Download Persuasive Non-Fiction

Non-Fiction
An overview and examination of the different types
of non-fiction
Non-fiction Overview
 What is non-fiction???
 Non-fiction is writing about real topics
 Non-fiction is about actual people, events, and places
 It is unlike fiction, obviously, which is about imagined people,
worlds, and events.
 Non-fiction includes journalism, textbooks, essays, pamphlets,
journals, letters, memoirs, and biographies, just to name a few
examples
Non-fiction: Overview
 Sometimes it is purely factual, but sometimes authors may
also insert their personal opinions
 This is why it is important to read non-fiction critically, and
evaluate the author’s intentions, messages and support.
Elements of Non-fiction
 There are four main elements of non-fiction:
 1) Purpose
 2) Organization/Structure
 3) Tone
 4) Style
Let’s look at each in more depth….
1st Element: Purpose
 Purpose is essentially the author’s reason for writing the
piece of non-fiction.
 Is he or she simply informing the audience about a topic, or is
he or she trying to convince the audience of something too?
 There are two things in particular you should consider with
the author’s purpose
 Audience: who is the author trying to reach?
 Bias: does the author have a clear opinion?
2nd Element: Organization/Structure
 A piece of writing typically has a particular structure or
organization
 Examples: chronological, cause and Effect, definition,
analysis, problem-solution, compare/contrast, Narrative,
etc.
 Often a piece of writing will contain several types of
organization within it
3rd Element: Tone
 Tone is basically the author’s attitude towards his or her
subject or the audience
 Tones can be sarcastic, accusatory, skeptical, etc.
 We will examine tone separately later
4th Element: Style
 An author’s style is the particular way he or she writes
 Style can consist of, but is not limited to, diction, tone,
imagery, concrete details, figurative language, perspective,
and support
1st Type: Expository Non-fiction
 Expository non-fiction is generally used to inform an
audience about a particular topic
 Can also be used to describe or explain something (ideas,
terms, people, events)
 When writing this type of non-fiction, you cannot assume
the audience has any prior knowledge
 Should not include much if any bias
Expository, cont.
 Different types of expository writing:
 Description: describes a topic
 Sequence or process-lists items in a numerical or chronological
order (how-to)
 Comparison: Comparing two items
 Cause/Effect: list causes and the effects
 Problem/Solution
Expository, cont.
 Facts, statistics, quotes, etc. are important as support in
describing a particular topic
 Should include a strong introduction to grab the reader’s
attention
Persuasive Non-Fiction
English 9 Non-fiction Unit
Purpose
 The purpose of persuasive non-fiction is to persuade the
reader to believe a certain opinion
 It’s important to 1) identify the author’s opinion/position, 2)
then identify the arguments they use, and 3) finally evaluate the
strength of their arguments.
 The author should have support to back up their ideas (stats,
facts, quotes, etc.)
Bias
 Persuasive non-fiction will include bias and opinion
 It is your job to find it and evaluate the author’s arguments
 Do not confuse facts with truths
 A truth is an idea believed by many yet cannot be proven
 Ex.: dogs are almost always more friendly than cats
Persuasive Appeals
 Aristotle: the father of rhetoric (study of using language
(written or spoken))
 He articulated three persuasive appeals:
 Appeals to Logic
 Appeals to Emotion
 Appeals to Character
Appeals to Logic
 Trying to appeal to people’s sense of reason by using support
statements to support their claim
 Using evidence, facts, statistics, definitions, quotes from
experts, logical arguments and valid reasons
 Aim for the brain
Appeals to Emotion
 Trying to appeal to an audience’s emotions or passions in
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order to persuade them
The author/speaker will try to make them happy, sad,
outraged, etc. to get them to support their argument.
They will mention issues that are important to the audience.
They work because if someone becomes emotionally involved
with a topic they will be more likely to support it.
Aim for the heart
Appeals to Character
 The author is trying to demonstrate the strength of their
character, in order to prove that they are a reliable source
 Showing the audience you are trustworthy
Examples of Persuasive Appeals
 Example #1: Buying a puppy, but it’s expensive
 Appeals to:
 Logic: Providing benefits of / reasons for owing a puppy
 Emotion:
 “look at how cute it is!” (appeal to girls)
 “You’ll be popular with all the girls!” (appeals to boys)
 Character: History of successful breeds
 Certified as a pure bred dog
Examples of Persuasive Appeals, cont/
 Example #2: Selling a new car
 Appeals to :
 Logic: Highlighting gas mileage / safety
 Emotion: Mentioning how cool the owner will look in a new car
 Character: of the salesman / dealer; good track record / awards
Example of Persuasive Non-fiction
 P.G. Sittenfeld: “Young Voters an Decide Their Future”
 Assignment: Identify the
 Purpose
 Organization
 Tone
 Style
 Is there any bias? If so, what is it?
