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2. Emotive (Emotional) Words
Emotive words are words that trigger emotions such as anger, disgust, shock or
sadness. When you are writing to PERSUADE or to ARGUE, use emotive words to
make your reader see your side of view or to make them feel strongly about the
topic.
Newspapers often use emotive language to make their readers feel emotional about a
story. Look at the two newspaper headlines below:

Thief steals money from man. So what?

Heartless thief steals life savings from elderly pensioner.

Now I feel very angry!

You can see how, by adding emotive words, you can make your reader feel strongly
about what has happened. Look at how the emotive words underlined in the sentences
below are used to influence the reader’s opinion:

Our beautiful town is being ruined by mindless hooligans who drop disgusting litter.

Defenceless animals are often cruelly used in pointless experiments.

3. The Power of Three
People tend to remember things in threes and lists of three things create a pleasant
rhythm. This is why the ‘power of three’ is used a lot in English. Look at these well
known phrases:

blood, sweat and tears lights, camera, action stop, look and listen

Here are some sentences where the ‘power of three’ has been used to describe a
setting or to make a strong point:

It was a cold, dark and windy night.

1 2 3

You must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Homeless people are in need of warmth, shelter and food in the winter.

He was strong, he was handsome and he was rich.

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