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 persuade to inform

Purpose

to describe

to argue

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 councils decision to close St Jamess High school

A persuasive letter

A speech

I would like to welcome you all to St Peters 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 its 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 Jamess is an excellent school. Everyone agrees that last years 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 Britains 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 Britains 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 lets 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 persons magazine persuading more young people to vote.

Write a letter to your favourite sports star persuading them to open your schools 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
Clearly structured Appropriately paragraphed Shows clear awareness of audience and purpose Writing has more clarity General awareness of audience and purpose Evidence of paragraphing and structure Clearly written Limited awareness of audience and purpose Some evidence of paragraphing

Spelling, punctuation and sentence structure

More complex sentences used more confidently Spelling is generally accurate throughout Sound grasp of a range of punctuation More use of complex sentences but still limited All common words spelt correctly Accurate use of a wider range of punctuation few complex sentences Most common words spelt correctly Accurate use of basic punctuation (full stops/capital letters)

More detailed points Clear awareness of audience and purpose More use of rhetorical techniques Wider vocabulary Points made in more detail but still limited Some use of rhetorical techniques (e.g. use of repetition and rhetorical questions) Basic points made Very limited use of rhetorical techniques (e.g. some repetition)

Mark Scheme
Grade What you wrote
Intelligent, convincing and very detailed points Shows flair and originality Wider range of writing techniques used to skilfully manipulate readers response Thoughtful and convincing points made Wide range of vocabulary and techniques used to manipulate the response of the reader Detailed points made Good range of vocabulary and writing techniques Begins to affect readers response

How you wrote it

Sophisticated use of structure for impact on the reader Audience and purpose clearly affect content, style and form Writing is fluent with linked sentences and paragraphs Content, style and form remain consistently suited to audience and purpose Well structured Content, style and form of writing all appropriate for audience and purpose

Spelling, punctuation and sentence structure

Uses a full range of sentence structures for effect Spelling and punctuation exact and used with assurance and sophistication Clear and controlled variety of sentence structures Accurate spelling throughout Range of punctuation used throughout with accuracy Variety of sentence structures for effect Accurate spelling of most irregular and complex words Accurate punctuation

A*