Persuasive Introductions EXAMPLES of Strategies

Persuasive Introductions

• • • • Taking a Stand Scenarios & Anecdotes Inquiry/Questioning Preparatory Information/Overview

Ineffective

Introductions

• • • •

I hope you enjoy… You are going to learn about… This essay/letter is about… I am going to tell you about…

Taking a Stand

• • • Avoid “Because I Said So…” type reasoning in your essays Your goal should be 3 Reasons Why for your Position or issue Practice—In your essay, correct your thesis to say “Macbeth is clearly insane because __________, ___________ and __________” or “Banquo’s ghost is undoubtedly real because” or “The significance of these changes/similarities/differences should not be underestimated because…”

• Intro – What does this need? – in class we said use specific words instead of “things”and completely answer the scenario.

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare Macbeth is becoming insane because he is seeing things and doing things he wouldn’t have done before the death of Duncan. Imagine if someone killed someone they cared for just for the sake of taking what’s theirs. Wouldn’t they feel guilty and start acting our of order? After murdering Duncan, Macgeth started to see things, hear things and do things out of fear.

What does this one need?

• Macbeth is far past the point of being sane and is definitely insane. Anytime there is a large amount of power involved, for example being the king of a country, then that person has a higher chance of going insane. Also killing the king in cold blood doesn’t help you keep your sanity. There are many events that support why Macbeth went insane, but seeing ghosts and floating daggers really puts a conclusion on Macbeth’s insanity.

And? –In class we said specific words and events that connect with Macbeth. Also a thesis with three reasons.

• Macbeth is insane because of the action taken place. What if things came before you? Things that weren’t really there? Things that become frightening? But it is just in your mind. Macbeth begins to do things and see things. That makes it apparent that he is insane.

Check your body paragraphs!

•

TS CD CM CM Elaboration CD CM CM CS

Check your integration of quotes…

• Macbeth howled at his wife “We have scotched the snake, not killed it” (III.2.15).

• The quote MAY NOT BE a sentence all on its own but must be part of a larger sentence.

• Check your Citations? (Act.Scene.Lines). No words!

Persuasive Strategy – Emotional Words

• • For your body paragraphs – add at least 5 more emotional words – sway my opinion! Make me feel something!

Touchy, stagnant, unhinged, deranged, tormented, aghast, anguished, stressed, flabbergasted, terror stricken, passionate, compassionate, unworthy, ashamed, betrays,

Persuasive Strategy – Compromise/Problem Solving

• • • Either before or after one of your CS in a body paragraph, you are going to add this strategy.

Offer a solution to the problems of the Macbeths!

Macbeth needs to confess his crime and take his punishment. Beginning as a warrior, he must consciously re-embrace the good, the justice he used to uphold and come to terms with his own demise, a barefaced necessity in the face of his heinous crimes.

Persuasive Strategy – House that Jack Built

• • • In your next body paragraph, either before or after your CS, you are going to add this strategy.

A leads to B leads to C leads to D etc.

Lady Macbeth should stop Macbeth’s murderous reign. If she stops it, then Scotland will be saved and Malcolm can become king. Next, this new and generous king will pardon her and she will be like a national hero. Then she will get what she wanted all along, power and prestige, something its very clear she will never get with her husband.

So, why three reasons in the thesis if only two body paragraphs?

• • You are going to add another body paragraph right now. This third one should go for DEEP ANALYSIS. That is, the other two were reasons, but with your third reason add in your CMs what this means for Macbeth and, ultimately, for all of humanity.

• Yes, Macbeth is headed for the loony bin because he is seeing ghosts and floating daggers, but he is also insanely sacrificing his most critical relationship, his marriage. Macbeth patronizes Lady Macbeth when he murmurs “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, until thou applaud the deed”(III.2.51-52). He’s not letting her in on his murderous rampage, divorcing his partner in crime, because his mental state insists that he control and construct his own reality. It’s like he’s constructing his own padded cell where he can bang himself against the walls in uninterrupted silence. Poor souls in mental anguish often do this, finding communing with those on this side of sanity too painful. The afflicted would have to adjust their skewed world view to account for the fact that what they are doing makes no sense to anyone but them, yet the disease tells them they are righteous in their deeds. Macbeth inhabits his constructed insanity. Showing that he has no intention of examining his motives, he muses “Strange things I have in head, that will to hand, which must be acted ere they may be scanned”(III.5.55). He admits its all in his head and it is all strange! Yet, the allure of his delusions are too strong. Insanity is a sweet, sweet candy that cannot be shared. Because he abandons his marriage and chooses to live in his madness, he reflects the isolating, classic symptom, which will be his downfall.

Concluding Paragraph

• • CALL TO ACTION!

Your call to action must have two components 1. Specifically state what the reader (Ms. Bennett) must do.

2. Specifically state WHEN the reader should do it.

What does this one need?

• Macbeth let himself get fooled into a thirst for power with simply trickery. Don’t be as oblivious as some, it is obvious the witches have as much power as anyone else does. Don’t be fooled by the “psychics”. Don’t be fooled by the witches and don’t fool yourself.

And this one?

• After reading this, realize that Macbeth is insane. Macbeth can solve this predicament by confessing, but ultimately will end up dead. People tend to go insane and most of them end up like Macbeth.

A perfect one.. (okay, a little dramatic)

• Macbeth’s murderous rampage, fueled by the fire of his self imposed insanity, will not cease until he has collapsed in on himself, creating a void like a black star. Learn from this, dear reader. Recognize the fatal soul stirrings within, the unquenchable thirst, and turn it to good. The next time an ugly impulse presents itself, perhaps through an instance of feeling jealousy or vaulting pride, volunteer to help a fellow human who may be down on his luck. Listen to a friend’s troubles. Righteously turn from that which Macbeth has embraced with its dire consequences.

Also in your conclusion…

• A prediction or solution • Either what will happen in the rest of the book, or (more interestingly) what would happen to HUMANITY if this behavior was universal.

What does this one need?

• Macbeth is crazy. No person in their right mind would go out and kill a bunch of people for no reason. I think Lady Macbeth should tell someone what he has done so he won’t be able to kill anyone else. I think Lady Macbeth will tell someone what he did and not be able to keep a secret any longer. And he will either commit suicide or be shot by someone.

And this one?

• Macbeth has changed into a man that once was good, to now a man who has so much power over everybody now that he’s king. He even has power over his wife who was the lady with power over Macbeth. Macbeth has grown mad and my prediction is he is going to crash and go downhill from here because he’s losing friends, his wife and respect. Macbeth’s mental state is not good; he is in fact going insane.