 Which audience do you think the author is trying to reach?
Second Example: Stephen King
 “Now You Take Bambi”
 Examine the purpose and the arguments King makes
 Also, evaluate his support and reasoning
 Is he biased?
Persuasive Techniques: Propaganda
 Propaganda: Propaganda is the misuse of information in
order to persuade you of something
 Technically it is official government communications to the
public that are designed to influence opinion. The
information may be true or false, but it is always carefully
selected for its political effect.
 It is most often found in politics, but it can also show up in
advertising and journalism, among other places
 It is used to influence our thought and behavior
 It can be blatantly obvious or incredibly subtle
Propaganda, cont.
 When politicians, marketers
and writers try to sway your
opinion, you need to be on
your guard
 Especially with propaganda,
you need to be able to
evaluate the author’s message
or argument to determine if
it is valid or not
 With so much information out there,
often we have to take mental short cuts to
process it all
 Propagandists love these short cuts,
because it allows them to manipulate their
audience, by stirring emotions, taking
advantage of our insecurities, and by using
ambiguous language and faulty logic.
 If we’re not careful, they may influence
our thought without us even knowing it
Propaganda in Animal Farm
 We saw propaganda when we studied Animal Farm; it was something
George Orwell wanted readers to be aware of
 The pigs use fear tactics when they threaten the return of Mr. Jones,
preying upon the animals’ fears of Mr. Jones to keep them in line
 Squealer uses the phrase it has been “proved by science” to add legitimacy
to his argument-this is the use of transfer
 Finally, when the pigs in charge talk about changing the animals’ rations,
they use ambiguous language, speaking not of a “reduction” but a
“readjustment”
Propaganda Techniques
 We are going to examine eight common propaganda
techniques, though there are many others as well
 Much of this information has been taken from the following
website: http://www.propagandacritic.com
Transfer
 Think of the transfer
technique as making false
connections
 With transfer, propagandists
will try to sway your opinion
by carrying over “the
authority, sanction, and
prestige of something we
respect and revere to
something [they] would have
us respect”
 Uses a lot of symbols to
accomplish this
 Examples:
 A commercial for a prescription
drug claiming its effectiveness
and safety have been “proven
through scientific research”
 Placing a picture of an American
flag on the packaging of a
product-they must be patriotic!
Plain Folks
 When someone uses the “plain
folks” technique, they are trying to
make the audience believe that they
are average Joes and their ideas are
“of the people”
 It works (they hope) because
people are more likely to accept the
message if they think the
speaker/writer is just like them
 Examples
 Think about politicians-they
try to get votes by acting like
average men and women,
when in reality most of them
are millionaires
 Bill Clinton ate at
McDonalds; Ronald Reagan
often was pictured chopping
wood
Euphemisms
 Euphemisms essentially
equate to word games
 A euphemism is…
 It aims to convince
someone of an idea by
using words that sugar coat
or cover up unpleasant
realities
 Often found in military
language
 Civilian casualties in
wartime: “collateral damage”
 MX-Missile was named the
“peacekeeper”
Glittering Generalities
 Some words have very fixed
associations or emotions
attached to them: democracy,
Christianity, patriotism, etc.
 When someone uses this
technique, they use these
cherished words to lower our
resistance to their idea; they
hope we will hear those
magic words and be sold
without considering the idea
itself
 Perhaps a politician wants us
to give up certain liberties or
freedoms-they know we will
resist, but if they try to
explain how “patriotic” it is to
give them up, or how
important is for our
“democracy,” they hope they
can sway our opinion-we’ll
think, “well, I want to be
patriotic, and I do love
democracy, so I’ll agree!”
Bandwagon (“Don’t be left behind”)
 The bandwagon technique
 An advertisement for car
tries to get us to do
something because everyone
else already is-we wouldn’t
want to get left behind!!
 Essentially it tries to get us to
follow the crowd
 Peer pressure
 Speakers/writers will appeal
to our common ties-appeal to
us as “Americans”
insurance that claims two
million people have already
made the switch
 Political campaign- “your
neighbors support the causeso should you!!”
Testimonial
 Testimonial involves the use
of celebrities or athletes to
endorse a product
 If the person who is
endorsing the product, idea,
or politician is an expert in
that field, there is no
problem-the problem is when
that person has no
experience-and thus no
expertise-in that area
 Any athlete and Wheaties-but do
they really eat them??
