PersuasiveWriting

Language of Persuasion

Avoid ranting!

Opinions need to be credibly backed up by research

Read good examples – Comment/Opinion in good quality newspapers

Listen to good politicians making speeches in Parliament

Involvement of Reader

Use of pronouns such as ‘we’ and ‘you’ ‘us’ draws reader into your argument and makes them feel much more involved “We are all part of this..” “Let me share this with you”

Use of commands also brings reader closer - “Think how much better…”

Use of Emotive Language

Emotionally loaded words can add weight to your point but be careful not to over do it.

These dogs need your help – can become - these dogs, starving and homeless, need your help

Old man hit by robbers – can become – pensioner targeted by muggers

They were killed – can become – they were murdered in cold blood.

Rhetorical questions

make use of rhetorical questions to put emphasis on a point.

Can we ever truly believe everything a politician tells us?

Can also be used in a sarcastic way:

Do you think I’m an idiot?

Can also be used to add humour or lighten the tone:

Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?

Rule of Three

This can be used in your essay to great effect to help things stick in your reader’s head

Friends, Romans, Countrymen

Blood, sweat and tears,

Location, location, location

Government of the people, by the people, for the people (The Gettysburg Address)

Can you see how this allows a writer: to express a concept, emphasize it, and make it memorable.

Repetition

Repetition means making the same suggestions at various points in the piece.

Repeating one statement isn't enough. You need to arrive at the same conclusion using various avenues - from anecdotes to quotes to logical reasoning.

Do not overuse this and spread it through your essay.

A good example of use of repetition is Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech and also Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar – at the funeral of Brutus.

Mark Antony:Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;The evil that men do lives after them,The good is oft interred with their bones,So let it be with Caesar … The noble BrutusHath told you Caesar was ambitious:If it were so, it was a grievous fault,And grievously hath Caesar answered it …Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,(For Brutus is an honourable man;So are they all; all honourable men)Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral …He was my friend, faithful and just to me:But Brutus says he was ambitious;And Brutus is an honourable man….He hath brought many captives home to Rome,Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;And Brutus is an honourable man.You all did see that on the LupercalI thrice presented him a kingly crown,Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;And, sure, he is an honourable man.I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,But here I am to speak what I do know.You all did love him once, not without cause:What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,And I must pause till it come back to me.