Achieving One’s Full Potential by Being

Proactive
Unit 1

What are your aspirations this school year? Have you thought
about the track you will pursue in senior high school? Then you will have to
practice being proactive. According to Meriam-Webster (2018), the term
proactive means “acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or
changes. This term implies that success is achieved through acting on
projected events. A quotation from Mahatma Gandhi, “The future depends on
what you do today,” instills the idea that you may be able to take control of a
future situation by exerting your best efforts today.

This unit focuses on encouraging you to develop the quality of

getting ready to take on new responsibilities that are about to come your way
as you grow from adolescence to adulthood. The lessons in this unit will help
you to do self-assessment as you move to the more demanding senior high
school. Lesson 1 will teach you how to influence others through logical
reasoning. Lesson 2 will show you how to balance fun and work. Lesson 3
will explain why you should enjoy your adolescence and take seriously the
responsibilities that go with it. Lesson 4 will encourage you to be brave and
persistent when facing life’s many challenges. Lastly, lesson 5 will inspire
you to continue to better yourself and to never stop learning new things.
 Lesson 1

Taking a stand on an issue and encouraging people to take action require

persuasion. Persuasion is the act of convincing others to ideas, actions, or behaviors
which you are right or desirable. The goal of persuasion is to change a person’s (or a
group’s) thinking, attitude, belief, motivation, or behavior through effective transmission
of message (verbal and/or nonverbal).
In this lesson, you will be able to identify the features of persuasive texts and
use various persuasive techniques and strategies to effectively persuade others. Upon
learning these skills, you will also able to write short persuasive texts.

At this lesson, you will be able to do the following:

1. Identify the strategies in attracting and holding an audience’s attention in
public speeches and persuasive texts.
2. Use comment adverbs to emphasize a point; and
3. Compose short persuasive texts.

A persuasive text is any text where the main purpose is to

present a point of view and seeks to convince a reader.
The art of speaking and writing effectively to persuade people
is called rhetoric. According to Aristotle, there are three
forms of rhetorical appeals or modes of persuasion-- ethos,
pathos and logos. Ethos is an appeal to the credibility or
authority of the speaker. Pathos is an appeal to the audience’s emotions. Logos is an
appeal to logic or reason.
Persuasive Techniques are commonly used in advertisements to influence people to buy
a certain product or use a particular service.
Persuasive Techniques
Use of powerful words/verbs
Use of emotive language
Use of sensory words
Use of rhetorical questions
Use of figurative language
Exaggeration
Definition
Words that give a vivid picture of an action or
what someone is doing. For example, instead
of eat, a speaker may use the words munch,
chew, devour, or nibble to stimulate a mental
image of a specific action in the minds of the
audience.
Emotive language refers to words carry
emotional content or those that evoke
feelings. For instance, a child may be
characterized as a “young, innocent, and
defenseless boy or girl” to elicit a strong
emotion (e.g, sympathy) from the audience
These are the words that appeal to any of the
five senses--sight, sound, smell, taste and
touch. Example: Sugar-cured ham and pure
spices are all that we use. This delectable,
juicy, mouth-watering ham is perfect
sandwiches.
These are questions that are asked only for
effect and do not require answers. These are
meant to capture the audience’s attention.
Example: Do you want to avoid crowds and
skip the long lines at department store tjis
holiday season? XOXO offers yoy the
convenience to shop for your gifts when you
want and from wherever you are.
Figurative language, o the use of figures of
speech such as simile, metaphor, alliteration
and personification, makes the advertisement
interesting and thus engages the audience:
Example: Do the dew!
This is an overstatement used to emphasize a
point or create a strong impression. Example:
 Zardo X is the best, most exciting online
game ever created.

.
DIRECTIONS: Read each of following texts below and write PT if it is a
Activity persuasive text and NPT if not on the space provided. Also, identify the
features/techniques used in the persuasive text.

____ 1. Owning a pet from the pound or Animal Rescue League has many advantages. First
of all, a child feels good about rescuing an abandoned or abused animal and giving it a whole
new life. Besides, if the animals from the pound aren’t adopted right away, they might be put
to sleep. Having a pet also means lots of responsibilities. A child has to feed, clean up after,
brush, and exercise the pet.

____ 2. Children continue to use mobiles despite the obvious risk to their health. Mobile
phones
emit a dosage of radiation, which is harmful to the user and cause severe brain damage.

____ 3. “If you want to be as fair as Snow White, then try Navarro Bleaching Soap.”

____ 4. The Principal discussed about the things to do in connection with the effects of
the recent typhoon. She also discussed about the precautionary measures to be done to cope
up
with the suspension of classes.

____ 5. “And what do we the people say? Do we rise up and say, ‘I categorically refuse to
buy any article of clothing unless the person promoting it weighs more than she did when
she
wore knee socks?’ Or at least, ‘Where do I send the check for the chicken nuggets?’
Actually,
not so much. Mostly, our responses range from I wonder if that would look good
on me?’ to ‘I don’t know who that skinny- ass cow is, but I hate her already.’

____ 6. Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful maiden named Magayon…

____ 7. “How then can one regard blame of Helen is unjust, since she is utterly acquitted,
 whether she did what she did through falling in love or persuaded by speech or ravished by
force or constrained by divine constraint?

____ 8. “Fearful shuddering and tearful pity and grievous longing come upon its
hearers , the actions, and physical sufferings of others in good fortunes, through the agency
of words, the soul is wont to experience a suffering of its own.”

____ 9. “Now it is not unclear, not even to few, that in nature and in blood the
woman who is the subject of this speech is preeminent among preeminent men and women.”

____ 10. “The effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the
power of drugs over the nature of bodies.”

Use of Comment Adverbs

Identify the adverbs and the words they

modify:
 Answer correctly
 Hug tightly
 Sleep soundly
 Drive fast

Now, analyze the verbs in the following lines:

 Helen’s voyage to Troy will most likely take place.
 And surely it is proper for a woman raped and robbed of her country and deprived of her
country and deprived of her loved ones to be pitied rather than pilloried.

Notice that the adverbs iwith -lyn the two given sets all end -ly. However, the first set of
adverbs modifies a word only, while the second set modifies a whole clause. Adverbs that
show a speaker’s attitude or opinion about an action or situation are called comment
adverbs (or evaluative adverbs). Unlike other type of adverbs which only modify a
single word (an adjective, verb, or another adverb), this type of an adverb modifies an
entire clause or sentence. Other examples of comment adverbs are obviously, definitely,
unfortunately, ironically, regrettably, interestingly and undoubtedly.

Activity
A. Directions: Identify which sentences contain comment adverbs. Write C if
the adverb used in the sentence is a comment adverb and N if the adverb is
not a comment adverb.

___ 1. The persuader, like a constrainer, does the wrong and the persuaded,
like the constrained, in speech is wrongly charged.
___ 2. I will definitely go to the party.
___ 3. Clearly, there must be a better way of solving that problem.
___ 4. Ideally, a person should sleep for no less than eight hours.
___ 5. She studies the lesson seriously.
___ 6. Seriously, I don’t understand why they do that.
___ 7. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
___ 8. She acts obviously in front of him.
___ 9. Obviously, not all the issues of the existing setup can be
addressed here.
___ 10. Basically, Helen is deity and half human.

B. Directions: Think of a topic that you want to discuss, deal or talk about.
Practice using comment adverbs by writing 5 sentences with any of the
comment adverbs found in the box below.

actually definitely obviously ironically amazingly

regrettably presumably
luckily undoubtedly basically