Writing To Persuade

1. Writing To Persuade Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

2. What’s the Purpose? • To put your point of view across in a forceful, informed and engaging manner. • To lead your audience into agreeing with you. • To help your audience to think positively about your ideas. Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

3. What Forms Can it Take? A Persuasive text can be in the form of: • A Letter • An Essay • A Speech • An Advertisement • A Poster • A Job Application • A Political Speech • A Speech in court from the Prosecution or Defence Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

4. A Little Piece of Ancient Wisdom • Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher (thinker). • He established this framework for writing a GREAT persuasive text or speech. • ETHOS • LOGOS • PATHOS Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

5. What Exactly Does that Mean? • ETHOSmeans that you have to establish your thesis or position and create a role for yourself. Are you going to be a formal expert or an informal “one of us”? • LOGOSmeans that you must have logical and structured arguments to support your position. • PATHOSmeans that you must have an emotional appeal to your audience by your choice of vocabulary. Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

6. How is this Managed? • Usually you have to decide if you are FOR something or AGAINST it. • You introduce your thoughts to your audience. • You present at least 3 arguments or reasons for your position. • You make your conclusion and encourage your audience to agree or act on your behalf. Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

7. What Does it Look Like? • A written persuasive text usually has 5 paragraphs • INTRODUCTION • ARGUMENT 1 • ARGUMENT 2 • ARGUMENT 3 • CONCLUSION Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

8. Introduction • This orientates your audience to your topic and your thesis or position that you are going to make. • It should have a “hook” to get your audience interested. This could be in the form of: • Visualisation • Rhetorical question • Humour • Personal anecdote (story) Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

9. The Arguments • These are the reasons for your thesis or position. • One paragraph per argument or reason. • You must give some evidence or details for each belief. This could be in the form of: • Statistics • Personal experience • Well-known facts • Scientific research Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

10. Conclusion • This restates your thesis or position • It makes a brief summary of the arguments that you have used. • It makes an emotional appeal to your audience to agree with you. • It can make a “call to action” and ask your audience to do something about your thesis. Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

11. How to get that Appeal • Use high modality language. • Ask rhetorical questions. • Use alliteration, similes, metaphors or idioms. • Use humour when appropriate. • Use emotional language. • Use a variety of evidence or details. • Use repetition as an effect. Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com

12. What Else is there to Remember? • A minimum of 2 sentences per paragraph. • A variety of sentence forms – simple, compound and complex. • Accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation. • The use of sophisticated vocabulary (Tier 2 and 3 words). • Recognition of purpose and audience. Produced by Geraldine Norris www.linkingtoliteracy.com