Lesson video

Hi everybody, and welcome to our lesson today.

Today, I'm really excited because we're about to begin our third and final outcome for our Sherlock Holmes unit.

So let's get started.

Our learning objective today is to identify the features of a persuasive letter.

This is lesson number one of 10, and it's our third outcome from this unit.

In this lesson, you will need your exercise book or lined paper, your pen or pencil, and your best learning brain.

Pause the video if you need to go and get any of those things.

So today's agenda, we're going to begin by reading a model of a persuasive letter.

Then we're going to consider the PALLP.

If you're not sure what PALLP means yet, don't worry because we're going to talk about that later in the lesson, then we're going to look at the features of a letter and finally identify those features in a model.

We are going to write a persuasive letter to Sherlock Holmes in this writing outcome.

The word persuade means to convince.

So have a think about a time where you've perhaps tried to persuade someone to do something for you.

Think about the kind of language you might have used when you were trying to persuade or convince them to do something.

We are going to be using some of those skills in our writing this time.

So we need to think a little bit about the historical context of our letter.

This will all make sense in a few short moments, but we need to understand a little bit about how people felt about crime during the Victorian period and how they felt about the police in the Victorian period.

So I'm going to read this and you can follow along with me.

You can also pause the video if you would like to stop and reread it yourself.

Crime in Victorian London, Victorian people greatly feared crime because it was very harshly punished.

However, many people were very resentful and angry towards the police because often crimes did not get solved properly.

At the time, many police officers were exposed as being corrupt.

For example, police would accept bribes from criminals in return for not arresting them.

For this reason, many Victorian citizens did not trust the police to protect them.

Now it's important that we realise this was during the Victorian era.

Now we're going to read a model.

So here I have on my right hand side, my address.

It's been sent to 221b Baker Street in Marylebone, London, NW1 6XE.

Now we know that this is Sherlock Holmes's house.

On Monday, the 20th of September, 1875, dear detective Holmes.

I am aware that you are an incredibly important and busy man.

However, I am writing to ask for your kind consideration and help in solving the mystery of my beloved sister, Julia, who very tragically died this week.

I found her lying on the floor, dead, with a look of sheer terror on her face, but with no murder weapon and no injuries, there is little to investigate.

Despite this, I am convinced that she has been murdered.

I am also certain that you are the only detective capable of solving this gruesome mystery.

Although I have, of course, contacted the police about my suspicions, they have been completely unhelpful during this heartbreaking ordeal.

As I'm sure you are aware, crime is rife in London at this time, civilians do not feel safe walking these streets.

I am certain that you, as a gifted and intelligent detective, understand that this vile criminal must be stopped.

Surely you would not allow your untarnished reputation to be ruined by refusing to investigate this case.

Now we're going to pause there because there are a few tricky words here, and you can see that I've highlighted some of them in bold.

Before we move on to the next paragraph.

We're just going to unpack these words and make sure we understand what they mean.

So, as I am sure you are aware, crime is rife in London at this time.

Civilians do not feel safe walking these streets.

Now you might be able to work out what the word rife means, but if you're not sure, it means very common.

We could substitute rife with "very common." Crime is very common in London at this time.

So because of that, civilians do not feel safe walking these streets.

Now a clue, civilians is a noun, they're the people who live there.

So the people who live in London do not feel safe on the streets at the moment, because crime is so common.

I am certain that you, as a gifted and intelligent detective, understand that this vile criminal must be stopped.

This, hmm, criminal, what type of word do you think it is? It comes before a noun, so it is an adjective meaning disgusting.

The word vile means disgusting.

This disgusting criminal must be stopped.

Surely you would not allow your untarnished reputation to be ruined by refusing to investigate this case.

Untarnished is another adjective and it means perfect.

Surely you would not allow your perfect reputation to be ruined by refusing to investigate this case.

And now we're onto our final paragraph, and you can see I've highlighted some of these words in bold.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter.

I do hope that you can understand the urgency of this situation.

