Select a year to see courses
Select a year to see available courses
Join 75,893 students who already have a head start.
"*" indicates required fields
Join 8000+ students each term who already have a head start on their school academic journey.
Persuasive techniques are the specific language and structural choices a writer or speaker uses to move an audience toward a viewpoint or an action. HSC English and the NAPLAN writing test both reward the same skill: naming a technique, pointing to where it sits in the text, and explaining the effect it has on a reader or listener.
A persuasive technique is a deliberate choice, in wording or in structure, that a composer makes to influence how an audience thinks or feels about an issue. A rhetorical question, a statistic, a personal anecdote and a tricolon are all persuasive techniques. So is choosing “we” instead of “people” to make an audience feel implicated in the argument.
Naming a technique earns nothing on its own. “The composer uses a rhetorical question” is a label, not an analysis. What markers actually reward is the sentence after it: “the rhetorical question forces the reader to supply their own answer, which makes the composer’s conclusion feel self-generated rather than imposed.”
Persuasive techniques appear in speeches, opinion pieces, advertisements, letters, and the persuasive essays students write themselves for both NAPLAN and school assessment tasks.
A persuasive technique is a single tool. A persuasive text is the whole piece of writing or speech built from many techniques working together, in a structure with an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Our guide to writing a persuasive text covers that structure in full. This guide is the reference for the techniques themselves.
| A persuasive technique | A persuasive text | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | One language or structural device | The complete piece built from many devices |
| Example | A rhetorical question, a statistic, an anecdote | A speech, an opinion piece, a NAPLAN persuasive response |
| What you analyse | The effect of that one choice on the reader | The overall structure, contention and argument |
| Where it is assessed | Inside close analysis of any text | As its own composition task |
Most persuasive techniques work through one of three classical appeals, and naming which one a technique serves is what separates a strong analytical sentence from a list of labels.
Ethos appeals to the composer’s own credibility or authority: a speaker citing their years on the job, or a writer quoting an expert, is building ethos. Pathos appeals to the audience’s emotions, through emotive language, personal anecdotes and vivid imagery. Logos appeals to logic and evidence, through statistics, cause and effect, and structured argument.
A speech built entirely on logos reads like a report. One built entirely on pathos reads like a sales pitch. The strongest responses notice when a composer shifts between the three and explain why the shift matters at that point in the text.
The tables below group 30 techniques by how they work. Use them as a reference, not a checklist to tick off. A response built around three techniques explained in real depth beats one that names ten and explains none.
| Technique | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Emotive language | Chooses words with strong emotional weight over neutral ones | “The frightened, exhausted family” rather than “the family” |
| Inclusive language | Uses “we” or “us” to fold the audience into the argument | “We cannot ignore this any longer” |
| Direct address | Uses “you” to speak straight to the reader or listener | “You have the power to change this” |
| Rhetorical question | Asks a question for effect, not to gather an answer | “How much longer can we wait?” |
| Repetition | Repeats a word or phrase to fix it in the audience’s mind | “Never again. Never again. Never again.” |
| Anaphora | Repeats the same words at the start of successive sentences or clauses | “We will fight. We will not surrender. We will win.” |
| Tricolon | Groups three words, phrases or clauses for rhythm and completeness | “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” |
| Hyperbole | Deliberately exaggerates for effect | “This is the worst decision in a generation” |
| Alliteration | Repeats an initial consonant sound across nearby words | “A future of fear and failure” |
| High modality language | Uses words like “must”, “will” and “cannot” to state certainty rather than possibility | “We must act today” |
| Technique | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ethos | Builds the composer’s own credibility or authority | “As a paramedic of twenty years, I have seen this firsthand” |
| Pathos | Appeals directly to the audience’s emotions | A description of a child’s fear during a natural disaster |
| Logos | Appeals to logic, evidence and reasoned argument | “If costs rise by 12 per cent while wages stay flat, households lose ground” |
