Explore Persuasive Writing Techniques

Persuasive devices, also known as persuasive writing techniques or rhetorical devices, are strategies or tools writers and speakers use to influence their audience’s opinions, attitudes and behaviors. These techniques are commonly employed in various forms of communication to make the message more convincing and compelling.

This simple cut-and-paste worksheet has been designed by our experienced teacher team to introduce the most common of these persuasive writing techniques to your students. They are required to read a collection of sentences taken from a persuasive text about homework. Then, they must cut out the sentences and paste them into the correct field of the table, depending on the persuasive writing technique being used.

The persuasive writing techniques included in the worksheet are:

• Rhetorical question
• Inclusive language
• Alliteration
• Emotive language
• Modality
• Exaggeration
• Repetition
• Rule of 3

An answer sheet is also provided in the download.

This worksheet exploring persuasive writing techniques downloads as an easy-print PDF or an editable Google Slides digital document. It makes the perfect addition to any lesson exploring the language features of persuasive texts.

Further Extend This Persuasive Language Activity

Once your students have completed the worksheet, you may be in need of additional learning activities to check that your students have effectively grasped this concept. Here are some suggestions you might like to implement during your lesson on the persuasive language features:

• Use the eight sentences contained in the cut-and-paste worksheet as a starting point for writing a complete persuasive text about why homework should be abolished. You might like to brainstorm possible arguments as a class, then have the students vote on which arguments are the most persuasive. Students could then work independently to write their own texts.
• Not confident that your students are quite ready to tackle a complete persuasive text independently? No problem! Start small by asking your students to write another sentence that could be included in the persuasive text about abolishing homework for each persuasive writing technique on the worksheet.

Download to Teach Persuasive Writing Techniques

As mentioned above, this worksheet downloads as either an easy-print PDF or an editable Google Slides version. Use the Download button to access your preferred file format. (Note: You will be prompted to make a copy of the Google Slides template on your personal drive before accessing it.)

As the download contains an answer sheet, we suggest printing one copy of the entire resource, then removing the answer sheet before making copies for your students.

More Resources for Teaching Rhetorical Devices

We know that teachers are in desperate need of high-quality, low-fuss teaching resources to make their lives easier. Click below to explore more curriculum-aligned resources to use when exploring rhetorical devices with your students!

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Rhetorical Devices Anchor Charts

Support students to improve their persuasive writing with these rhetorical devices anchor charts.

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Rhetorical Devices Teaching Slides

Explore types of rhetorical devices with your students using this detailed and age-appropriate slideshow perfect for your persuasive writing unit.

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Rhetorical Devices Sorting Activity

Explore rhetorical devices with your students using this set of sorting cards.