1. Persuasive Writing and Speaking

2. Persuasive writing
Goal: Writer aims to get the reader to agree with his perspective.
Technique: Opinions are blended with facts.
Point of view: Communicates directly to a person or group, so it’s common it use both first and second-person.
Attitude: Writers “go after” their readers more aggressively. Personal, passionate, emotional.
Perspectives presented: Single-minded goal---get what the writer wants. Personal conviction.
Starting point: Pick a topic, choose a side to “fight for”, start writing.
Support: rely mostly on feelings and the writer’s passion. The writer plays on the audience’s emotions to get what he wants. The audience will agree with the writer because of his effective use of rhetorical devices and emotional appeals.

3. Rhetorical Devices
Structures within language that help communicate ideas.
Rhetorical question
Purpose: gets the audience thinking about an important idea/topic.
Allusion
Purpose: to make connections between the reader’s life and what the author is writing or speaking about.
What are the 3 genres or specific texts do authors alluded to the most?
Bible
Greek mythology
Shakespeare

4. Rhetorical Devices Antithesis Parallelism
Sentence with phrases/clauses that present contrasting ideas.
Purpose: to express ideas emphatically by making contrasts in order to examine a subject and bring forth discussion/judgment.
To err is human; to forgive is divine.
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
Easy on the eyes, hard on the heart.
Speech is silver, but silence is golden.
Parallelism
Kind of repetition, symmetry in grammatical form AND ideas.
Purpose: emphasize idea
Like father, like son.
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
My face is washed, my teeth are brushed, and my hair is combed.

5. Persuasive Appeals Logical appeal Emotional **fear, pity, vanity.
Ethical appeal *God, sense of right and wrong.
Appeal to association
the writer implies that one will gain acceptance or prestige by taking the writer’s position.
Appeal to authority
Call upon experts or others who warrant respect.

6. Speech in the Virginia Convention
Why do you think the 3rd paragraph on page 228 becomes more effective if you pause after each question?
Why does Patrick Henry question “hope” in his speech? (Hope is generally a positive idea. What situation causes him to caution/question his peers about having too much hope?)
Why do you think Henry alludes to the song of the sirens from The Odyssey in lines 15-17? Who/what is represents the sirens?
Why does Henry allude the bible in line 28?