K.

McNamee 2010
K.McNamee 2010

In Paper 1 Section A you will be given a choice of writing questions.

You only chose one question. You will have 45 minutes.
This revision booklet focuses on the Writing to Persuade question
only.

You may be asked to write a:

Letter
Speech
Text for an advert
Script for an advert
Text for a leaflet

Before you begin, identify the PAF!

PURPOSE What is the purpose of the text they are asking

you to write?
What do you have to get across to the reader?
AUDIENCE Who is your audience?
Does your writing need to be formal or informal?

FORMAT Is it a letter? Leaflet? Advert? Speech?

How will you begin and end your piece of work?
K.McNamee 2010

 Underline the key words in the question to keep you focussed

 Identify the PAF – purpose, audience, format so that your
writing is appropriate
 Do a spider diagram or list of your ideas that you want to
include. Be creative!
 Remind yourself of the language devices that you need to
include in your work (AFORSTIP)
 Remind yourself of the writing rules! (Punctuation and
grammar - see later pages)

You will be asked to persuade the reader to do something.

For example in one exam, students were asked to persuade the
governors of their school to keep their school open at night. You would
need to have some very good ideas to persuade the governors to keep
the school open!

E.g. Keep young

people off the
streets and out of
trouble.
Reasons why the
school should stay
open on a night.
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You need to show the reader you understand their side

or any problems there might be. And, then you need to
give examples of how you would overcome them!

Use the same example of the exam question on the

previous page.
What arguments might the governors give for not
opening the school on a night?

Governors point of view for Your ideas to overcome the

not opening the school governors arguments for not
opening the school.

E.g. The costs of keeping the

school open would be too
expensive
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Alliteratio The terrified teenagers are tempted into

n crime.

Flattery You are doing a wonderful job…

Facts The school is open from 8am until 3pm.

Opinions This exciting idea will captivate the

attention of…

Rhetorical Do you realise how difficult it is for

question teenagers to find activities to do on an
evening?
Repetition The late opening of the school will
provide a safe environment…
The safety of students is paramount
Emotive Many students suffer from bullying
Language outside of school and suffer from
heartbreaking depression because of
this.
Exaggerati By providing out of hours activities, our
on school will be the best in the county!

Statistics 90% of young people are driven to drink

and drugs because there is nothing for
them to do on an evening.
Three, rule This will benefit the students,
of educationally, emotionally and culturally.

Imagery The school will be a safe haven.

Imperative Please consider our suggestions

verbs Think about the major benefits to
students.
Personal Please consider our ideas
prounouns Together we can …. You can help us
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You should use these in all of your writing – no matter what

question you answer.
You must include these if you want to get a ‘C’ or above
in your exam.
An opening that will hook the reader Did you know that 90% of teenagers…(shocking fact)
Do NOT start with ‘I am writing’

Powerful vocabulary (words) Good = magnificent

Bad = diabolical
A range of punctuation Use higher level punctuation:
at least five types. Semi colon ;
.,?!()-;: Colon;
There’s only one word for the lack of Brackets ( )
facilities for young people: diabolical! Hyphen –
There’s only one word for our ideas:
magnificent!
Vary your sentences Simple to shock
Complex longer sentences to put across ideas or give
description
Use paragraphs NO PARAGRAPHS = NO C!
Try to vary your paragraph lengths
Use connectives to link sentences and
paragraphs
Start a sentence or two with an adverb - Unbelievably, the youth club was closed down last
‘ly’ words year resulting in…
Put a comma after the adverb.
Surprisingly, unbelievably, slowly etc

Start a sentence with a present Captivating the students imagination is essential…

participle - ‘ing’ words
Pursuing, captivating, leading,

Use some speech - Remember to Head teacher of the school, Mr Mowbray, agrees with
punctuate it correctly. our plans. He said, “This is an essential project that
will enhance the lives of students.”
Use an embedded clause or two The gym, which is situated at the back of the
building, is an ideal location for after school dance
classes.

The gym (which is situated at the back of the

building) is an ideal location for after school dance
classes.

The gym - which is situated at the back of the

building- is an ideal location for after school dance
classes.

Link your ending back to the beginning.

 K.McNamee 2010

Connectives
To structure To conclude To introduce your To indicate cause
your writing ideas or make an and effect
additional point
To begin with To conclude Furthermore Consequently
Initially In conclusion In addition So
Firstly After all Again Hence
Secondly Finally The following As a result
Next Ultimately More over Because
Subsequently Overall What is more Accordingly
Meanwhile To summarise To complement this Whenever
Eventually To recapitulate you could… Effectively
Depending upon
Necessarily
Eventually
To indicate an To persuade To introduce an Inevitably
opinion example It may happen
One might Of course For example
consider Naturally For instance Make comparison
Suggest Obviously Such as
Propose Clearly As revealed by Equally
Suppose Surely To show that Similarly
Imagine Certainly To elucidate In comparison
Presumably Indeed In other words An equivalent
Theoretically Virtually An instance In the same way
Literally No wonder Above all Likewise
Obviously Strangely enough In particular
Possibly Oddly enough Specifically To contrast
Incredibly Luckily In fact
improbably Fortunately However
Unfortunately Nevertheless
Admittedly Alternatively
undoubtedly Yet
Despite
On the other hand
Whereas
Otherwise
Although
 K.McNamee 2010

An example of how you can structure your work. Don’t

forget to include AFOREST and the WRITING RULES! You
will need to adapt it to letter, speech, leaflet text etc.
Powerful opening
Perhaps shock the
reader

Flatter the reader

Put forward your

ideas – using
persuasive devices

Show you
understand their
point of view and
give ideas on how
you overcome their
arguments.
Repeat your main
persuasive
argument.
Use a quote from
someone important
to back you up.
Link your last
paragraph to the
beginning. Thank
the
reader/audience
for considering
your ideas.