Lesson video

Hello everyone, my name is Mr. Brown, and I'm going to be your teacher for this unit.

And we are looking at persuasive writing.

So let's not hang around, let's get started.

Okay, so our learning objective for this first lesson is to understand the features of a persuasive letter.

To understand the features of a persuasive letter.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or a piece of paper, a pencil, a pen, something to write with, and your brains.

Okay, we're going to start with a quick writing warmup.

We're then going to have a good look at what persuasive actually means, so if you are not sure what the word persuasive means, do not worry.

We're going to go through that in lots of detail, and you definitely will know by the end of this lesson.

And then we're going to have a look at the features of a persuasive letter.

So what makes a persuasive letter easy to spot? Okay, so let's get warmed up.

Our writing warmup, nice and easy to start with.

Can you write these words in the correct word class categories? So I've got school uniform, teacher, read or read, thoroughly, carefully, intelligent, and considered.

Your job, why don't you just draw a line down the middle of your page and then a line from either side so you can have four parts of your page, and then can you put these words in each of these boxes? So nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

And we do these exercises again, and again, and again, in all the different classes in all the different year groups because they are so important.

Having a really deep understanding of word class is the foundation for all your writing.

Okay? You can pause the lesson; it's over to you.

Good luck.

Okay, hopefully you've had enough time.

If not, don't worry.

You can pause me if you've not paused me already, and then you can finish that activity, but let's have a look.

Okay, so what nouns did you get? Well, the correct nouns were teacher and school uniform.

Noun is a PPT, a person, place, or thing.

So a teacher is a person, and a school uniform is a thing.

It's object.

You can describe it with adjectives, so it's an noun.

Okay, let's have a look at adjectives.

Were there one, were there two, were there three? What what do you think? Intelligent, just one.

Intelligent: for someone to be very, very clever.

Intelligent is a good word that you will probably be using in this unit.

You need to be intelligent to do persuasive writing, and luckily for me, all of you are.

Okay, verbs, doing words.

What did you think? Read or read, it's exactly the same spelling for both of those words.

Read is exactly the same as read, but read is the past tense version of it.

Okay, and considered.

considered is a really nice word for when you're thinking about something, particularly perhaps an offer to do something, I'm considering it.

So I might ask you, "Do you want to come to the park after school?" You might say, "Hmm, I've considered it, "and I've decided yes." And the last one is adverbs, which must be carefully and thoroughly.

Carefully I bet you know, but thoroughly is when you do something really, really fully.

You want to make sure that you have done it to the full extent.

I have thoroughly checked my bedroom, and I still can't find my school shoes.

I'm sure you've said that to your parents or carers before.

I have thoroughly checked.

Next time that someone says, "Go and check again," you can say, "But I've checked thoroughly." Okay, let's move on.

So the big question, what does persuasive mean? Let's read a persuasive text message that I recently sent.

And can you use this to work out what persuasive means? So you're going to see a text message now that I have sent recently to my mum, and your job is to try and use the clues in the text message to work out what persuasive means.

This is definitely a persuasive text message.

So can you work it out? "Hi Mum, I'm sure you'll be able to help me with this.

"There's a bake sale at school tomorrow, "and I need to bring in some cakes.

"I could try making some myself, "but your cakes are always so delicious "and much better than mine.

"If you don't have time, "I probably won't be able to bring in anything, "and I'll have to let everyone down.

"Let me know if you can help me with this.

"Thanks so much." Okay, so that is definitely a persuasive text message.

Let's go back to our question: what does persuasive mean? What does the word persuade mean? Persuade is a verb.

Convincing someone to do something through reasoning and argument.

When you are persuading someone, you are trying to get them to do something, or to go somewhere, to help you with something, to tell you something, and you are trying to do that through reasoning and argument.

You are giving them reasons why they should do it, reasons why it's going to help, and you are arguing your point.

You are persisting to give them reasons and arguments why they should do this thing.

So there's persuade.

Persuading is to be the person doing the persuading.

