Persuasive Devices

When writing a persuasive text, you need to use a number of these devices (approx. 3) in order to successfully convince your audience.

1. Authoritative statement- a statement that is irrefutable and a well known truth.
2. Conditional Mood: starting your sentences with words such as : 'if', 'unless', 'as long as', 'even if', 'even though' etc.
3. Direct address to the reader: speaking directly to your audience by using you/ we/ us, collective pronouns and second person.
4. Emphasis through Structure: using repetition, similar sentence starters, single word paragraphs, punctuation such as italics, capital letters, underlining, exclamation marks, parallel points.
5. Emphasis through language: Overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, adjectives and adverbs
6. Anecdotes - make a personal connection
7. Emphatic statements- use high modality to increase the level of commitment (imperative) in your statements. Words such as 'must', 'will', 'never', 'have to', 'crucial' etc.
8. Figurative Language - use imagery to inspire your audience- similes, metaphors, personification, puns, alliteration etc
9. Tone: humour through irony and sarcasm, confidence, passion, commanding, factual. Word choice and connotations will help create the tone.
10. Rhetorical questions- engage the audience more personally.
11. Reference to Data- statistics and known facts
12. Appeals to Authority- using the opinion of well known figures and persons of knowledge that support your claims (teachers/ doctors/ parents/ police/ governments/ scientists/ professors)