How do you build a persuasive text that moves a specific audience toward a position?
Create persuasive texts that use argument and rhetorical strategy to position a specific audience.
How to construct a persuasive piece - line of argument, rhetorical strategy and tone - that genuinely moves a defined audience for the Creating Texts folio.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this dot point is asking
A persuasive text is a common choice in the Creating Texts folio (worth 40% of your SACE Stage 2 English grade). It might take the form of an opinion column, a speech, an open letter or a feature article with an argumentative edge. The performance standards reward texts crafted for purpose and audience and controlled, effective use of language and stylistic features - so persuasion here is judged as craft, not just as having strong opinions.
The core of any persuasive piece is a clear contention - the single position you want your audience to accept - and a line of argument that builds toward it. Decide your contention first, then sequence your reasons so each one prepares the ground for the next.
Argument first, devices second
Rhetorical devices are powerful only when they carry an actual argument. The most persuasive writing reasons well and also sounds compelling; writing that is all device and no substance reads as hollow to a discerning marker.
Match rhetoric to audience
Choose appeals that suit who you are addressing. Appeals to fairness, to self-interest, to shared identity, to evidence and authority each land differently with different readers. Inclusive pronouns, rhetorical questions, anecdote, expert evidence, and a calibrated emotional register are tools - use the ones that move this audience, and vary intensity so the piece builds rather than shouting from the first line.
Common error
Close by leaving your audience with a clear sense of what follows from accepting your contention - a call to act, a reframed way of seeing the issue, a final memorable line. Because your folio includes a Writer's Statement, also stay conscious of why you are making each choice: a strong persuasive piece is one whose strategy you could later explain. The dot point asks you to position a specific audience, so success looks like a reader who, by the end, finds your position harder to dismiss than they did at the start.