Persuasive
Writing
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
Brutus
Hath 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 Lupercal
I 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.