| Statistics and data | Uses numbers to make a claim concrete and measurable | “One in four students reports feeling this way” |
| Expert opinion | Cites a specialist or authority to support a claim | “Leading researchers agree that early intervention works” |
| Anecdote | Uses a short personal or illustrative story to ground an abstract point | A single parent’s account of a difficult decision |
| Analogy | Compares an unfamiliar issue to a familiar one to make it easier to grasp | “Ignoring the warning signs is like ignoring a smoke alarm” |
| Cause and effect | Links an action directly to its consequence to build urgency | “Cut funding now, and the waiting list doubles by next year” |
| Concession and rebuttal | Acknowledges the opposing view, then argues against it | “Some say it costs too much. But the cost of doing nothing is higher” |
| Call to action | Tells the audience exactly what to do next | “Write to your local member today” |
| Technique | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Juxtaposition | Places two contrasting ideas or images side by side for effect | Describing a child’s laughter beside a description of the flood that follows |
| Extended metaphor | Develops one metaphor across several sentences or a whole passage | Describing a community as a single body that “cannot heal while one limb is ignored” |
| Symbolism | Uses an object or image to represent a larger idea | A single tree standing after a bushfire, representing resilience |
| Allusion | Makes a brief reference to a known event, text or figure to borrow its meaning | Comparing a decision to “another Franklin Dam” |
| Understatement | Deliberately downplays something for ironic or sobering effect | “It was, shall we say, an inconvenient outcome” after describing a disaster |
| Loaded language | Chooses words that carry built-in judgement, not just meaning | “Regime” instead of “government” |
| Euphemism | Softens a harsh reality with gentler wording | “Letting staff go” instead of “sacking staff” |
| Varying sentence length | Uses short sentences for impact and long ones to build an argument | A single three-word sentence after a long, detailed paragraph |
| Framing | Presents an issue through a particular lens to steer how it is judged | Calling a proposal “reform” rather than “cuts” |
| Personification | Gives human qualities to something that is not human | “The drought crept across the district, swallowing paddock after paddock” |
Answer the question in four moves: name the technique, quote it briefly, state the appeal it serves, then explain the effect on the audience. Miss the last step and the sentence is description, not analysis.
Use this sentence template as a starting point, then adapt it so it does not read like a formula:
| The composer’s use of [technique], evident in “[brief quote]”, appeals to the audience’s [ethos, pathos or logos], positioning the reader to [specific effect]. This strengthens the composer’s contention that [contention]. |
|---|
“Language technique” tells a marker nothing. “Emotive language” does.
A phrase of three to six words is usually enough. A long quote without analysis wastes time you do not have in an exam.
State whether the technique is working through ethos, pathos or logos, or a combination of the three.
Go past “this persuades the reader” to what it makes the reader feel, question or want to do, and why that serves the composer’s purpose in that part of the text.
Persuasive technique analysis is core to both the Year 9 English and Year 10 English term courses. Matrix teaches the next school term’s content before school does, so students meet these analytical skills, practise them in scaffolded writing tasks, and get them marked with feedback, ahead of the assessment that tests them.
Nine weekly 1.5-hour lessons per term, on campus or online. Year 9 English is $747 per term, Year 10 English follows the same structure. Backed by the First Lesson Money-Back Guarantee.
Book a free trial lesson and see a Year 9 or Year 10 English class before you enrol
Here is a short persuasive paragraph, followed by an analysis using the method above.
| “We cannot keep looking away. Every winter, more families in our own suburbs go without heating they can afford. I have sat in those cold kitchens. I have heard the excuses parents make to their children. This is not a distant crisis. It is happening two streets from where you live, and it will keep happening until we act.” |
|---|
The composer’s use of inclusive language, evident in “We cannot keep looking away”, appeals to the audience’s pathos, positioning the reader as a participant in the problem rather than a bystander to it. This strengthens the composer’s contention that action is a shared responsibility, not someone else’s job.
The composer’s use of ethos, evident in “I have sat in those cold kitchens”, establishes firsthand authority on the issue before making any claim, which makes the anecdote that follows harder for the audience to dismiss.
