Year 9 EAL:

Persuasive Language -
Introduction
Learning Objective
 To
be introduced to the genre of Persuasive
Language
 We use persuasive language everyday in our lives,
sometimes without being aware of it.
 ‘Miss/Sir, I’m seriously telling the truth, I really
was going to do my homework, but I forgot that I
had netball last night’
Let’s be honest, what do you really
mean by this?
 ‘Miss/Sir, I’m seriously telling the truth, I really
was going to do my homework, but I forgot that I
had netball last night, so I didn’t do my
homework’
 Take out the persuasive words
 I didn’t do my homework
Try another one….
 Students explaining why half of the computers in
the room have switched off…..
 ‘Miss/Sir, I swear we were just mucking around,
we didn’t do anything, all the computers just
turned off, it’s not our fault’
Which words in the sentence are
persuasive?
 “just”

(to make the situation sound like it wasn’t all that

bad)
 “mucking around”

(to cover up the fact that you actually lost everyone’s

work on their computers)
 “it’s not our fault”

(to make me believe it wasn’t deliberate)

And another one, you’re trying to convince your mum to go to the
party….
 ‘Mum, please let me go to Luke’s party, if I don’t
go I’ll be such a loser. I promise, I’ll be really
good, I won’t drink any alcohol at all!’
 Take out the persuasive language
 I want to go to Luke’s party.
 Which words do you think are persuasive?
 This text is all
around us!

Helping
Helping you
you to
to
Equipping you
critically
critically analyse
analyse
with tools
the
the world
world

Understanding
Understanding
To
To help
help prepare
prepare how you are
you
you for
for later
later positioned to think
studies
studies and feel
Why study
persuasive
language?

Compare
Compare and
and
contrast
contrast texts
texts Understanding
Understanding the
the
art of persuasion

Language,
Purpose, It is so relevant!
Audience, Context
What is persuasive writing?
• When you write persuasively, you are
trying to convince the reader to agree with
your position.

• It can be distinguished from other types of

writing, which have a different purpose.

• For example, if you were writing to educate

someone, you would simply present the
relevant facts and explain the topics,
concepts and issues involved. Your
purpose would be to educate them, not to
persuade them into adopting a certain view
or position.
What is persuasive writing?
Consider the following piece of text. Do you
think this text was written with the purpose of
educating or persuading the reader?

Every time you purchase a single-use

plastic container, straw, cup or bag, you are
contributing to our huge plastic pollution
problem in Australia. There is no excuse for
using single-use plastics when there are so
many reusable alternatives available. It is
completely unethical that we are even still
producing plastic water bottles!
What is persuasive writing?
What persuasive techniques have been used? Second person
pronoun (Direct
Language)
Every time you purchase a single-use plastic
Emphatic statements
container, straw, cup or bag, you are
contributing to our huge plastic pollution
Emotive words
problem in Australia. There is no excuse for
using single-use plastics when there are so
High modality words
many reusable alternatives available. It is
completely unethical that we are even still Punctuation
producing plastic water bottles!

Don’t worry if you don’t

understand all of these
terms yet, we will learn
more about it in class!
What’s your opinion
 To begin writing persuasively, you need to have a
stance, or opinion.

 Stand up if you agree with the statement, stay

sitting if you don’t.
 You might be asked to explain why you have that
opinion!
You need homework in order to learn.
Agree Disagree
Dance should be considered a sport.
Agree Disagree
Bottled water should be banned.
Agree Disagree
All cars should be electric.
Agree Disagree
Nobody cares about the Olympics
anymore
Agree Disagree