Language of Argument

Persuasive Techniques

PERSUADE

Power of 3

• include three similar words or reasons

Emotive language

• words or phrases that create imagery to provoke an emotional response

Rhetorical question

• Questions that make the audience think Often implies the answer or writers contention

Say again

• Repeat the same word, phrase or idea more than once to emphasise it

Undermine opposing views

• criticise opposing view or argument

Anecdote

• Small personal stories that illustrate the point

Direct adress

• involve audience by speaking to them directly or use pronouns like ‘we’ to involve them and share experiences

Exaggeration

• Going over the top and making the issue seem worse than it might actually be

The idea of persuading someone is to get them to agree with your point on an issue. To change their way of thinking. This means you need to be aware of your audience. Try to create links and establish a common goal. Do not annoy them by ignoring their needs, as then they will not listen.

The 3 Areas to Appeal to

1. Logos: logic

   • Appeals to reason. Builds up logical arguments to persuade

   • Gets audience to think

2. Ethos: Ethics

   • Establish personal credibility

   • Get audience to trust you

   • Using a respected person, such as a celebrity, to support your view

3. Pathos: pity

   • Appeal to emotions

   • Inspires an emotional response

   • Gets audience to feel

   • Emotions need to be carefully considered in an argument, as without realizing it, many people act on emotion.

Tone

Tone

1. Indicates a feeling

2. The feeling can be any emotion, like joy, seriousness, urgency, formality, hopefulness, or pessimism. nearly anything.

3. it will be reflective of the mood of the writer

Tone is as diverse as our emotions. It can convey the positive, neutral, negative, and everything in between. E.g., you have been invited to a birthday party. some tones you could respond to could be… Joy at getting to go annoyance (at a waste of time) digust (at the person who invited), hopefulness (that you can go), and many more.

Example piece to identify tone

And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don't know why they died; they just died. Something was wrong with the soil, or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn't the best. We complained about it. So we've got thirty kids there; each kid had his or her own little tree to plant, and we've got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks—it was depressing.

Confused about why they died

Sad that they died

Words like ‘dead’ and ‘depressing’ set a negative tone for the piece of negative and unhappy

The initial tone was confused, then it appeared to be annoyed that the trees had died.

identifiable persuasive techniques: setting a negative tone. thirty appeals to statistics—logos. imagery that provokes an emotional response in the phrase “All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.” relatable story about not understanding something and the trees dying.

“Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Got time to chat real quick?

Argument Analysis

• Topic

  • the matter or subject of the piece

  • consider what has triggered the argument

  • is it a topic with wider social or political implications?

  • ALWAYS NEUTRAL

• Issue

  • The central problem being discussed

  • For a topic to become an issue, it must be controversial. have opposing views

• Context

  • Background of an issue

  • how the persuasive text relates to a debate about the topic

  • Consider

    • how it was published or shared

    • Relevant details about author

    • events that sparked the debate

    • existing knowledge of the target audience

• Contention

  • Authors point of view on the topic

  • this is what the author is trying to convince the audience of.

  • it is the idea or purpose of the text

  • there must be supporting arguments for the contention

• Purpose

  • the intent of the author. usually to convince the audience on their point of view (contention)

• Audience

  • who the text is aimed at

  • should be a specific group, not general

  • Ask: who is the author trying to persuade?

  • Consider context

  • choose arguments and evidence the appeal or oppose the targeted audiences beliefs.

• Tone

  • The atmosphere of the text

Newspaper Article Types

Hard news stories

• Who, What, When, Where, Why and How

• Details in descending order of importance

• Grammatically correct

• Written by reporters

• Objective, facts-only reporting

• The purpose is to inform

Columns

• Personal writing style

• Mostly correct grammar, except when the writer doesn't, to make a point

• usually identified with a photograph

• The purpose is to advise, entertain, analyse, interpret or comment

Editorial page

• Written in essay form

• grammatically correct

• Written by editorial page staff

• Presents the opinions of the newspaper’s editorial board

• The purpose is to persuade and provoke thought

Features

• Personal writing style

• Written by reporters

• Reports facts. often has interpretations included and is longer than hard news story

• The purpose is to inform and explain

Comics

• Very brief, often dialogue-only

• slang often appears

• Written by cartoonists from newspapers or syndicates

• The purpose is to entertain and comment, sometimes on political issues

Advertisements

• Brief, descriptive

• Not necessarily grammatically correct

• Written by professional services or ad staff

• The purpose is to persuade and inform about services and products

Outlines

• Brief; max a few sentences

• Written by copy editors

• Contain facts related to photos, illustrations or accompanying stories

• The purpose is to inform

Letters to the editor

• Letter; essay form

• Should be grammatically correct

• Written by newspaper readers

• Reader’s o’s opinion expressed

• Purpose is to provide forum for readers’ comments

Headlines

• Brief; descriptive

• Not complete sentences

• Written by copy editors

• Purpose: to attract reader and inform