Communicating on Local Issues: Exploring Audience in Persuasive Letter Writing

Materials and Technology

Student Interactives

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

Research materials for local issues

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   3 – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Organizing & Summarizing

Persuasion Map

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Letter Generator

The Letter Generator is a useful tool for students to learn the parts of a business or friendly letter and then compose and print letters for both styles of correspondence.

 

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PRINTOUTS

• Persuasive Letter Audience Analysis
  
  
• Basic Questions about Audience
  
  
• Peer Review Guidelines for Persuasive Letters
  
  
• Rubric for Persuasive Letters
  
  
• Purpose and Audience Analysis

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WEBSITES

• Exploring Audience and Purpose with a Single Issue
• The OWL at Purdue: Workplace Writers
• Persuading an Audience: Writing Effective Letters to the Editor
• NBC Local Stations
• List of ABC Television Affiliates
• Local CBS Stations and Affiliates
• News Voyager

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PREPARATION

• If students have little experience with audience analysis, complete the ReadWriteThink lesson Exploring Audience and Purpose with a Single Issue, which explores audience by focusing on a community issue. The lesson provides practice in audience analysis before students begin the work of analyzing the audiences for the letters that they write in this lesson.
  
  
• Gather research materials and resources for the project:
  
  
  • Local and/or regional newspaper and television station Web pages. (see Websites for local television sites)
    
    
  • Copies of local newspapers.
    
    
  • Web pages or details on local public access channels (if relevant).
    
    
  • Local government Web resources.
    
    
  • Links to any other Websites with relevant information.
    
    
• Make handouts with links for Persuasion Map and Letter Generator for each student so they can access Web pages on their own.
  
  
• Make copies of Rubric for Persuasive Letters, Persuasive Letter Audience Analysis, and Peer Review Guidelines for Persuasive Letters for the class.
  
  
• If desired, make an overhead transparency of the Basic Questions about Audience, for students to refer to during Session Two.
  
  
• Test the Persuasion Map and Letter Generator on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.

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