Lesson video

Hello, everyone, it's lovely to see you all today.

My name's Dr.

Clayton, and I'm here to guide you through your learning journey today.

Today's lesson is called considering and using personification and persuasive letter writing.

Now, personification is a figurative language device that we commonly associate with fictional writing, but today we're gonna think about how it can be just as effective in non-fiction writing.

So if you're ready, grab your pen, laptop, whatever it is with this lesson, and let's get started.

So by the end of the lesson, you'll be able to identify and analyse the use of personification and persuasive letter writing and emulate it in your own writing.

So we have five words today we're going to be using as our keywords.

They've been identified in bold throughout the learning material.

And I'll try to point them out to yourself, so you see them being used in context.

So first word is personification, which means the attribution of a personal nature of human characteristics to something non-human.

So for example, saying the sun is smiling down on you.

We're going to think about how this process of suggesting that an inanimate object has human characteristics might add to persuasive argument.

Our second keyword is persuade, which means to convince someone to do something through reasoning or argument.

Appealing someone's emotion and forming an emotional connection to the subject can be very effective way to convincing someone to agree with your argument.

Our third keyword is sentience, which means the quality of being able to experience feelings.

When using personification, you're suggesting the object or non-human thing has sentience.

It can experience emotions and feelings and that can create the emotional connection to the audience.

Our fourth keyword is relatable, which means that someone can understand or feel sympathy for.

When you create an emotional idea of something, you can make it more relatable to someone.

You can help someone to understand it.

Finally, we have evocative, which means bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind.

By making something more understandable and forming that emotional connection, you can evoke certain feelings in the reader.

You can help bring certain feelings or images to mind.

So I'll just give you a moment to write down those keywords and their definitions.

So pause the video, write them down now.

Fantastic.

Let's get started with the lesson.

So two learning cycles in our lesson today for our first learning cycle, we're gonna define personification and think about how it might be useful in a persuasive argument.

For our second assignment, you're going to use those ideas to write your own persuasive letter using personification.

So we're going to start by just thinking generally about personification.

What is it and what is the effect of using it? Now personification is where you give human emotions or characteristics to something non-human.

As I said earlier, we typically associate personification with fictional writing.

However, the purpose of this lesson think of help be effective and persuasive writing.

So let's begin by looking this example of personification.

Groaning under the weight of the mechanical beast, The road felt painful, aching cracks beginning to form.

So just to make sure you understood what personification is and I get to first tell me what is being personified here.

So pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Now in the example, the road is groaning and it's feeling pain, it's feeling aches.

So the road is being personified because it's been given human characteristics and human emotion.

So now that we know what is being a personified, you want to think about what the effect of that personification is.

So what is the effect of suggesting the road feels pain? Now, if it was someone else who might talk ideas with them, everyone by yourself might think of ideas.

So pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone, some great ideas there.

Let's talk through your might have said.

So, you might have said that by suggesting the road feels pain, it just has a capacity to feel, and it's just the road is sentient.

By suggesting it's sentient, that creates an emotional connection to the road.

We feel sorry for it because we know what it feels like to be in pain and we don't want anything else to feel like that.

And therefore it makes you feel more inclined to do something about it.

So now for a quick check for understanding.

Which of the following sentences uses personification? Is it A, the cold breeze felt bitter and painful on my skin? B, the cold breeze whispered menacingly in my ear.

Or C, the cold breeze may be turn the collar of my coat up.

So pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's talk through the sentences.

So in sentence A, the breeze feels cold and bitter, but it's not suggesting the breeze is actually showing human characteristics.

It's the same with sentence C.

The breeze is so cold the human is forced into action, but it's not suggesting the breeze is doing this on purpose.

Therefore, neither sentences use personification.

However, in sentence B, the breeze is whispering menacingly, which does personify the wind, which is the breeze trying to intimidate someone or make them feel afraid.

And both those are human characteristics.

So very well done if you got that right.

So now that we've talked through what personification is, let's think about how it relates to persuasive writing.

Now, persuasive writing is a form of non-fiction writing that's written to persuade the reader of a belief, opinion, or idea.

So a writer that tries to convince the reader to believe your argument.

Now, what I'd like you to think about is why might personification be effective in persuasive writing? Why might giving human characteristics something non-human help convince someone to believe your argument? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Some great ideas there.

Let's talk through what you might have said.

So as we saw the example of the road feeling pain, personification creates an emotional connection.