I am persuading you.

Persuasion, you could say I have great skills of persuasion, and persuasive is something that you could say someone is.

It's an adjective.

You could say, "Oh, that person is persuasive." The persuasive man.

Exactly.

So now let's link things back to our warmup activity.

Can you have a go at putting the words persuade, persuasive, persuasion, and persuading into our different word classes? Let's have a go together, actually, 'cause this could be tricky.

So the first one is persuade.

You tell me, where do you think persuade goes? Persuade.

Is it a noun, person, place or thing? Adjective, describing word? Verb, something you do? Adverb, tells you how you do it? Persuade, persuade.

Can you go and persuade that person to play with us? Persuade, oh, if it's something you do, it must be a verb.

Yes, okay.

Persuasive, persuasive.

How would you use that in a sentence? Persuasive.

He is very persuasive.

Persuasive.

The persuasive girl.

Ah, so if it's used in that sense, then it must be an adjective.

Of course, yeah, persuasive.

You can describe someone as persuasive.

The persuasive girl walked into the room.

Yeah, nice.

Okay, great.

Persuasion, persuasion.

Persuasion.

It's not an adjective.

Because you couldn't say, "The persuasion girl." That doesn't make sense.

Something you do? Can you go and persuasion that person? No? Okay.

It's not an adverb, it must be a noun.

Yeah, it's a thing.

It's persuasion.

You can have skills of persuasion.

Very nice.

Okay, I'm persuading.

Is it an adverb? That's the only box that's empty, but it doesn't end in -ly.

Could you describe, could you describe a verb as persuading? No, I don't think so.

So it must be persuading.

Yesterday.

I was persuading someone.

Yeah, it's a verb.

It's something that you do.

Good job.

Okay.

When might you be persuasive in real life, then? Where might you use your persuasion skills in real life? What do you think? At school? At home? Well, the answer is actually all the time.

When you're at home and you're trying to persuade your parents or carers, maybe to let you do your homework later on so you can play a game first of all, that's persuasive.

You're being persuasive, Bedtime: children often are negotiating their bedtime, aren't they? They are being persuasive to be allowed to stay up a bit later.

Play dates.

I often hear children in the playground trying to use their persuasive skills to persuade their parents and carers to let them go on a play date.

Sports clubs, going shopping.

When you're going shopping and you are asking your parent or carer, whoever you're with, to get a certain product, you are persuading them.

Getting a pet, the classic example.

Children are always trying to persuade their parents to get a pet.

These are persuasive examples.

What jobs require someone to use their persuasion skills? Let's think beyond school when you're older and you're looking to get a job.

What skill, what job might need skills of persuasion? What do you think? Well, again, it's almost all of them.

The classic example is politicians.

Politicians definitely need very, very good skills of persuasion because they are trying to persuade others to think that their idea is the best idea and that's the way that they should go.

When a politician is asking the country, trying to persuade the country to vote for them, they're using their persuasive skills.

Okay, advertising, a really big example.

Anyone who makes adverts, whether you're designing adverts, whether you're coming up with the words for an advert, whether you're directing an advert, you need great persuasion skills because all adverts are, are examples of persuasion.

They are trying to persuade you to buy their product.

If you see an advert for a drink, that drink is trying to get you to buy it.

It's trying to persuade you to buy it.

Sales.

You might have some parents or carers who work in sales.

Anyone who sells things, people that sell cars, people that sell houses, people that sell memberships for gyms. These are all examples of persuasive jobs, jobs where you have to use your skills of persuasion.

You have to persuade someone to buy something.

A lawyer, very, very clear example of persuasion.

Someone who is a lawyer is trying to persuade the jury that their client, the person they're representing, is innocent, did not do a crime.

And that is, I mean, what a clear example of persuasion.

A charity fundraiser, I thought, was a really nice example.

People who work for charities and are trying to raise funds try to persuade people to give money to their charity.

And then I thought, okay, what about in sports? And a football manager is a really, really good example of someone who uses their persuasion skills.

