TYPES OF ARGUMENT

Hook Starting a writing piece with an ‘attention grabber’.

Call to Action Finishing with an instruction for the audience designed to provoke a response.
Logic and Basing an argument with a set of premises that lead to a logical end-point.
Reasoning
Slippery Slope Arguing that if an event occurs, then it will lead to a series of outcomes that will spiral out-of-control (ie.
Argument “If [event] happens, what next?”).
Ad Hominem Instead of employing genuine discussion of the issue, the writer focusses solely on attacking the
character, motive, or attributes of the opposition.
Cause and Basing an argument on the idea that one concept or event is the cause of something else (eg. “violent
Effect games make their audience prone to violence”).

MODALITY

When we are deciding how ‘forcefully’ we are trying to persuade the audience, we must
consider word choice carefully. Modality essentially means the ‘certainty’ of the words we
are choosing.

When we want to use a more ‘aggressive’ tone we choose words that possess high
modality. When we want to use a more ‘passive’ tone we choose words that possess low
modality. Think about who your audience is, and which strategy is better suited to
persuading them to agree with you.

HIGH MEDIUM LOW

MODALITY MODALITY MODALITY

To attack the other side; to
create a sense of urgency; to
persuade through emotion;
appealing to your base
Always; never; consistently;
permanently; in all cases
Certainly; surely; definitely;
absolutely; totally;
completely
Must; have to; necessity;
required to; need to
SUGGESTED PURPOSE
To offer a balanced approach. To appear reasonable; to find a
common ground; to avoid
offending the other side; to
work together; to raise
awareness.
WORD EXAMPLES
Frequently; often; in many cases Sometimes; in some cases;
rarely; occasionally
Probably; likely; may be; tends to Possibly; possibility; could;
suggest might; seem; may; would
appear to suggest
Should; ought to; can May; might; could
 An effective persuasive approach is to appeal to the audience in different ways. Aristotle (an
Ancient Greek philosopher) said it is imporant to appeal to the audience in three main ways:
LOGOS
Appealing to the
audience’s sense of logic.
COMMON PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES
LOGOS
- Expert Opinion
- Statistics
- Rhetorical Questions
- Anecdotal Evidence
- Cause and Effect
- Logic and Reasoning
195 tones for language analysis
PATHOS ETHOS
Appealing to the Appealing to the audience
audience’s emotions based on credibility and trust
PATHOS ETHOS
- Alliteration - Statistics
- Emotive Appeals (to hip - Inclusive Language
pocket, to patriotism, to - Anecdotal Evidence
family values, charity, - Jargon
humanity, morality, - Colloquial Language
justice, fairness, - Formal Language
environmentalism, etc.)
- Rhetorical Questions
- Repetition
- Generalisation
- Emotive Language
- Cliché
- Pun
- Attack
- Exaggeration/Hyperbole
- Metaphors and Similes
- Exclusive Language
- Connotations
- Loaded Language
- Humor
- Colloquial Language
- Imagery
- Bandwagon
  

SIMPLIFIED STRATEGY FOR PARAGRAPH WRITING

1. What words are used? Include the tone and metalanguage.

2. What do the words make someone feel and think?
3. Why do they want the reader to think and/or feel this?
4. What do they want the reader to do in regards to the key argument?