Persuasive Devices

Persuasive Devices

What are persuasive devices?

In persuasive writing the writer/speaker uses persuasive language to convince others to agree with their facts, share their values, accept their argument and conclusions, and adopt their way of thinking. These are referred to as persuasive devices.

Rhetorical Question

Questions that don’t require an answer but cause the reader to think about the topic.

Do we want our children growing up in a world where they are threatened with violence on every street corner? 

Analogy

A form of reasoning which compares one thing with another in order to make a particular point. 

School is like a prison and students are like prisoners.

Exaggeration/Hyperbole

To make something larger than it really is. Being over-the-top to get a point across.

Can we afford to add the use of cellular phones in schools to the long list of things that jeopardizes the lives of our future generation? 

Repetition 

Repeating words and phrases to reinforce an argument and ensure that the point of view being made stays in an audience's or reader’s mind.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. : I Have a Dream Speech (1963)

Multiple Choice

"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

• Analogy

• Rhetorical Question

• Repetition

• Hyperbole

Multiple Choice

"Most of us go through life like the warning light on a car which we hit to fix but ignoring the real problem."

• Repetition

• Rhetorical Question

• Hyperbole

• Analogy

Multiple Choice

"He's told you to clean your room a million times."

• Repetition

• Rhetorical Question

• Hyperbole

• Analogy

Multiple Choice

"Are we born to suffer and to die, only to satisfy the whims of the rich warmongers?" "Who will kill the goose that lays the golden egg?"

• Repetition

• Rhetorical Question

• Hyperbole

• Analogy

Multiple Choice

" I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four 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. I have a dream today."

Martin Luther King, Jr. : I Have a Dream Speech (1963)

• Repetition

• Rhetorical Question

• Hyperbole

• Analogy

Multiple Choice

"Life is like a box of chocolate; you never know what you are going to get."

Forrest Gump (1994)

• Repetition

• Rhetorical Question

• Hyperbole

• Analogy