They have got to persuade the players to play their best.

You are trying to motivate and persuade players to give their all on the pitch.

You're also trying to persuade them that you know, as the manager, the best way to play.

The best formation, the best tactics.

There's so many jobs that are examples of persuasion.

Okay, let's have a look at some persuasive techniques.

First one is flattery.

Flattery.

Have you heard that word before? Hmm.

Complimenting the reader.

Someone as intelligent as you will.

That's an example of using flattery.

When you are complimenting someone you'll say nice things to them.

Someone as intelligent as you will, and then you tell them what they definitely will or will not know.

There are few as ___ as you.

And you could say, you know, there are few as intelligent as you.

There are few as beautiful as you.

Maybe you're trying to flatter your parents or carers at home, and you might say, "There are few as beautiful as you, Mum.

"Would you be able to help me with this?" I have always admired the way you ___.

So admiration, talking about something you like about them.

That's flattery.

So that's our first persuasive skill.

The next one is presumption.

Now, I wonder if you've heard the word presumption, but I bet you've heard of the word presume.

Presuming something.

Don't presume something.

Presumption is believing that something will happen on the basis that it is most probable.

So that sounds a bit of a complicated definition, but all that means is you are thinking that something will happen.

That's what presumption is.

I am presuming that you will do fantastic in this lesson.

And I'm using my kind of knowledge on the basis that you're still watching the lesson, you're focused, you're listening.

I'm presuming it's going to go really well.

Here's some example of presumption.

I am sure that you will agree that ____.

And then you tell them what you think they're going to agree with.

The way you say, "I am sure you'll agree "that this is the right decision," and things like that.

I know you will make the right decision by ___.

Just telling them, "I know you will make the right decision," not "I think you might make the right decision," or "I hope you make the right decision," I know it.

You most probably already have plans to _____.

I mean, how clever is that? You're trying to tell them.

If you're trying to convince your family to let you stay up later, you might say, "Well, you most probably already have plans "to allow us to stay up later night, but just in case," and then you start persuading them.

Very clever.

Okay, and the last one is a veiled threat.

A veiled threat.

And a veiled threat is informing someone of what will or could happen if they do not do what you're asking them to do.

So a threat is when you tell someone that something bad could happen.

I might threaten to take away a child's playtime if they're not working hard in class.

I might say, "Well, I don't want to have to take away "your play time, but if you don't get this work done, "you might have to." That's a threat, isn't it? You're threatening to do something if something doesn't happen.

Here's some examples.

If you are not able to ____, then, and you could paint a really negative picture of what might happen.

The consequences of not ____ could be huge.

The consequences of not allowing us to stay up late tonight could be huge.

Should you not ____ then? And you tell someone, "If you don't do this, "this is going to happen, and it's going to be bad." Okay, let's have a quick go then, shall we? Can you persuade me to buy your pencil for 10 pounds? The pencil you're holding right now, or pen, I want you to try and persuade me to buy it for 10 pounds.

That's way too much money for a pencil, isn't it? But if you use your skills of flattery and presumption, maybe a veiled threat, you might be able to convince me to buy it for 10 pounds.

Now, if you've got a parent, or a carer, or an older sibling, or a younger sibling at home, you could try it with them.

And you can ask them, or you could persuade them, to try and buy your pencil for 10 pounds.

But if not, I'm ready.

Try and persuade me.

Okay, pause the lesson and have a go at persuading someone to buy that pencil for 10 pounds.

Very good persuading.

I was really tempted to buy that pencil for 10 pounds because you used flattery, presumption, veiled threats.

Very, very good.

Okay, let's now have a look at the features of a persuasive letter.

This whole unit is building up towards us writing a persuasive letter.

So let's have a look at one.

In this unit, we'll be preparing to write a persuasive letter.

Let's have a look at an example of the features of a persuasive letter.

And features simply means the things that tell you that it is something.

For example, the features of a kitchen would be an oven, a sink, a fridge, a table maybe to eat.

They are the features of the kitchen.

