effect of persuasive techniques on audience

Question 1

ad hominem attack

Answer 1

-Often uses emotive language to create a strong negative depiction of a person or group
-Undermines the opposition’s credibility, positioning the audience to dismiss their ideas or viewpoint

Question 2

Alliteration

Answer 2

-Gains the audience’s attention by adding emphasis, especially in headlines
-Draws attention to the key words that can have a positive or negative impact

Question 2

Anecdote

Answer 2

-Lends weight/crediblity to the writer’s viewpoint. Inclining the reader to trust the writer’s opinion as being well informed.
-Gives the issue a more human angle, making it seem more relevant or real

Question 2

Analogy

Answer 2

-Explains a complex point in more familiar terms, usually with a clearly positive or negative slant.
-Can help to make the contention look simple and obvious by linking it to something that the audience knows well or can grasp easily.

Question 2

Appeal to being up-to-date

Answer 2

-Encourages the audience to want to adopt new technologies and practices, or to reject existing ones.
-Can make change seem less intimidating

Question 3

Appeal to family values

Answer 3

-Invokes the audiences’s desire for emotional security and a protecting, nurturing environment for children
-Can work implicitly when antisocial behaviour is blamed on dysfunctional famalies

Question 4

Appeal to fear and insecurity

Answer 4

-Play’s on people’s fears, eliciting a strong emotional reaction to the issue rather than a logical, reasoned response.
-Inclines the audience to want to lessen the threat to themselves or society by taking the writer’s advice

Question 5

Appeal to financial self-interest

Answer 5

-Positive impact: the audience feels pleased about getting value for money
-Negative impact: the audience is annoyed about paying too much or about the misuse of money

Question 5

Appeal to loyalty and/or patriotism

Answer 5

-Invokes feelings of pride, a shared identity and a common purpose
-Can be used to attack a practice or points of view as being inconsistent with the group’s values

Question 5

Appeal to tradition and custom

Answer 5

-Inclines the audience to resist change and to favor past or existing traditions
-Comparisons with ‘modern’ lifestyles can make the audience feel that social cohesion is being lost

Question 6

Appeal to justice and fairness

Answer 6

-Encourages the audience to feel that action should be taken to avoid injustice
-Places any practice that treats people fairly in a positive light

Question 7

Creating a dichotomy

Answer 7

-Positions the audience to see the writer’s viewpoint as obvious or self-evident
-Uses loaded language to characterise the two sides in strongly positive and negative terms

Question 7

Emotive language

Answer 7

-Encourages the audience to response on an emotional level
-The audience’s emotional response positions them to share the writer’s viewpoint.

Question 7

Cliche

Answer 7

-Reassures the audience through familiarity
-Often has a comic effect, either reducing tension or producing a sarcastic, critical tone a part of an attack

Question 8

Exaggeration, overstatement and hyperbole

Answer 8

-Attracts the audience’s attention through a surprising or extreme claim
-Can generate humour to make the audience regard the writer’s viewpoint positively.

Question 9

Facts and Figures

Answer 9

Makes the writer’s viewpoint seem objective rather than subjective/personal
Can create a convincing but potentially misleading impression through selective use of data

Question 10

Figurative Language

Answer 10

-Creates a striking image, often working on an emotional level through the connoatations of the image
-Can capture the audience’s attention by being more engaging than dry descriptions

Question 11

Generalisation

Answer 11

-Appeals to a widely held belief or assumption
-Can manipulate the audience’s view by simplifying a complex issue

Question 12

Inclusive Language

Answer 12

-Appeals to a desire for a sense of belonging, and positions audience members to want to share the same as others in the group.
-Invokes the audience’s desire not to be ‘left out’ or regarded as an outsider

Question 12

Irony and Sarcasm

Answer 12

-Inclines the audience to disapprove of the situation or view being criticised
-Can subtly align the audience with the writer’s viewpoint which is presented as superior by implication

Question 13

Jargon

Answer 13

-Can help convey the writer’s expertise in a field
-Can suggest objectivity or fact-based opinion, adding credibility

Question 14

Puns and plays on words

Answer 14

-Often attracts the audience’s attention, especially in a headline
-Can generate humour to endorse or mock an idea or group
-Can present a point of view on a topic through the positive or negative connotations of the ‘double’ meaning of a word

Question 14

Reason and logic

Answer 14

-Suggests that the writer’s viewpoint is true and not just their opinion or emotional response
-Positions the audience to feel that opposing viewpoints lack substance
-Often used with a detached tone and/or formal style to suggest authority

Question 15

Repetition

Answer 15

-Emphasises the main point or key term
-Often used in speeches to reinforce or highlight a point, and to make it more memorable

Question 16

Rhetorical Question
NOTE: ONLY DO THIS IF THE RHETORICAL Q IS GOOD AND ADDS SIGNIFICANTLY DO THE ARGUMENT

Answer 16

-Encourages the audience to (mentally) supply the answer and see things from the writer’s perspective
-Implies that the answer is self-evident and therefore opposing viewpoints can be rejected.
-Can be combined with an emotional appeal and/or inclusive language