.

• Discuss how the writer’s use of anecdote delivers the point.

Parallel Structures

To show kindness is praiseworthy; to show hatred is evil.

Alliteration

Callous calculating cruelty – is this what we must expect?

Contrast

Sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind.

Imagery

Metaphor

Simile

Personification

‘While we wait and do nothing, we must not forget that the fuse is already burning.’

The ‘rule’ of tree

I ask you, is this fair? Is it right? Is it just?

Hyperbole

While we await your decision, the whole school holds its breath.

Topics

Criteria for a good topic:

• Accessible evidence/facts to support your view.

• Angles from which to explore the issue fully.• A strong personal opinion on the issue.

Topics

Your homework over the holidays was to decide on your topic and undertake research in preparation for your first draft.

You will begin to plan your essay next week so you MUST have this finished.