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Key tips for writing to persuade, argue and advise
In IGCSE English, key tips are
- Genre
- Audience
- Purpose
Writing to argue
Introduction must summarise the issues that you are yet to write about.
- In IGCSE English, put at least three reasons for your argument forward.
- Counter argument?
- Evidence in your argument such as: statistics, stories, quotes from authorities.
- Rhetorical questions
- Varied sentence structure
- Emotive language
- Good opposing connectives, e.g
- On the other hand
- Firstly/Secondly/etc.
- However
- Nevertheless
- Despite the view
- Research states that
- Another factor to be considered
- Ending must conclude your own view and must summarise
Writing to persuade
In IGCSE English, Unlike when writing to argue the arguments can be far more :
- One sided
- Passionate
- More like a personal conviction (you hold the belief that your views are the RIGHT views)
Examiners love:
- Emotional anecdotes (brief personal story that serves its purpose to create a powerful illustration about why your view is the right view) MAKE IT UP!!!!!
- Give yourself and your opponent a common goal-this way your job of persuading them doesn't become too much hard work.
- shows sustained awareness of the audience
- Arguments are convincingly developed and supported by relevant detail
- Ideas are selected and prioritised to construct a sophisticated argument
- Paragraphs are effectively varied in length and structure
- A wide range of appropriate, ambitious vocabulary is used
- The writing flows and is made coherent through the use of connectives
- Rhetorical devices, such as:
- Rhetorical question
- Emotive language-imagine being cast out into the street, cold, lonely and frightened
- Parallel structures
- Sound patterns- alliteration, assonance (fine,time)
- Contrast-sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind
- Description and Imagery-metaphor, personification and simile)
- The ‘rule of three-I ask you, is this fair, is it right, is it just?
- Repetition-Evil minds will use evil means.
- Hyperbole-using exaggeration for effect
Writing to advise
Purpose:
To provide interesting and informative guidance on a topic specified in the exam question.
- In IGCSE English, to do so in a way that is suited to a specified type of audience.
- to show you know the conventions of the form required, e.g. a letter or an article.
- Whatever form your writing takes - letter, article, speech - you will be expected to establish, quickly, a rapport, i.e. a good relationship, with your reader or audience. You can use several techniques to do this.
- Make it clear that the problem you are advising on is current, real, relevant and worthy of consideration.
- 'I worry about my appearance, you worry about your appearance - we all worry about our appearance. Each time we pick up a magazine we are faced with images of perfect faces, perfect bodies, perfect everything. What can we do to regain a sense of perspective, a sense of reality - a sense of self-control?'
- Explain the problem to show why it's happening.
- If appropriate to your audience, use informal, even chatty, English to create a friendly empathic tone.
- Make suggestions that are genuinely achievable and helpful.
- Address the reader directly as 'you' and use the 'inclusive "we"' to make it personal and to include yourself in the problem.
- Give reasons why the advice is worth taking or what the consequences could be.
- In IGCSE English, Refer to outside sources of reliable advice such as specialists or university research (make this up for the exam - this isn't a test of your knowledge of the subject but of your writing skills).
This is the end of the topic!
