Persuasive Language - An Analysis

 

English Language Assessment – Analysis of Persuasive Writing

 

The art of persuasive language is used by many people in different situations to get the audience to agree with their own views. It can be both direct and subtle. In this assessment I will be looking at a variety of texts and how the authors of said texts use persuasive techniques effectively.

 

The first article is a response to an open letter, meaning that anyone can read it and not just the person to which it is addressed, written by Sinead O’Connor to Miley Cyrus concerning her ‘Wrecking Ball’ music video. The response is written by Melissa Bradshaw, persuading an audience that it is not Miley Cyrus, and to extent women in general, that is a ‘victim’ but is in control of the things she does, whether that include getting naked in a video that received over 18 million views.

Bradshaw uses synthetic personalisation to involve the audience, for example saying ‘perhaps you can already see a problem here’. The use of the pronoun ‘you’ is a direct address. It is calling upon the reader to think of their own opinions on the subject matter. She also does this by saying ‘we live in a world…’ to connect herself with the reader’s situation.
Bradshaw effectively uses rhetorical questions, such as ‘but where does that leave women who don't have boyfriends or husbands, or who want to be promiscuous?’, to provoke thought about what is lacking from O’Connor’s original article. A good persuasive text will leave readers thinking about what is the right way to think about are issue, and by questioning their current views.
The simple sentence ‘the perpetrators are to blame’ draws the reader’s attention to the opinion because it’s direct, strong and leaves no room for argument. It’s using the negative connotation of ‘perpetrators’ to relate to rape culture that is talked about within the article.
Overall, the tone of the article is critical of the opinion of Sinead O’Connor by the constant questioning of her logic.

 

The second article is written by Victoria Coren, writing about her opinions on the choice within Girl Guiding to remove the word ‘God’ from their “Promise” in replacement for ‘be true to myself and build upon my beliefs’.

The headline of the article ‘God swapped for gobbledegook’ instantly gives Coren’s point of view on the matter, which is that taking away the word God from the Promise is taking away one of the fundamental elements of Girl Guiding: a belief in God.

Coren uses an asyndetic list as well as 'tripling' to create a negative effect with the words 'lame, weak, hollow' All of these words have a negative connotation, putting emphasis on the fact that Coren disagrees with the idea. The adjective 'hollow' suggests that the new Promise has little effect or substance.

She writes 'was there no better alternative?'. Much like Bradshaw, Coren uses rhetorical questions to make the reader think about what should have been done. However, the point of a rhetorical question is that there is supposed to be no answer.

By using anaphora with 'when I was a kid' helps to reinforce that things have changed drastically over time. The use of short, simple sentences makes the writing style in this paragraph very conversational, making the reader feel closer to the writer and to the topic, perhaps as well as thinking of how things were like in their own childhood.

Finally, throughout Coren's writing, she uses humour, to both interest the audience and belittle the people that decided to change the Promise, for example when she says 'I promise that I'll chillax over a glass of 'poo, or maybe a swift half, which would be totes amazeballs' The use of slang language makes the text uncomfortable for the reader as the target audience of this article is probably not aware of what some of these words mean. By using slang she is suggesting that the new Promise means little to an older generation of parents that would like to send their children off to Brownies.

            In the final article I looked at, the topic was about the changing milestones in a women's life, and comparing what they are now to those of an older generation. It was written by Rebecca Holman for the Telegraph.

Holman uses a lot of pronouns throughout the article, such as 'we' and 'you', like Bradshaw, to include the reader. This technique makes the reader feel more connected with what is being said and makes it easier to relate to because the subject of the article is supposedly happening to everyone.

She uses adjectives like 'overwhelmingly' to describe something positive as well as using abstract nouns like 'freedom' to persuade the reader that the direct in which society is heading is a good one. It will, in Holman's eyes, lead to more freedom for women away from the expectations that are currently upon them. This is very emotive language that promotes emotional responses.

Holman uses declarative sentences such as 'I want to have children' to make sure that her opinion is clear and easy to understand. This is similar to the way Coren stated her opinions.

Running as a constant theme throughout the article is the use of facts and figures to corroborate with whatever Holman is writing, for example 'first time buyers will hit £100,000 by 2020' This makes her opinions sound more reliable because they are backed up by evidence.

Exaggeration and hyperbole are also used to make the current life of women seem harder than it is for example: 'it will be murder on my back' and 'I only ate eggs for three days'. This use of language means that the reader can easily imagine what it's like to be a female in today's society, even if it is slightly exaggerated.

 

In conclusion, persuasive language is used in a number of ways throughout a variety of texts. It is used for multiple purposes and the use of certain techniques can vary from writer to writer depending on how they'd like to reader to respond.