Persuasive Writing P-12

Loddon Mallee Region

‘We want students to have opinions, to be passionate about these opinions, and to defend them with strong, well thought out and elaborated arguments’ Lane and Bernabei

Persuasive writing as a genre

• What is the purpose of persuasive writing?• Who is the audience?• What are the main features?• Where do you encounter persuasive text?

Purpose and audience

• Purpose is to argue for or against a point of view to persuade readers.

• It is writing that involves reasoning, evaluation and persuasion.

• Audience will vary depending on the topic – teachers or school principal, government, parents, friends.

What is Persuasive Writing?

Writing to persuade is one of the 8 key purposes for writing.These include writing to:• Entertain• Recount• Socialise• Inquire• Describe• Persuade• Explain• Instruct

DefinitionsExpository: writing that explores and explains things. It

allows for the exploration of the topic while still being able to express a viewpoint.

These may include: Explanations News Article Documentary Editorial Letter to the Editor Advertisements Complaints

Definitions

Persuasive: writing in which the writer needs to convince someone of his or her view or opinion. It requires the use of a variety of persuasive language.

The Exposition is an example of a persuasive text.

Definitions

Discussion: writing where both sides of a topic or issue are presented. An author position may or may not be stated.

Q: What is Persuasive Writing?

A: Persuasive writing is writing in which the writer needs to convince the reader of his or her point of view or opinion. For example, a student may be asked whether reading books or watching TV is better. The student’s answer would present his or her opinion on this topic and would include reasons for that opinion. In writing the text, the student is attempting to persuade the reader to agree with his or her opinion. http://www.naplan.edu.au/faqs/writing_2011_faqs.html#Whatisagenre

Arguing to Persuade

Arguing to persuade another person to our point of view is a fundamental language process throughout all the years of schooling that was once delegated to secondary teachers to teach.

• NAPLAN - HO

What is a Persuasive Text?

Each time a child is asked to:

• Give an opinion of a story• Write about a topical issue and give a reason/s • Give a viewpoint... he or she will be thinking, talking or writing a

persuasive text.

Main Features

Three sections• Statement of opinion• Series of arguments• Reinforcement of the statement of position.

Specific Language• modality• Technical language• Text connectives

Grammatical Features of Persuasive Text

Mental VerbsE.g. I like swimming.

We believe that canteens should sell junk food.

Grammatical Features cont.

Connectives – used to link logical relationships.Temporal (ordering words) first, second, finallyCausal (Cause and effect) so, therefore, becauseClarifying for example, in other words

Grammatical Features cont.

• Concluding connectives that show results to finalise the argument.

• Consequently deep sea oil drilling will now be under enormous scrutiny across the world.

• Therefore new exploration will be under the watchful eye of everyday people all over the world.

Scaffolding Persuasive Writing through the ‘Gradual Release of Responsibility’ Model

Discussion: How will you implement or strengthen the teaching and learning around ‘Persuasive Writing’ using the ‘Gradual Release of Responsibility’ model?Familiarising students with the text – How?

Modelling – How?

Sharing – How?

Guiding – How?

Independent – How?

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GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILITY

MODELLINGThe teacher

demonstrates and explains the literacy

focus being taught. This is achieved by thinking

aloud the mental processes and modelling

the reading, writing, speaking and listening

The student participates by actively attending to

the demonstrations

SHARINGThe teacher continues to demonstrate the literacy

focus, encouraging students to contribute ideas and information

Students contribute ideas and begin to

practise the use of the literacy focus in whole

class situations

GUIDINGThe teacher provides

scaffolds for students to use the literacy focus.

Teacher provides feedback

Students work with help from the teacher and

peers to practise the use of the literacy focus

APPLYINGThe teacher offers

support and encouragement when

necessary

The student works independently to apply the use of literacy focus

Role of the teacher

Role of the student

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Modelling Text Types In order for students to be able to create and manipulate various texts types effectively, they must be able to deconstruct idealised and hybrid examples .

Deconstruction allows the students to familiarise themselves with the text before them and analyse its:– Purpose, – Structural / Organisational features , – Language features and – Conventions

Genre Learning and Teaching cycle – used for any piece of writing related to any domain of the VELS, having three steps: joint deconstruction, joint construction and individual construction

http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/teachlearn/student/keycharliteracyp6.pdf

LITERACY ELEMENTS

• Read Aloud

• Shared Reading

• Guided Reading

• Independent Reading

SPEAKING & LISTENING

OBSERVATION&

ASSESSMENT

• Write Aloud

• Shared Writing

• Guided Writing

• Independent Writing

“What I think I can say.What I say can be written.

What is written can be read.”

Using fiction to help students understand point of view.

• Click Clack Moo

• ‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb into his skin and walk around it.’ Atticus to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Developing persuasive writing skills

• Use real life examples – advertisements are a particularly good source of persuasive language and techniques.

• Start with oral language – use an issue that needs to be decided in your class and allow students who support one side or another to present their arguments.

• Encourage students to physically place themselves on a scale to show how strongly they agree or disagree with an idea – good to develop concept of modality.

Developing skills (cont)

• Cut up a persuasive text and have students sequence it. Discuss how they know in which order to place it.

• Conduct class surveys then discuss the results, allowing students to justify their opinions on the topic.

• Read and write letters to the local paper about topics that are meaningful to the students.

• Asl students to write the other side of an argument and discuss why this is difficult.

Naplan Assessment 2011

• Persuasive writing will be marked in a way that closely parallels the marking of narrative writing.

• Assessment rubrics for both narrative and persuasive writing include common criteria, which will assist in comparing results from the different forms of writing.

• However, persuasive writing and narrative writing also have some criteria that are unique to each form. For example, persuasive writing assesses rhetorical techniques whilst narrative writing assesses the development of character and setting.

• The key focus skills for both rubrics are available for comparison here.• Although persuasive writing tasks are different from narrative writing

tasks, eight out of ten criteria used for assessment are common to both.

NAPLAN Assessment Criteria

Persuasive Genre • Audience The writer’s capacity to orient, engage and persuade the reader• Text structure The organisation of the structural components of a persuasive text (introduction, body and

conclusion) into an appropriate and effective text structure. • Ideas The creation, selection and crafting of ideas for a persuasive argument. • Persuasive devices The use of a range of persuasive devices to enhance the writer’s position and persuade the

reader. • Vocabulary The range and precision of language choices. • Cohesion The control of multiple threads and relationships over the whole text, achieved through the use of

referring words, substitutions, word associations and text connectives. • Paragraphing The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assists the reader to follow the line of argument. • Sentence structure The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences. • Punctuation The use of correct and appropriate punctuation to aid the reading of the text.• Spelling The accuracy of spelling and the difficulty of the words used.

Weighting of CriteriaCriterion Score range

Audience 0-6

Text Structure 0-4

Ideas 0-5

Character and setting 0-4

Vocab 0-5

Cohesion 0-4

Paragraphing 0-2

Sentence structure 0-6

Punctuation 0-5

Spelling 0-6

References

• www.writingfun.com (2010)

• Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), (2009) Key Characteristics of Effective Literacy. Pub. Student Learning Division, Melbourne

• Nonfiction Mentor Texts (2009) Dorfman Lynne R. Cappelli R

• Annandale .et al (2004) First Steps Writing 2nd Edition, WA Department of Education and training.