 Athletes and anything they
endorse-do they really use those
products and therefore do they
really know how good they are?
 Are they engineers, scientists,
etc. who can tell us that the
products live up to their claims?
Fear
 When someone tries to scare
you into believing in an idea
or a proposal, or when they
try to scare you into buying a
product, they are using the
fear technique
 Preys on our fears and
insecurities-offering “what if ”
scenarios and presenting us
with the solution to prevent
us from that scenario
 Examples
 Seatbelt commercials using
footage of horrific car
accidents to shock you into
wearing seatbelts
 Jack in Lord of the Flies-”you
don’t want the beast to come
back, do you?”
 Animal Farm-”you don’t
want Mr. Jones to return, do
you?”
Name Calling
 The opposite of glittering
generalities
 Name calling is the use of
labeling someone with a name
that has bad connotations or
associations in order to get the
audience to dismiss someone or
something based on this word’s
associations rather than actually
examine the person’s ideas
 This is done to ruin a reputation
by linking someone to an
unpopular idea or group
 Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s-
those who held unpopular
(though not necessarily bad)
beliefs or ideas were labeled as
“communists”
 This preyed upon people’s fear
of communism-to link someone
with communism was to suggest
they were bad people
 Using terms like
Things to ask yourself when evaluating
persuasive messages
 What is it the author wants you to believe or do?
 What arguments or techniques does the author use to sway
your opinion?
 Does the idea, proposal, or product still have merits when
you consider it without the propaganda technique or
persuasive appeal-or are they trying to mislead you?
Narrative Non-fiction
 The third and final type of non-fiction we’ll discuss is
narrative non-fiction
 Narrative non-fiction relates a personal story or narrative
 Usually shows a lesson the author has learned as a result of his
or her experience
 Can include bias and opinion since it’s being told from the
author’s perspective
Narrative Non-fiction, cont.
 This type of non-fiction is very similar to fiction writing
 Often has characters (sometimes the author)
 Sometimes includes a conflict to be resolved
 Should have a strong introduction to grab the reader’s
attention
 Conclusion might relate to the lesson learned-may contain an
insight based on the author’s experience
 Memoirs are the best example of narrative non-fiction
Tone in Non-fiction
 Tone is the author’s attitude towards the subject or the
audience
 As you can see from the handout on tone, there are many
possible tones authors use.
 There are four components that often make up an author’s
tone: diction, images, details, and sentence structure
 You can use the acronym D.I.D.S. to help you remember
Elements of Tone: Diction
 Diction is the author’s word choice
 An author will use certain words depending on his attitude
towards the subject
 Denotation vs. Connotation
 Denotation is the word’s literal dictionary meaning
 Connotation is the word’s associations or suggestions-in other
words, what associations come to mind when we hear a word
 Words can have a positive, neutral or negative connotation
 An example would be the word “old,” which is mostly neutral
 Think of some words with positive connotations to describe someone
who’s old
 Now think of some words with a negative connotation
Elements of Tone: Images
 Images are any vivid appeals to understanding using the
senses-images are the kinds of pictures, sounds, tastes,
smells, etc. included to help the reader “see” and “experience”
the text
 You can determine the author’s attitude through the images
he or she chooses to include
 What kinds of images would an author include if he or she
were reviewing a restaurant?
 Sights:
 Sounds:
 Smells:
 Tastes:
Elements of Tone: Details
 Depending on the purpose, an author will select specific details
to include when writing a piece of non-fiction
 The author or speaker’s tone will depend on his or her purpose
 Consider for a moment that you were playing baseball with
friends, and you hit a baseball that sailed through someone’s
living room window.
 What details would you include if you were telling a friend about it?
 What if you were telling your parents?
 Authors of persuasive non-fiction will likely include or leave out
certain details depending on their purpose
Elements of Tone: Sentence Structure
 The fourth and final thing to consider when evaluating an
author’s tone is the sentence structure they use
 Sentence structure is the length and rhythm of the sentences
they create
 Longer, rambling sentences will likely convey a dry, boring,
or even gloomy tone
 Short, choppy sentences may suggest an upbeat or excited
tone
Tone: Sample Passages
 First read the excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe’s story, “The Fall
of the House of Usher”
 How would you characterize the tone? How do the four
elements of tone create such a tone?
 Next, consider the poem by Jack Prelutsky, “Today is Very
Boring”
 What kind of tone do you notice here? How is it created?
 Article from The Onion
 Note the sarcastic tone-how do they get this effect?