Writing to Persuade

The aim of persuasive writing is to convince someone to do something. It might be to buy a product, attend an event or believe their opinion.


Language You can remember persuasive language by remembering AFOREST.

Alliteration - using words that begin with same letter to make us notice important words. "Help the Homeless"

Fact - using information that can be proved to make your text seem more trustworthy. "Smoking is bad for your health."

Opinion  - people's beliefs. Using lots of these can make a text biased. "This is the best product"

Rhetorical Question - a question that doesn't need an answer. This makes the reader think about the question and your main point. "How would you react?"

Emotive Language - words that cause strong feelings. For example "the vulnerable children".

Statistics - use to make your facts or opinions even more persuasive. For example "9/10 people agree that this is the best product"

Three (rule of) use three describing words to exagerate your point. For example "the match was exciting, unpredictable and skillful".

Direct Address speak directly to your reader to capture their attention. For example "you".

Instructions Tell people what you want them to do. For example "Wear a seat belt" or "Donate money to charity".

Task: Find an example of a persuasive text. Analyse how the language makes it more persuasive.

P: The first piece of persuasive language is...
E: For example...
E: This makes me think...   because...
L: The keyword is... because...
This helps to persuade us because...

Writing to Inform

As we have already discovered, there are lots of different writing purposes. However, there are two main ones that you must know for the non-fiction section of your exam: writing to inform and writing to persuade/argue.

Writing to Inform

When information is communicated as clearly as possible. This can be helped by language, layout and presentation.

Language

Subject Specific Vocabulary  To inform us clearly you may need to use specialist words. For example, in a cook book you would expect to find words such as: recipe, whisk, stir, blend, ingredients etc.

Clear Sentences Make sure that you include a range of sentences and punctuation to make the meaning as clear as possible. You must use capital letters, full stops and commas. You may consider using brackets (these help you to add extra information).

Facts Informative texts should be based on facts. You are telling us about it - not exaggerating it.

Connectives Connectives can be a very useful way to guide someone. It can tell us the time (yesterday, last night, on the 1st January...), or help us to order or ideas (firstly, secondly, finally...)

Layout

Title / Headline A title or headline can be used to inform us about the main topic in the article and grab a reader's interest.

Columns or Text Boxes  Pages and pages of writing can be very difficult to read. Columns or text boxes break it down into manageable chunks which means that more people are likely to want to read it.


Subheadings Subheadings are another way to make a text more manageable to read. It also helps to summarise the keypoints of the article. This can be really useful if someone is skimming your article.

Bullet Points Another way of breaking your text down. These are particularly useful for lists.

Presentation

Images / Diagrams Sometimes it is much easier to understand a picture than a paragraph. Graphs, maps and diagrams all be used to communicate the message more clearly.


 Task: Find an informative text. Look at the language, layout and presentation. Does it match?


Write a PEE paragraph to explain the language, presentation or layout.


P: This is an informative text because is includes...
E: For example...
E: This helps to inform us clearly because...