It can be very convincing because we're all social creatures.

We respond to the emotions of others.

Because of this, it makes your argument more relatable.

It makes 'em more understandable to the reader because they can connect to it an emotional way.

It also gives a voice to things that don't have a voice.

This can be very powerful.

It allows the window into something we might not necessarily consider or allows us to think about things from a different perspective.

Finally, it can be evocative.

It can create emotions of feelings in the reader, which can be a way of influencing them.

It might inspire them to care about something they never really thought of before.

We'll take the road for example.

Hearing that the road is in pain might make people think about construction and infrastructure in a different way.

So now for a quick check for understanding, what I'd like you to do is tell me whether the following statement is true or false.

So is it true or false? The personification can be an effective tool in persuasive writing.

Pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

The correct answer is true.

It is effective.

Now I'd like you to tell me why it's effective.

Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

You might have said personification conveys sentience onto the subject of your writing.

This creates an evocative emotional connection between the subject and the reader.

The subject seems to be able to feel, it feels emotions.

So very well done if you've got those right.

Fantastic work everyone for the first task of the lesson.

So what I'd like you to do is read this snippet from Izzy's letter to her teacher to persuade him to abolish homework.

So to get rid of homework.

So Izzy said, "Watching me, always watching me.

I can feel its eyes constantly following me around the room.

When I try to relax, I can feel it crawling towards me, dragging itself across the room and placing itself next to me." Then I'd like you to answer the following questions.

So number one, how has Izzy personified the homework? And number two, what is the effect of Izzy's personification? So pause the video, take a few minutes to read through the snippet and answer the questions.

Welcome back everyone, some great work there.

So let's start by considering how Izzy's personified the homework.

So let's remind ourselves what Izzy wrote.

She said "Watching me, always watching me.

I can feel its eyes constantly falling me around the room.

When I try to relax, I can feel it crawling towards me, dragging itself across the room and placing itself next to me." Now, watching, crawling, dragging, placing are all human characteristics and it makes it seem as if the homework is alive.

Now let's consider the effect of the personification.

I'm gonna talk through the ideas of one of our Oak people, Sofia.

I'd like you to think about how well they align with your ideas.

So the question was, what is the effect of Izzy's personification? And Sofia said by using the concept of watching, it evokes ideas of discomfort and helps the reader to understand how much homework can infiltrate the home life of pupils and make them feel on edge and anxious.

Furthermore, by stressing it's crawling towards the pupils, it's just, it's always trying to get their attention.

It's affecting their lives in a physical way.

So pause the video, think about how well Sofia's ideas align with your ideas.

Welcome back everyone.

Now we're going to move on to the second learning cycle where you are going to have go using personification in persuasive letter writing.

Amazing work so far everyone.

For the second learning cycle, we're going to think about how we can use personification effectively.

Then you are going to have go using it yourself in a persuasive letter.

So let's think about how you can use personification effectively.

To be effective, the personification has to be purposeful and link the effect you want to have on the reader.

Let's talk through an example.

So let's imagine Izzy had written this about the homework.

"Snuggling up to me, its warmth provided me with a cosy feeling.

When I stood up, it laid back down and curled up to sleep." What I'd like you to think about is would this be as effective and persuading their teacher to abolish or remove homework? Why or why not? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's talk through you might've said.

Now in this example , Izzy used words such a snuggling, cosy, curling up.

And this does personify the homework, but it's not going to be as effective and convince their teacher to remove homework 'cause it makes homework seem pleasant and comforting and therefore it doesn't seem to have a negative impact on pupils or interfere with pupil's home life.

So therefore their teacher unlikely to remove or abolish homework.

So in order to effectively use personification in your persuasive writing, you might ask the following questions, how do I want the reader to feel about the non-human object or thing? What characteristics can I attribute to the non-human object or thing that will evoke that emotional reaction in the reader? So now for a quick check for understanding.

Which of the following's a more effective use of personification and persuading your teacher to abolish school uniform? So get rid of school uniform.

Is it a, it clings to me incessantly pinching and grabbing me all day long.

Or B, hugging me warmly, it whispered affirmations in my ear all day long.

Pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Now in the first example, the uniform is pinching and grabbing, actions associated with discomfort.

On the second example, the uniform is hugging the pupil and whispering kind words in their ear.

Therefore, the first example is more effective in persuading a teacher to remove school uniform, 'cause it creates a negative emotional reaction.

So very all done if you got that right.

