Writing to Persuade Writing Skills Non Fiction and Media Texts What do we mean by Purpose? The dictionary defines the word purpose as: ‘the reason for which something exists’. There are many different reasons why you would write a text. How many can you think of? to entertain to explain to describe Purpose to argue to persuade to inform to advise The Purpose The writing exam question will always state what the purpose of the piece of writing is. E.G. ‘Write a magazine article to persuade young people to eat more healthily.’ The purpose is key to your writing. It will affect the content of what you write and the language you use. It is essential that your final piece of writing suits its purpose from beginning to end. This is the purpose What is writing to persuade? Explaining what you want to achieve and getting other people to join in is not easy but there are a few techniques that you can learn. In this unit we will look at how to structure your writing and how to use language effectively to persuade the reader to do or believe what you want them to. Form Here are some examples of persuasive writing questions that could appear in the exam. An advertisement The new Mazda UX9 is no ordinary car. With state of the art aerodynamic design… I was shocked and appalled by the council’s decision to close St James’s High school… A speech A persuasive letter I would like to welcome you all to St Peter’s school and thank you for coming out on this cold November evening. Letter Writing Before you begin any piece of writing you should consider the audience you are writing for. Look carefully at the question and decide: will this be a formal or informal letter? •Begin with a greeting – ‘Dear Mr Cash’ (formal), ‘Dear Sarah’ (informal) •Sign off with ‘Yours Sincerely’ or ‘Yours faithfully’ (formal) ‘See you’ or ‘best wishes’ (informal) •Match language to audience – use standard English in a formal letter. Advertisements You could be asked to write an advertisement for a charity, a product or a political party. Adverts should be very persuasive and the style of an advertisement will vary greatly depending upon its target audience. Leaflets and Articles When writing a leaflet or article you could use headings, subheadings and bullet points to give your writing more impact on the reader. However, remember to have well developed paragraphs to enable you to convey your writing ability to the examiner. In articles for magazines look carefully at the type of magazine you are writing for and adapt your writing accordingly. Speeches and Radio Scripts Writing that is created to be spoken should have a dramatic impact on its audience. You can use emotive language and your writing should sound like spoken language. Questions, exclamations and contractions are all useful techniques, as are a variety of sentence structures. If it’s a speech use plenty of personal pronouns and speak directly to your audience. Make sure your writing is clear, paragraphed and well organised. Consolidate Understanding Read the question below then complete the paragraph that follows. Write a letter to your school magazine in which you persuade staff and students to recycle more paper and plastic in school. 12th April 10 The Writing Exam The question requires the student to write … The audience is … This will be a (formal/informal)* piece of writing. Key features of this form of writing are … *delete as appropriate Writing for Different Audiences One of the questions in Section B of the GCSE English exam offers you the chance to write to persuade. When you write to persuade, you try to get the reader to do or believe something. To do this successfully you first need to consider carefully who your reader will be. The intended reader is the audience for your writing. In this lesson we will study how the intended reader affects the content, layout and use of language in a text. Audience Affects Writing Before you begin any piece of writing you should consider the audience you are writing for very carefully. The audience for a piece of written work is the intended reader. The intended reader may be a group of parents, a Year 3 Pupil or the Prime Minister; whatever the audience you will need to adjust your writing appropriately. Prom Night Imagine that it is the day after the School Prom. You decide to write two emails about the night. The first email is to your Headmaster or Head of Year thanking them for organising such a great night. The second email is to your best friend who missed the prom because he/she was ill. Each email should be no more than 100 words long. Prom Night Before you begin think about the audience. How will it affect the content of your email, the layout and the language you use? You have ten minutes to write your two emails. Structuring ideas Persuasive writing often presents just one, subjective view of a topic. An effective plan should organise your ideas into a sensible order that allows your writing to flow and where one idea moves logically onto the next one. A simple three stage plan can be very effective: 1. Introduction 2. Main points of persuasion 3. Conclusion A good plan sets out the current problems then shows the reader the benefits that would result from acting in the way you would want. It should conclude on a positive note to give the persuasion clear direction. Planning Read the example question and plan below. You should try to write a similar style of plan in the exam before you write your answer. Write a letter to your headmaster persuading him/her to hold an end of year party for students in Years 10 and 11. Intro Outline idea for a Year 10 & 11 party, explain how hard students have worked this year Para 1 (Why we have earned a reward) Best ever results achieved by students in exams, Yr 10&11 sporting achievements Para 2 (potential problems and how they can be avoided/overcome) New school sports complex ideal location, No alcohol, cheap and good local DJ, teachers can sell tickets and control who gets in Para 3 (Benefits of reward) Bring school community together, good publicity – local newspapers invitedunforgettable night – ‘best days of our lives’! Conclusion Chance to become a legend amongst students! Put a smile on everyone's face at the end of a long year for both staff and students Mixing facts and opinions In your writing you should use a mixture of fact and opinion. Facts and opinions can help you achieve the purpose of the text: to persuade. An affective way of making your writing persuasive is to use a technique called “assertion”. This is when a writer presents opinions as facts. For example: It is obvious that St James’s is an excellent school. Everyone agrees that last year’s results were outstanding… Fact and Opinion Read the extract below. Highlight the facts in one colour and the opinions in another. Manchester - The first modern city In the 18th century Manchester was the cotton making capital of the world. The city was one of the breeding grounds of the industrial revolution and its entrepreneurs and industrial tycoons endowed it with museums, galleries, theatres and libraries as well as outstanding civic architecture. A devastating IRA bomb in 1996 created the need for city centre regeneration resulting in a new, dramatic 21st century cityscape. Manchester is an innovative music city producing influential groups such as Joy Division, The Smiths, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses and Oasis. Central Manchester has a population of about 440,000 in a Greater Metropolitan Area of more than 2 million. Write a paragraph about your home town, city or village using facts* and opinions to persuade more tourists to visit. Newcastle is one of the friendliest, most vibrant cities in the country. In 2008 it was voted ‘Britain’s Best Night Out’ by readers of City Guide magazine and since 2006 visitor numbers have doubled. It is clear that the regeneration of the town has brought prosperity to the area… *You can make up some facts! Using Emotive Language Emotive language attempts to provoke an emotional response from the reader. Depending upon the purpose and subject matter of a text emotive language can be used to provoke sympathy, anger or fear. For example: The appalling behaviour of these vicious yobs has left this fragile, old lady too frightened to leave her home. Emotive language uses powerful adjectives to attempt to provoke an emotional response from the reader. Using Flattery Another effective way of persuading is to flatter your reader. If you say nice things about them they are more likely to agree with your opinions. Try to make your reader feel valued and important. Using superlatives is one way of doing this… Dear Sir Richard Branson, as Britain’s greatest business man we would like to invite you to open the brand new Fourgates Enterprise College. We have specially selected yourself for your inspirational and visionary leaderships skills… A FOREST A FOREST refers to the use of the following techniques in a text… Alliteration Facts Opinions Rhetorical Questions & Repetition Emotive language Statistics Three (rule of) In this lesson you will be asked to use these techniques to produce a piece of persuasive writing but first of all let’s play a quick game to help us remember them. English The writing exam will give you a choice of questions which could look something like this… An article Write an article for a young person’s magazine persuading more young people to vote. Write a letter to your favourite sports star persuading them to open your school’s new sports centre. A speech A persuasive letter Write a speech for a Year Seven assembly, persuading them to join in a fundraising event. Mark Scheme Grade What you wrote How you wrote it Spelling, punctuation and sentence structure C •More detailed points •Clear awareness of audience and purpose •More use of rhetorical techniques •Wider vocabulary •Clearly structured •Appropriately paragraphed •Shows clear awareness of audience and purpose •More complex sentences used more confidently •Spelling is generally accurate throughout •Sound grasp of a range of punctuation D •Points made in more detail but still limited •Some use of rhetorical techniques (e.g. use of repetition and rhetorical questions) •Writing has more clarity •General awareness of audience and purpose •Evidence of paragraphing and structure •More use of complex sentences but still limited •All common words spelt correctly •Accurate use of a wider range of punctuation E •Basic points made •Very limited use of rhetorical techniques (e.g. some repetition) •Clearly written •Limited awareness of audience and purpose •Some evidence of paragraphing •few complex sentences •Most common words spelt correctly •Accurate use of basic punctuation (full stops/capital letters) Mark Scheme Grade What you wrote How you wrote it Spelling, punctuation and sentence structure A* •Intelligent, convincing and very detailed points •Shows flair and originality •Wider range of writing techniques used to skilfully manipulate reader’s response •Sophisticated use of structure for impact on the reader •Audience and purpose clearly affect content, style and form •Uses a full range of sentence structures for effect •Spelling and punctuation exact and used with assurance and sophistication A •Thoughtful and convincing points made •Wide range of vocabulary and techniques used to manipulate the response of the reader •Writing is fluent with linked sentences and paragraphs •Content, style and form remain consistently suited to audience and purpose •Clear and controlled variety of sentence structures •Accurate spelling throughout •Range of punctuation used throughout with accuracy B •Detailed points made •Good range of vocabulary and writing techniques •Begins to affect reader’s response •Well structured •Content, style and form of writing all appropriate for audience and purpose •Variety of sentence structures for effect •Accurate spelling of most irregular and complex words •Accurate punctuation