Tag Archives: call to action

Words have power

Persuasive Writing

More and more questions in school entrance exams involve persuasive writing. This is the attempt to change people’s minds about an issue, change how they feel about it or persuade them to do something. It can take many forms:

  • Essays
  • Speeches
  • Letters
  • Newspaper articles

The format of each of these is obviously different, and you can read up on how to write essays, letters and newspaper articles elsewhere on this site. However, they all rely on similar techniques, which will be covered in this article:

  • Rhetoric (or poetic devices or literary techniques)
  • Anecdote
  • Facts
  • Statistics
  • Emotion
  • Call to action

Rhetoric

Strictly speaking, rhetoric is the name given to skills and techniques involved in public speaking. It was taught by the Greeks thousands of years ago, so some of the terms derive from Greek, but it still survives today. It largely overlaps with poetic devices and literary techniques, such as rhetorical questions, similes and metaphors.

Rhetorical techniques can be used in any form of persuasive writing, and you can see a long list and explanation of the main poetic devices in my article on the subject. However, these are the main ones to consider when it comes to persuasive writing:

  • Rhetorical questions (and hypophora)
  • Tricolon (or rule of three)
  • Anaphora
  • Epistrophe
  • Hyperbole
  • Alliteration
  • Simile
  • Metaphor
  • Imagery
  • Sentence structure

Anecdote

An anecdote is a story or account of an event used to illustrate your point. It’s a good idea to make it funny if you can to get readers on your side. For example, if you were arguing that mobile phones should be banned at school, you might tell the tale of diving into a swimming pool with your iPhone still in your pocket!

Facts

If you’re trying to persuade someone who disagrees with you, it’s no good to say what you think without any evidence to back it up. This is known as mere assertion. Facts are much more convincing and help prove your point.

For example, you might be asked to write an essay on what people should eat for breakfast. Yes, you could say what you like to have, but that’s just your own personal preference. It’s far better to be able to talk about the nutritional benefits, such as the fibre in muesli or the vitamin C in orange juice.

Statistics

If you read the newspaper, you’ll often see articles using statistics to support the writers’ arguments. Statistics are just numbers that show what’s happening in the world, but they’re useful because they offer a precise measurement of the quantity of something or its change over time.

You don’t need to be good at Maths to use statistics, but it helps if you’re familiar with fractions, decimals and percentages. These are just different ways of showing the share of something or the rate of change. They often come up in discussions of economics (the study of markets and business).

For example, you might read that the economy had grown by 2.1% in a given year or that the amount of Government debt was 100% of Gross Domestic Product (a way of measuring the size of the economy).

If you’re doing an entrance exam, you might not know that many statistics, so you won’t be able to include them in your persuasive writing. However, you can always revise the topic beforehand so that you’re fully prepared!

Emotion

People are often persuaded by emotion rather than logical argument. If you can make them laugh or cry, they’re more likely to take your side.

Telling jokes is obviously a good way to make someone laugh—although they have to be funny! Telling a sad story about someone suffering is a good way to make them cry—or at least sympathise with the victim and therefore become easier to persuade.

Call to Action (or CTA)

One of the best ways to win converts to your cause and create a positive result is to include a call to action. This is something that your reader can actually do to help, such as write a letter to the local MP or turn up for a protest march.

It’s a common technique in advertising, which is designed usually to get you to buy the product. Most adverts have a catchphrase, and it’s often a call to action that invites the customer to visit a website or buy a particular brand of product.

For example, the ride-sharing app Lyft told people to ‘Ride and save’, and a Mexican restaurant chain called Chipotle told their customers to ‘Get my guac’ (or guacamole).

Verdict

If you want to persuade someone to think, feel or do something a certain way, you can’t just rely on the message itself. You have to back it up with other techniques, such as rhetoric, anecdotes, facts, statistics, emotion and a call to action.

Whether your writing an essay, a letter, a speech or a newspaper article, all these skills can help you persuade your readers—and help get you a better mark!