Annotating and Analysing Persuasive Texts

Contention: The author's central point of view or main position on an issue.
Purpose: What the author intends for the target audience to think, feel, or do as a result of the piece.
Audience: Anyone reading, viewing, or listening to the text. The target audience is the specific group (such as business leaders, community groups, environmental groups, parents, students, or politicians) the writer intentionally targets.
Argument: The framework of claims used to support the main contention, structured across opening, supporting, and closing arguments.
Tone: The writer's attitude toward the subject or audience, conveyed via word choice, sentence structure, and stylistic voice.

Context: The surrounding background, timing, author identity, publication venue, and text type that influence how a point of view is constructed.
Common Text Types: Advertisements, blog posts, editorials, letters, online comments, opinion pieces, podcasts, social media posts, and speeches.

Positive Tones: Encouraging, enthusiastic, optimistic, playful, proud, respectful, soothing, joyful, celebratory, humorous.
Neutral Tones: Assertive, calm, confident, considered, dispassionate, earnest, measured, reasonable, restrained, thoughtful, unemotional, objective, informative, casual.
Negative Tones: Accusing, admonishing, aggressive, arrogant, bitter, condescending, concerned, contemptuous, cynical, mocking, outraged, sarcastic, sympathetic, disheartening, critical, emotional.
Tone Shifts: Key transitions in tone across paragraphs or sections intended to alter how the audience perceives and feels about each point.

Evidence: Facts, statistics, and expert opinions that provide logical weight and enhance author credibility.
Language Devices: Emotive language, loaded words, strong adjectives or adverbs, rhetorical questions, and irony.
Appeals and Strategies: Tactics tailored to resonate with an audience's specific values, concerns, moral engagement, or belief systems.