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VICEnglishQuick questions
Unit 2: Reading and exploring texts and Exploring argument
Quick questions on Persuasive language techniques in Year 11 texts: VCE English Unit 2
10short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is naming the intended effect?Show answer
For each technique, name the effect on the audience.
What is linking technique to contention?Show answer
Each technique serves the writer's contention. A strong analytical paragraph:
What are appeals?Show answer
Recruit a value, emotion or identity in the audience.
What are generic effects?Show answer
"Makes the audience think" carries no weight. Name the specific cognitive or emotional move.
What is effect divorced from contention?Show answer
Effect without link to the writer's case loses the analytical thread.
What is quote dump?Show answer
Long quotation followed by general comment.
What is technique to specific effect?Show answer
Using a self-authored sample, the writer attacks a proposed freeway: "we are paving over the last green our children will ever see". A weak analysis: "the writer uses emotive language to make us feel sad". A strong analysis names the technique precisely and argues a specific effect: "the appeal to future generations, intensified by the absolute 'last' and 'ever', positions the parent audience to read approval of the freeway as a betrayal of their own children, pressing them toward the contention that the project must be stopped".
What is q1?Show answer
For an unseen persuasive text, identify two distinct techniques, anchor each in a short embedded quotation, and argue the effect on the audience. [6 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Rewrite this as proper analysis: "The writer uses statistics, which makes it convincing." [Short response]
What is q3?Show answer
Explain why naming a technique alone earns no marks, using an example. [Short response]