Influence, Power and Rhetoric in Non-Fiction

Who is speaking to whom

This unit is called Influence and Power, and most revision only ever covers the first word. Influence is the toolkit: the questions, the lists, the emotive words. Power is the relationship underneath it, and it decides what the toolkit can do. Take one sentence: "Phones off before you come in." Pinned on a door by a head teacher, it is an instruction, and nobody thinks twice. Said by a pupil to a visiting governor, the very same words are rude. Nothing about the sentence changed. The relationship did. So read every non-fiction text in this order: first work out who is speaking to whom, and which way the power runs between them; only then look at the words. The words that carry power are small ones, and they are easy to read straight past: who "we" includes, how firmly a verb commits the reader, and what role the reader has been given without being asked. And when a writer has no power over the reader at all, watch where they borrow some from.

Five words for reading power

Each of these is about the relationship between the writer and the audience, not about how the text sounds.

Which "we" is which

Five sentences from a letter a housing office sent to the tenants of an estate. Tap the TWO where "we" means only the housing office, with the tenants left outside it.

• We at the housing office are committed to this estate.
• Together, we can keep the walkways clean and safe.
• We have decided to remove the bins from the back of Block C.
• We all want a place we are proud to come home to.
• Please report any dumped rubbish as soon as you see it.

Same sentence, different speaker

A sign from the head teacher says "Bikes must be left at the gate." Nobody minds. A Year 8 pupil then says exactly the same sentence to a visiting inspector who has ridden in. What has changed?

• Only the relationship. The pupil has no authority to oblige an inspector, so the "must" overreaches and sounds presumptuous
• The pupil probably said it in a rude tone of voice
• The sentence is now false, because inspectors are allowed to bring bikes in
• Nothing has changed, because the words are exactly the same

Writing up, writing down

Every non-fiction text sits somewhere on this line. Work out which way the power runs before you look at a single word choice.

Five ways to say one uniform rule

Read a text for power

You are given an unseen non-fiction text and asked how the writer influences the audience. Put the reading routine in order.

• Work out who wrote it, in what role, and who it is addressed to
• Decide what the writer needs the audience to do or believe
• Decide which way the power runs between them
• Find the pronouns, verbs and roles that carry that relationship
• Explain what each choice does to a reader in that position
• Judge how much room the reader is left to disagree

Borrowed power

Most of the writing you will be asked to do in this unit is writing UP: to a council, a head teacher, a company, people who can simply say no. You have no authority over them. So you borrow it. There are three places to borrow from. Somebody the audience already trusts: an expert, a study, a person whose job makes them believable. The people standing behind you: a petition, a year group, everyone who will be affected. And the audience itself: what they have already said, promised or published, handed back to them. ⭐ The third is the strongest, because refusing you means going back on their own word. When you read a text by a writer with no power, the most useful question is: where is this authority coming from?

Where the authority comes from

Sentences from five different pieces of non-fiction. For each, decide where the writer is getting their authority. Three lives.

The youngest captain

A sixteen-year-old is made captain of a Sunday five-a-side team. Everybody else in it is older, and most have played for years. In the first match she shouts "Get back! Mark your man!" and nobody moves any faster. The words were fine. Shouted by the manager they would have worked at once. From her, they bounced off, because the others had never agreed she could tell them anything. By the third match she has changed how she talks. "Let us get back quicker when they break, that is where the goals came from last week." "Dave, you have played at the back for years, what are we doing wrong?" "The manager wants two staying back." ⭐ She has not got any more authority. She is borrowing it: from the result last week, from the experience of the oldest player, and from the manager. And she has stopped standing outside the team giving orders, and moved inside it.

Turn orders into a case

A Year 10 pupil drafts a letter to the head teacher asking for the library to open at lunchtime. The draft reads like a list of orders. Select every change that would make it more persuasive.

• Turn each demand into a request with a reason attached
• Show how opening the library serves something the head teacher already cares about
• Bring in support from beyond the pupil, such as a survey of the year group
• Add exclamation marks to show how strongly the pupil feels
• Use "must" more often so the head teacher sees it is serious

Finish the power sentences

When "we" takes in both the writer and the reader, agreement feels as if it has already happened, and the pronoun is _____. When "we" means only the organisation writing, the reader is placed outside the decision, and the pronoun is _____. A word such as "must" or "might", setting how firmly something applies, is a _____. A sentence that gives an order directly, with no subject at the front, is an _____. A softening that makes a claim harder to pin on the writer is a _____. Telling readers what role they play, as allies or culprits, before they have chosen it, is called _____.

Build a sentence about power

A supermarket poster reads: "Together, we can cut food waste." Assemble an analysis sentence that would earn credit.

Speaking up to the governors

The school governors have ended the after-school bus. You have been given two minutes at their next meeting to ask them to bring it back, in a short piece you will write and then deliver. Each stage hands you the decision.

• First you read their letter. It says: "We regret that the after-school bus must end." Decide what to notice first.
• You have no power over the governors, and they can simply say no. Decide how to open.
• In the middle of the piece you set out the problem. Decide how to use your pronouns.
• You reach the final line. Decide how to end.

Read the notice for power

A manager of a leisure centre pins this notice in the changing rooms: "We have listened to your feedback. From Monday, members must book every swim online. We know you will understand that this keeps everyone safe. Members who arrive without a booking may be turned away." Analyse how the manager uses language to influence the members.

• Who holds the power, and what the manager needs members to do
• What the opening "we" claims, and who it leaves out
• What "must" and "may" each do
• How the third sentence leaves members room, or none, to object
• Your judgement on whether the notice persuades or instructs