They tell you, "Oh, this must be a kitchen "because I'm seeing mm, mm, mm." They are features of a kitchen.

Okay, let's have a look.

Now this was a letter that I wrote to the prime minister, and I wrote it because I was asking the prime minister to be able to change the school week from five days to four days, and on the fifth day, everyone would do online learning at home.

That was an idea I had.

Now, what would be really nice is if you pause the lesson and read this letter, if you have some time now.

If not, you can do it after the lesson, 'cause it's quite a long letter, but it's a really good example of a full letter.

But what we're focusing on now is not so much the letter.

So you don't have to worry about reading it.

We're focusing on the layout, the features.

And the first feature I want to draw your attention to is, starting at the top, your address.

You always, when writing a persuasive letter, you put your address on the right-hand side.

So that's the address that I'm sending it from.

Now, I've made up that address because, and this is just an example letter, but you, if you want to, you can use your real address or you can make one up, too.

Okay, so you put your address on the right-hand side.

Then on the left-hand side you'll see at the top you put the recipient's address.

Now recipient means the person who is receiving.

Recipient, receiving your letter.

The person who you are writing it to.

So you put their address, and I've got 10 Downing Street, London.

Underneath the recipient's address you put the date, the date that the letter has been written, Then we're starting to get into the letter, you put "Dear" and then the person's name.

I've put "Dear Prime Minister," and then you have a comma at the end of it.

Dear Prime Minister comma, but you might be writing it to your mum.

So it might be "Dear Mum." Then you have an opening.

So this might only be one or two sentences, but it tells the recipient who you are, and the main point that you're writing this letter about.

What are you trying to write the letter? It gives them some information that just tells you what the whole letter is going to be about.

Then we have point one and point two.

We'll look in later lessons at how we write our points, but you always want to try and make two points in a letter.

Finally, you have your closing where you wrap everything up, and then your "Yours sincerely," or "Kind regards" at the end of the letter.

That will have a comma, too.

So "Yours sincerely," or "kind regards," and then finally your name.

And these are all the features of a persuasive letter.

Is a persuasive letter formal or informal? Now formal means serious.

A job or school interview, a newsreader will be formal.

He'll be wearing a suit.

It is not relaxed.

That's what informal means, which is something like texting a friend or a family member or going to the cinema is a relaxed activity.

Formal is much more serious.

Going to a school or a job interview.

A newsreader, when they're reading the news, they'll have their buttons done up, a tie.

So I guess I'm dressed kind of, I've got a shirt on with a collar, which is a bit formal, but then it's also no tie.

I'm quite relaxed as well.

So I'm kind of in the middle.

How about, then, my letter? Where would you put it on the scale of formal to informal? What do you think? My letter had things like "Yours sincerely," "Dear," and it said the person's name.

It had addresses on it.

My letter, my persuasive letter, was definitely formal.

And that's going to be a key thing to remember.

Everything we do in this unit will be formal.

So sit up straight now, buttons up, put your tie on if you've got one.

We are very formal when we're doing this work.

Okay? I'll try and be as formal as I can.

So for your task today, I would like you to try and write down all the features of a persuasive letter.

Use the knowledge gained in today's lesson and write a list of all the features of the persuasive letter.

Then rewind the lesson to check if you remembered them all.

Once you're done, you can resume.

Okay, pause the lesson and have a go at your task now.

So I hope you had a go, and I hope you have found all the features of the persuasive letter.

Today we have done our writing warmup.

We've looked at what the word persuasive means.

We've got a great knowledge of that now.

We've looked at the features of a persuasive letter, too.

We are done.

Well done.

Good work today.

Foundation for what's going to be a fantastic unit of work.

I really know it.

In between this lesson and the next lesson, why don't you start using your persuasive techniques, perhaps on your family or friends.

Superb work today, everyone.

You have learned a lot, especially about all those different persuasive techniques, and the features of persuasive letters.

So I look forward to seeing you next time for another great lesson.

Well done.

See you soon.