English II Unit 5

A persuasive essay should feature the following elements:

- a clear statement of your position on an issue that has more than one side -evidence and reasons that support your position and persuade readers to agree -statements that identify and address readers' possible arguments against your position

distinguish between fact and opinion:

Determine what kind of support a writer should provide. A statement of fact can be proven true or false. A statement of opinion expresses a belief or a viewpoint and should be supported by facts or logical reasoning.

Understand Organization of Text:

Please see Page 9 of your Unit 5 Packet.

Read to Perform a Task:

Please see pages 25 and 26 of your Unit 5 Packet.

Appeals to reason:

The author uses logical arguments backed by facts. Example: The soccer team deserves a pizza party because it has won all six games it has played this season.

Appeals to authority:

The author uses opinions of experts and wellknown people to back up his or her ideas. Example: According to the Surgeon General, every American should get a yearly physical examination.

Appeals to emotion:

The author uses words that convey strong feelings. Example: We will mourn the loss of natural beauty in our town if we foolishly allow the great oaks along Main Street to be heartlessly cut down.

analytic essay

When a writer explores a subject by breaking it into parts.

interpretive essay

a writer offers a view of the meaning or significance of an issue of general interest. The author of an interpretive essay introduces an issue and then addresses it, presenting his or her ideas and analysis based on his or her own ideas, values, and beliefs. A single essay may combine features of both types of essay.

author's purpose:

is his or her main reason for writing. The most common purposes for writing are to inform, to persuade, and to entertain. To determine an author's purpose, notice the types of details included in the work. Writers may use facts and statistics to inform or persuade. They may use stories about personal experiences to inform or entertain. Often, authors will have more than one purpose—to inform while entertaining, for example.

Persuasive writing

is nonfiction intended to convince people to take a particular action or agree with the author's point of view. Persuasive writers present arguments, using reason to support their positions.

rhetorical devices

patterns of words that create emphasis and stir emotion

evaluate the writer's appeals

when you decide whether the writer makes a good case for his or her point of view. If a writer calls for a particular action or makes a specific claim, test the writer's logic. To do this, consider whether the evidence and reasoning the writer presents supports the point. For example, if a writer claims that fish make better pets than dogs, he or she needs to support this opinion with evidence and reasoning. A good supporting point might be that fish cannot dig up one's yard. An illogical or poor argument might be that mice have a tendency to bite. This argument does not support the point that fish make better pets than dogs.

Writers of analytic and interpretive essays might use any of the following types of appeals to support their points:

• Appeals to authority, which call on the opinions of experts or other respected people • Appeals to reason, which call on logic • Emotional appeals, which tap a reader's fears, sympathy, or pride • Appeals to shared values, which call on beliefs shared by many about what is good, right, or fair

Rhetorical devices include the following:

• Repetition—the reuse of a key word or idea for emphasis • Parallelism—similar grammatical structures used to express related ideas • Slogans and saws—short, catchy phrases • Rhetorical questions—questions that are intended to have obvious answers and that are asked for effect Examples of persuasive writing include persuasive essays, speeches, advertisements, political writings, legal arguments, sales brochures, and fund-raising letters.