We would not want there to be future victims. and I very much look forward to witnessing you solve the mystery of Julia's untimely death.

We really are incredibly lucky to have such an astute, esteemed detective to help prevent further bloodshed at the hands of this vicious predator.

Yours sincerely, Helen Thomas.

Now we're going to look at some of this vocabulary, the word urgency.

I hope that you can understand the urgency of the situation, meaning the importance, it's got to be solved quickly.

We would not want there to be future deaths.

And I very much look forward to witnessing, meaning it's a verb, watching, to watching you solve the mystery of Julia's untimely death.

So I can see the word time there and that prefix un suggests it's the wrong time.

It happened too early.

In this context, Julia's death was too soon.

She should not have died at the time she did.

We really are incredibly lucky to have such an astute, esteemed detective.

Now, this is an expanded noun phrase, adjective, comma, adjective, noun.

So what do these adjectives astute and esteemed mean? Astute is an adjective meaning intelligent and esteemed as another adjective meaning respected.

So let's use those words.

We really are incredibly lucky to have such an intelligent, respected detective to help prevent further bloodshed at the hands of this vicious predator.

Now we might see the word predator when we're talking about animals.

For example, a lion is a predator, it hunts zebras, but here we're referring to the criminal as a predator, a hunter.

Yours sincerely, Helen Thomas.

So now we've read an example of the letter.

We're going to discuss the PALLP.

The purpose, audience, language, layout, and punctuation.

First of all, the purpose, why was it written? Have a think, why did Helen right to Sherlock? Have a think, tell me if you can.

Well done, she wants Sherlock to help her solve the mystery of her sister's death.

Who was it written for? So who read the letter? Well done, Sherlock Holmes.

Was it a formal or an informal tone in this letter? Was Helen writing to Sherlock as if she is a friend of his, or was it more formal than that? What do you think? It is a formal letter.

Helen doesn't know Sherlock Holmes.

She's asking him to, she's writing to him to ask for his help with a very important crime to solve.

So it's a very formal tone.

Now the layout, how is it set out on the page? So for example, some features of a letter, we might see the address and we might see the "Dear Sherlock Holmes," and our sign off was Yours sincerely, Helen Thomas.

So if we were to just look at that letter as a whole text, we would immediately see some features, which would show us that this piece of writing is a letter.

And finally, punctuation.

Is there any key punctuation we would expect to see? So for example, we would expect perhaps a few rhetorical questions.

So we would expect some question marks, and we might see some other punctuation as well.

We'll discuss that in a little bit more detail throughout this unit.

So here are some features of a persuasive letter.

So aside from the formal tone, the address to the writer, these are more the things that if I was writing to persuade somebody to do something for me, these are some of the techniques I might use to try and convince them to do that.

So I might use some evidence to support my points.

I might try and flatter them, which means paying them lots of compliments and telling them how amazing they are so that they'll do as I ask.

Presumption, I might already presume that the person has decided to help me.

Rhetorical questions, so when a writer uses rhetorical questions in their writing, they aren't expecting the reader to answer out loud, but to answer these questions in their minds.

And finally, veiled threat.

So as a writer, I might decide to make some very subtle threats to my reader to basically say, "well, if you don't help me, then there might be some bad consequences for you if you decide not to help." Here are the features of a persuasive letter written as a checklist.

So number one, flattery.

Number two is evidence to support my point.

Number three is veiled threat.

Number four, rhetorical questions.

And number five is presumption.

I would like you to pause the video now while you write down your features checklist, and you can resume once you're finished.

Make sure you write the number beside each one.

Okay, everyone.

So we've just spent some time looking at the features of a persuasive letter.

We should all have our checklist written down, and now we're going to have a go at identifying these features in a model.

So can you spot an example of flattery in the paragraph? Flattery is when I might pay my reader lots of compliments to get them to do as I ask.

So take some time now.

we can reread this paragraph together, and then I'd like you to pause the video while you look for the evidence of flattery.