The composer’s use of direct address, evident in “two streets from where you live”, collapses the distance between the audience and the issue, converting an abstract statistic-shaped problem into a personal, local one.
Each technique gets its own sentence of explanation, rather than a list of three labels with nothing attached to them.
| Feature spotting (lower band) | Analysing (top band) |
|---|---|
| “The composer uses emotive language to persuade the audience.” | “The composer’s emotive language, ‘exhausted and afraid’, appeals to pathos, making the reader feel the family’s exhaustion rather than simply being told about it.” |
| Naming eight techniques in one paragraph with no explanation | Naming three techniques and explaining each one’s effect in full |
| Quoting a long sentence with no clear reason | Quoting only the phrase that carries the technique |
| Treating “persuasive” as a single label for the whole text | Identifying which specific techniques build that overall persuasive effect |
| Assuming every technique works through pathos | Naming whether a technique appeals to ethos, pathos or logos, and saying why |
Persuasive technique sits inside two parts of HSC English: analysing how other composers persuade, and using techniques deliberately in your own writing. NESA’s English Standard 11 to 12 Syllabus names The craft of writing as its own Year 12 focus area, where students compose their own texts, including persuasive ones, and are expected to control technique on purpose rather than by accident. The same focus areas are worded the same way across the current and outgoing syllabus, so this remains the reference point through the 2027 transition.
Persuasive technique analysis also comes up wherever a task calls for a response to non-fiction, discursive or persuasive texts as part of close reading, and in composing tasks that call for a sustained argument.
No. Since the persuasive task was introduced in 2014, NAPLAN’s own guidance confirms there has been an equal chance of a narrative or a persuasive prompt each testing period, and the text type is not disclosed beforehand. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 all sit the same text type as each other in a given test period, though the specific prompt varies by year level and testing day.
Persuasive writing is marked against criteria that closely parallel narrative writing, with nine of ten criteria shared between the two marking guides. The one criterion unique to persuasive writing assesses persuasive devices directly, which means naming and controlling technique is not incidental to the mark. It is a dedicated line on the rubric. Our NAPLAN writing prompts guide has sample prompts for both text types across all four tested year levels.
Because students cannot know in advance which text type they will be given, the safest preparation is comfort with both, not a bet on one.
A persuasive technique is a specific language or structural choice, such as a rhetorical question, a statistic or an anecdote, that a writer or speaker uses to influence how an audience thinks or feels about an issue.
Nothing. Both terms describe the same concept, and different teachers, textbooks and Matrix guides use them interchangeably. If a question names “persuasive devices” instead, answer exactly as you would for “persuasive techniques”.
No. NAPLAN has given an equal chance of a narrative or persuasive prompt since 2014, and the text type is never announced before the test. Preparing for both is safer than preparing for one.
Fewer, explained properly, beats many, listed quickly. Three or four techniques with full analysis of their effect will outscore a list of ten techniques with no explanation attached.
Ethos appeals to the composer’s credibility, pathos appeals to the audience’s emotions, and logos appeals to logic and evidence. Most persuasive texts use a mix of all three rather than relying on just one.
Mostly, yes. Techniques like rhetorical questions, tricolon and emotive language work in both forms. Delivery-specific techniques, such as pausing for emphasis or varying your tone, apply to spoken texts and do not transfer directly to a written essay.
Persuasive technique control is part of the craft of writing skills built across Year 11 and Year 12 English Advanced. The Year 11 English Advanced term course opens with Reading to Write, taught one full term ahead of school, so students build these analytical and compositional skills before their first assessment task.
Nine weekly 1.5-hour lessons per term, $756. A 5-day Holiday Accelerated course covering the same content runs this October, also $756. Backed by the First Lesson Money-Back Guarantee.
Book a free trial lesson before Term 1 2027 starts on 12 October
Persuasive technique is one small piece of a much larger toolkit. Our literary techniques toolkit covers the rest, including metaphor, hyperbole and juxtaposition in full.
Matrix Education is the leading tutoring college for Year 3 to 12 students.
Written by Ruby
© Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au, 2025. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
