Year 9 Band P – Week 13

Non-fiction Unit of Work

• Each week you will focus on a new skill which you will explore and use through looking at non-fiction texts.

This week’s skill is persuasive writing: magazine articles

• If you need extra support, or would like some feedback on your

work, please email your class teacher.

Lesson 1: Create a mind-map of all the conventions and features of a

magazine article. Use BBC Bitesize to revise:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwt3rdm/revision/4

What are the different purposes of magazine articles? Add them to your

mind-map. Use BBC Bitesize to revise:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zqx8hv4/revision/1

Use your mind-map to write a guide for Year 8 pupils about how to write a magazine article.

In any writing task, it is important to consider the following:

• the conventions of the form

• your intended audience

• the purpose of your writing

Lesson 2:

Task 1: define the words in bold from the three bullet points above?

Task 2: Looking at the magazine on the next page, what is the purpose and who

is the intended audience of the article?

Then - label the features (conventions) of a magazine article and any

persuasive techniques. (Think back to last week’s work to help you!)

Answer the question using PEEZ: How does the writer try to persuade readers

to do more exercise by walking more? You must remember to zoom on a specific word or phrase, explaining the

effect it has on the reader and WHY.

Lesson 3: For each of the persuasive techniques listed, write your own example that could persuade people to spend

more time outdoors/in nature. e.g. Statistic – people who do at least 30 minutes of outdoor exercise each day have

47% less incidences of heart disease and cancer than those who live a sedate lifestyle.

Opinion Hyperbole Counter arguments Triples

Repetition Statistics Rhetorical questions Emotive language

PRIOR LEARNING: looking at your examples, pick 3 to up-level with vocabulary that is more ambitious. Pick 2 to up-

level with additional or more ambitious punctuation. Pick 1 to up-level by expanding it into a complex sentence.

Lesson 4: Write an article for a teenage magazine persuading teens to spend less time on social media, games and

the internet, and more time outside.

Make sure to use the conventions and features of a magazine article, as well as a variety of persuasive techniques.

Answer Sheet

Lesson 1: Conventions to include in your mind-map – headline, an engaging opening, a conclusion that draws all the main points

together, written in Standard English but with some colloquial sayings used to emphasise a point, metaphors and similes,

persuasive techniques (rule of three, repetition, rhetorical questions, statistics, hyperbole etc.), usually written in 3rd person.

Purposes of magazine articles: to persuade, to inform, to entertain, to instruct, to advise, to analyse, to argue, to describe, to

explain. All of these purposes could be used in a magazine article, depending on the content.

Lesson 2:

Task 1: Conventions – features of a specific non-fiction piece of writing, audience – who you are aiming your writing at, purpose

– why are you writing your article/letter/speech etc

Task 2: Purpose: To persuade people to walk more Audience: older women, probably in the late 40s-early 50s (we know this

because of the mentions of the menopause, which only effects women of that age).

This magazine has: a headline, an engaging opening (“it’s easy, it’s free”), it is written in Standard English, it uses some

metaphors (“feeds your brain”), it uses statistics (“increases life-expectancy by 1.8 years”), it uses lots of facts, it uses some

repetition (by mentioning the benefits regarding menopause multiple times)

MODEL PEEZ: The writer of the magazine article about walking attempts to persuade the reader to walk more often. They

achieve this when they write, “”a brisk 15-minute walk mid-afternoon cuts the amount of sweet stuff people consume, according

to research by the University of Exeter” which implies that a simple activity that anybody can enjoy will help you to control your

weight in multiple ways. This is persuasive because the article is aimed at an audience that is often concerned about their weight

(older women) but it also makes the work needed to lose weight seem minimal as it is only a “brisk 15 minute walk”. Also, the

use of an expert “University of Exeter” makes it even more persuasive because it makes it sound like the research has been

completed by people who know what they are doing, and would make the reader feel much more confident in the science behind

the claims.

Lesson 3: . Examples:

• Statistic – People who do at least 30 minutes of outdoor exercise each day have 47% less incidences of heart disease and

cancer than those who live a sedate lifestyle.

• Opinion – Walking is the easiest form of exercise to do.

• Repetition – Humans did not evolve to stay cooped up indoors. We are outdoor creatures by nature. We are designed to

be amongst nature. Our species is meant to spend time outside.

• Hyperbole – The chances of finding the right equipment to be able to achieve the right at-home exercise are one in a

million.

• Counter argument – Lots of gyms will try to argue that exercising in a tightly-controlled gym environment will make you

more likely to achieve your fitness goals, but research suggests that the added mental-health benefits of exercise

outdoors amongst nature will boost serotonin levels and help you achieve your goals must faster.

• Rhetorical question – Why would you waste the opportunity to spend your time in the sun?

• Triple – Nature walks can boost mood, increase fitness levels, and provide social opportunities.

• Emotive language – The dull torment of being stuck in the prison of your own bedroom can be beaten by taking a stroll

through the heavenly greenery of a forest.

Lesson 4:

Success Criteria Have I used it?

Uses a headline, an engaging opening, and a conclusion that ties all main ideas together

Writes in 3rd person but with a personal/friendly tone

Has a clear persuasive purpose and uses language appropriate to a teenage audience.

Uses persuasive techniques – at least 3

Uses a range of ambitious vocabulary

Uses a range of punctuation

Uses a variety of sentence types (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex)