Persuasive Letters for Perspective Taking.

Michael Audas – Speech Pathology.

Writing a persuasive letter can be a fun way to encourage children to think about the perspectives and motivations of others. In order to convince someone, you need to think about a person’s personality traits, desires, beliefs, and circumstances.

Ordinarily, persuasive writing tasks in school are addressed to a generic audience (e.g., a classroom cohort), but a persuasive letter is addressed to a particular person. This means that one has to think deeply about that person in order to select, and then word, the points of argument that will persuade them to adopt a particular position, or to undertake a particular action.

Books with rich, vibrant characters—such as classic fairytales—are a great way to kick off this exercise. Children can select their favourite character from the story, take on their perspective, and then write a letter to persuade another character from the story. For example, Rapunzel’s father might write a letter to the Witch, pleading for his daughter’s release, or The Big Bad Wolf might write an apology letter to Little Red Riding Hood, and attempt to convince her that their unfortunate history was really just a big misunderstanding.

The following is a helpful checklist to run through with children in order to keep them on track, and to check whether their letter is sufficiently persuasive:

• [ ] Includes sender’s address
• [ ] Includes an opening sentence that hooks the reader
• [ ] Includes an introduction, paragraphs explaining a point each and a conclusion
• [ ] Each point has an explanation and evidence to support it
• [ ] Includes emotive language, such as “Everyone would ecstatic if…”
• [ ] Includes rhetorical questions, such as “Are we supposed to just sit back…?”
• [ ] Includes exaggeration, such as “It would be a tragedy if…”
• [ ] Includes flattery, such as “I’ sure that you have already noticed…”
• [ ] Includes a conclusion that summarises the main point and reiterates the opinion
• [ ] Finishes with “Yours faithfully” if you don’t know the recipient or “Yours sincerely” if you do know the recipient.