Glossary · Ideas
What are persuasive devices?
Persuasive devices are techniques — like rhetorical questions, evidence and emotive language — used to convince a reader.
Persuasive devices are the tools a writer uses to win a reader over. Common ones include rhetorical questions, facts and statistics, expert opinion, emotive language, the “rule of three”, and addressing the reader directly. Used well, they make an argument feel both reasonable and urgent.
The skill is not using as many as possible, but choosing the right device for each point — evidence to prove, emotion to move, a rhetorical question to make the reader pause and agree.
How markers see it
Persuasive tasks (NAPLAN, selective, Cambridge) reward a range of devices used purposefully, not scattered for show.
See persuasive devices on your own writing.
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