Emotionally-Charged Phrases

Persuasive Techniques Explained Yr 11 ESL English Name: ______

1. Modality

Modality is used to indicate the likelihood that something will happen.

Examples of modals Other modals include: I may pass English. I could pass English. I should pass English. I sometimes pass English. I usually pass English. I always pass English. 2. Emotive Language

Many words are ‘loaded’. This means they have extra meaning to them than just the dictionary definition. They have emotional overtones or connotations- that is, they express approval (positive terms) or disapproval (negative terms). Other words, however, remain neutral, expressing either approval nor disapproval. Words and phrases with emotional overtones are examples of ‘emotive language’.

a. Read through the words below in box in the appropriate column of the table. b. Think about whether the word or phrase has a positive or negative connotation or if it is neutral. Kill Fluffy little kitten Injure Poor defenceless water birds Feral killer of native birds Magnificent ocean predator Dole-bludger Queue-jumpers Shark Weapons of mass destruction Refugees Slaughter Bombs Maim Butcher Ducks Cat Unemployed Asylum-seekers Man-eating monster c. Now go to the box over the page and write each word or phrase in the column you think it belongs. Neutral Positive Negative

3. Repetition

There are two ways you can use repetition to create hooks that your audience will remember.

a. You can repeat a word or catch-phrase at key moments throughout the speech b. You can repeat a word or catch-phrase in rapid succession in one section of your speech

Examples:

 Yes, we can, to justice and equality. Yes, we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.  We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender …”

Repetition can also be in the sounds of the words used. This is called ALLITERATION. This is the repetition of consonant sounds in neighbouring words or syllables.

The most famous line Martin Luther King Jr. ever spoke was:

“I have a dream … that my four little 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.” 4. ANTITHESIS

Antithesis is the use of two contrasting words, phrases or sentences placed directly opposite one another.

Antithesis is used in the phrases:

 We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. - MartinLuther King, Jr.  Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. - JFK  One small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind. - Neil Armstrong  Money is the root of all evil, poverty is the root of all goodness.

5. Facts and Statistics

Facts and statistics are figures, which show relationships between ideas. Statistics pull together a great number of examples so that many individual items can be dealt with as a collective whole they also are used to prove a viewpoint.

“Travelling in a car is dangerous.”

 In the magazine Science, it was reported last year nearly 45,000 people died in auto collisions, the equivalent of a fully loaded passenger jet crashing with no survivors every day for a year. If everyone wore seat belts, more than half of these deaths could have been avoided.

Notice the imagery used in conjunction with the statistics.

Whenever you use statistics, ask yourself: Number one: How accurate are the figures? Number two: Who collected the data? Number three: Was the collector objective? Number four: How current are the figures?

If properly assembled and presented, statistics can be powerful devices. 6. Rhetoric and Personal Anecdote

Rhetoric is the use of speech to help listeners understand better. Often speakers use metaphor to do this.

Remember metaphors not only compare something to another but say that it actually is that thing. Eg “time is a thief”, “take time to digest the information”, “the storm was a wild beast”,

Example - From a speech by Mao Tse-tung at the opening of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on February 1, 1942.

"...So long as a person who has made mistakes does not hide his sickness for fear of treatment or persist in his mistakes until he is beyond cure, so long as he honestly and sincerely wishes to be cured and to mend his ways, we should welcome him and cure his sickness so that he can become a good comrade. We can never succeed if we just let ourselves go and lash out at him. In treating an ideological or a political malady, one must never be rough and rash but must adopt the approach of "curing the sickness to save the patient", which is the only correct and effective method."

Idea being expressed (premise): Disagreement with the government is a sickness, and is an entity separate from the afflicted.

Conclusion: The government must offer a gentle cure for a willing patient.

An anecdote is a personal story or event that is retold by a speaker to illustrate a point. Anecdotes are good tools for making speeches more interesting to an audience. They build a personal connection between the speaker and the audience and can serve as a way to make a point without being too heavy-handed. A well- constructed anecdote simultaneously entertains, informs, and persuades.

How about:

“When I was five years old I was afraid of thunder…” or

“When I was fifteen years old I was accepted into Harvard…”

We can all remember back to our childhood being afraid of something, so we understand at a deep level what the speaker is saying. The speaker makes a connection with us right away. Not many of us can remember being accepted into Harvard at any age, never mind at fifteen, so there is no sense of connection. We might wonder if the speaker is being self-indulgent and we mentally back off a bit until he comes down to a level that we are comfortable with and understand.

A personal story relies on empathy for its success but it can be a balancing act.

7. Tone

Tone is the speaker’s attitude toward a character of situation. The way you describe people, places and things and the conversation or thoughts that characters have sets the tone in the piece of writing.

Just as with emotive language, tone is set by the choice of vocabulary and descriptive words. For example,

My father was a foreign My father came from Kenya student, born and raised and was educated there. in a small village in He did chores like all the Kenya. He grew up young people in his herding goats, went to village and going to school in a tin-roof shack. school. a. Notice the different tone in these two sentences above. b. Write the sentence below again, removing the tone. That is the true genius of America, a faith in the simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles. That we can tuck in our children at night and know they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. 8. Parallelism / Parallel Structure is the repetition poetry and in other forms of writing / literature to emphasize and to link related ideas

It is a common device used in political speeches to create a more powerful effect when certain ideas are expressed.

For example, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used parallelism in his “I Have a Dream” speech to emphasize several points: “Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities…”

9. Groups of three

Although there are different names for it (Triad, Lists of Three), the device is still the same … so are the results. Using a list of three words or phrases in succession is a time-tested technique for creating memorable hooks.

Some lists of three that are embedded in our brains are:

 Of the people, by the people and for the people  Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness  I came, I saw, I conquered  Father, Son and Holy Ghost  Faith, hope and love

Winston Churchill is quoted as saying

“I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears.”

What Churchill actually said was: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

Why do you think it was changed? Write your answer here.

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