Dear Detective Holmes, I am aware that you are an incredibly important and busy man.

However, I am writing to ask for your kind consideration and help in solving the mystery of my beloved sister, Julia, who very tragically died this week.

I found her lying on the floor, dead, with a look of sheer terror on her face, but with no murder weapon and no injuries, there is little to investigate.

Despite this, I am convinced that she has been murdered.

I am also certain that you are the only detective capable of solving this gruesome mystery.

So pause the video now while you see whether you can find one example of flattery in this paragraph, and you can press play when you think you found it.

Okay, everyone, I'm going to reveal our examples of flattery.

So I'm aware that you're an incredibly important busy man.

And you are the only detective capable of solving this gruesome mystery.

Here are two examples of flattery, where I've complimented my reader by telling him how important and busy and how capable he is.

Now I would like you to see, can you spot an example of evidence in the model? So is there a point in this next paragraph where I have used evidence to back up my point? I'll read the paragraph aloud first.

Although I have, of course contacted the police about my suspicions, they have been completely unhelpful during this heartbreaking ordeal.

As I am sure you are aware, crime is rife in London at this time.

Civilians do not feel safe walking these streets.

I am certain that you, as a gifted and intelligent detective, understand that this vile criminal must be stopped.

Surely you would not allow your untarnished reputation to be ruined by refusing to investigate this case.

Okay.

So reread the paragraph.

Can you find any example of where I have used evidence to support my point? Pause the video and press play again when you think you find an example.

Okay, everyone, so I'm going to reveal an example of evidence here, and here we go.

Crime is rife in London at this time.

Civilians do not feel safe walking these streets.

I've used the evidence from real life to back up my point on why it's so important that Sherlock helps me at this time.

Can you spot an example of veiled threat in the model? So can you see anywhere in this model where I suggest that Sherlock may fear some terrible consequences, if he does not help me? Pause the video while you reread the same paragraph and see whether you can find the sentence where I threatened Sherlock if he decides to not help.

Okay everyone, if you found it, then great.

If you haven't, then pause the video, I'm going to reveal our example of veiled threat here.

Surely you would not allow your untarnished reputation to be ruined by refusing to investigate this case.

So basically I'm saying to him, "if you refuse to investigate this case, then your perfect reputation might be ruined." So you've got to help me.

Now let's see if we can find an example of a rhetorical question in the model.

A quick clue, a rhetorical question ends in a? Excellent, it ends in a question mark.

So we're going to skim through and scan for a question mark.

If you found it, then read the full sentence, please.

Okay everyone.

We might have found our rhetorical question.

Hopefully we've all read it aloud.

And here is our example.

Surely you would not allow your untarnished reputation to be ruined by refusing to investigate this case? So sometimes a sentence can be two in one, it can be a veiled threat and a rhetorical question.

And finally, can you spot an example of presumption in the model? In this next paragraph, is there a sentence where I assume or act as if Sherlock has already told me he's going to help me? I'll read it first.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter.

I do hope that you can understand the urgency of this situation.

We would not want to there to be future victims. And I very much look forward to witnessing you solve the mystery of Julia's untimely death.

We really are incredibly lucky to have such an astute, esteemed detective to help prevent further bloodshed at the hands of this vicious predator.

Yours sincerely, Helen Thomas.

So pause the video and see whether you can spot an example of presumption, where I act as if Sherlock has already agreed to help me solve the mystery.

Okay, everyone, I'm going to reveal our example of presumption, here we go.

I very much look forward to witnessing you solve the mystery of Julia's untimely death.

Sherlock hasn't agreed to help me yet, but I'm already acting as if he has, I'm presuming he has, because then it makes it a bit harder for him to say no.

Okay, everybody well done for working so hard.

I've had a brilliant time working through that model together, learning some new vocabulary, and learning about the features of persuasive letters and then identifying them in our model, such excellent work.

And I'm really looking forward to us developing our knowledge of persuasive writing in our next writing lesson.

Well done everyone.