So for your final task of the lesson, you are going to imagine you're writing a persuasive letter to your MP to argue that more needs to be done to stop climate change.

So before we have a go writing the letter, we're just going to think about how personification might be effective in convincing someone to do something about climate change.

So what I'd like you to think about is how might use personification as part of your persuasive letter.

Pause video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone, some great ideas there.

Let's talk through what you might have said.

We might have thought you could give human characteristics to nature and personify it.

In terms of how you personify it, you might make a seem as if nature is trying to help humanity and therefore make the reader feel guilty.

Or you might demonstrate how humanity affects nature negatively.

And therefore make the reader understand what nature is going through, make them want to make a difference.

Or, you might imply that nature could take revenge and therefore make the reader feel scared.

Make them realise there could be consequences for not doing something about climate change.

So now for quick check for understanding.

Which of the following personifies nature and makes it seem as if it's trying to help humanity? Is it A, nature offers food to satisfy our hunger and blesses us with shade to protect us from the sun.

B, she screams in pain when people cut down her trees.

Or C, we gut her food from nature, fruit from trees, and root vegetables from the ground.

Pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's talk through the sentences.

So in the first sentence suggests that nature's helping us by providing food and shade.

The second sentence, suggests that nature's in pain and the third sentence doesn't personify nature.

Therefore, the first sentence is the correct answer.

So very well done if you got that right.

Amazing work everyone.

For the final task of the lesson, what I'd like you to do is write a formal letter to your MP to persuade them that more needs to be done to stop climate change.

So convince them that something needs to be done.

Remember, do use personification to evoke an emotional connection.

And do use personification with purpose.

So think about the emotional reaction you want to have in the reader.

I think that how personification helps them have that emotional reaction.

Now just a reminder, in the formal letter form, the centre of the address goes in the top right hand corner with the date underneath and the recipient's address goes on the left hand side with the salutation or greeting underneath.

And then sign off goes to the end of the letter.

So pause the video and write your persuasive letter now.

Welcome back everyone, some amazing work there.

Now for the final part of the lesson, I'd like you to read through this snippet from Sofia's letter.

Do you think it's affecting persuading someone to help reduce climate change? Why or why not? So Sofia said, "The leaves dance through the air.

As I write this, I can see the trees and branches swirling and catching each other as if engaged in some sort of social ritual." So pause video, consider whether you think Sofia's snippet would be effective in persuading someone to help reduce climate change.

Welcome back everyone.

Now, I'll read you what Alex said.

"While she has used personification, I'm not sure it's particularly effective.

'Cause while it suggest sentience, it doesn't compel the reader to want to help nature." So Sofia said, the nature is dancing, it's interacting socially with each other, and that doesn't suggest the nature is being harmed by climate change and therefore it wouldn't be particularly effective in convincing someone to reduce climate change.

So how could we rewrite Sofia's snippet to make it more evocative? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Now there are many things you might have said.

Let's talk through an example.

So you might have said, "The leaves sag for forlornly.

The trees reach out to one another as if desperately trying to stem the progress of the machine making its way through their midst.

Cutting them down.

One by one." Here, we can see that nature is feeling sad, some pain, through the idea of them reaching out desperately to one another.

We can empathise with this.

Helps to understand the effect that we as humans are having on nature.

Makes them guilt, and therefore makes want to help reduce climate change and therefore reduce our feelings of guilt.

You all did amazingly well today everyone.

Here's a summary of what we covered.

Personification can be effective in persuasive writing because it evokes an emotional connection to the reader.

So giving human emotions or characteristics to non-human objects can be effective in convincing someone that your opinion or your argument is correct.

'Cause it helps the reader to feel an emotional bond to your argument.

As we saw earlier, if we're talking about climate change and we personify nature, show it's feeling pain, it would make the reader empathise, feel sorry for nature, and therefore want to help.

Arguably, personification makes subjective writing more relatable.

So giving human emotions or characteristics to the subject helps the reader to understand your argument.

With social creatures, in order to understand someone, we need the emotional connection helps understand their perspective.

And when deciding how to use personification, you should think about what emotional reaction you want to evoke.

So as we saw in the example of the homework, you want to convince the reader that something's having a negative effect.

You need to create those emotional feelings of discomfort, anxiety, anger, or guilt through the personification, in order to make your argument convincing.

I really hope you enjoyed the lesson, everyone.

I hope see you for another lesson soon.

Goodbye.