Persuasive Language

Persuasive Language Analysing speeches 8G English 2008

Aims of the lesson

Today you will be looking at the language techniques that make a text persuasive.

You will examine these language techniques in context and identify them within a text.

You will apply this knowledge to the study of speeches

Starter Activity (10 mins)

Quiz time!

Check your answers on the next slide.

If there are any you are unsure of, write them in your glossary.

How did you do? Empathy Encouraging the reader to imagine a situation, usually one in which someone is suffering Rhetorical questions A question asked by a text that doesn’t require an answer. They are used to encourage the reader to think. Repetition Key concepts, repeated throughout the text in order to reinforce meaning or increase impact Adjectives Words that describe nouns, such as ‘big’ ‘blue’ or ‘nasty’ Metaphors A comparison of two terms using the words ‘IS’ or ‘ARE’. E.g. This room is a pigsty! Imagery or figurative language Using language to create mental pictures, usually with a powerful or emotional theme Inclusive tone A technique to make the reader feel part of a text, for example, using ‘WE’ or ‘US’

Examining a speech (15 mins)

You are now going to watch Martin Luther King’s famous speech, ‘I have a dream’.

There are several persuasive techniques used in this extract.

How many can you identify yourself? Highlight them as you listen

rhetorical questions?

Applying your knowledge

You are now going to annotate your speech for some of the persuasive language features covered in the Starter. To help you, we are going to identify certain features together.

We will start with:

repetition

Repetition Look at the examples taken from the text below. Why has the highlighted section been continually repeated? What effect does it have? Is it boring for the listener? Why / not? I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character I have a dream today .

Identifying features Look at the highlighted examples below. What features have been identified for you? … will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers … … When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" inclusive tone adjectives

Continued.. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice . It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity… metaphor