Reading a Persuasive Letter for Its Real Purpose
You are given a 300-word letter to the editor of a local newspaper. The writer, a retired engineer, argues against a proposed 24-hour bus lane on a main road. The letter includes three statistics, two personal anecdotes about late-night driving, and one sentence in capitals: 'RESIDENTS WERE NEVER CONSULTED.' The headline above the letter, written by the newspaper, reads 'Engineer Slams Council'. The question asks you to identify the writer's main purpose and the tone of the final paragraph, which ends: 'Perhaps the council knows best. Perhaps we should simply trust them.'
1. Identify the writer's main purpose and explain how two features of the text support your answer.
Read the worked answer
The main purpose is to persuade readers that the bus lane should not proceed, or at least be reconsidered, rather than merely to inform. The statistics give the argument an appearance of technical authority, which suits a writer presenting himself as an engineer. The capitals on 'RESIDENTS WERE NEVER CONSULTED' function as an appeal to democratic fairness rather than to traffic data, revealing that the persuasive lever is legitimacy, not engineering. The anecdotes about late-night driving personalise the cost. The judgement call is not to confuse the newspaper's headline with the writer's purpose: 'Slams' is the editor's framing, and the writer's own rhetoric is more controlled than that word suggests.
2. Explain the tone of the final two sentences and why a literal reading would be a mistake.
Read the worked answer
The tone is ironic or sarcastic. 'Perhaps the council knows best' and 'Perhaps we should simply trust them' are polite on the surface but, after a letter arguing the council failed to consult, they signal the opposite: the writer does not trust the council. A literal reading would treat the sentences as genuine deference and conclude the writer has softened, which contradicts everything before. The judgement call is that irony depends on context, not on any single word; 'perhaps' is neutral in isolation but becomes loaded when placed after an accusation. Recognising this shows control of the difference between sentence meaning and implied meaning.
3. A classmate says the letter is unreliable because it is biased. Evaluate this judgement.
Read the worked answer
Bias alone does not make a persuasive letter unreliable, because persuasion is its stated purpose; judging it by the standards of a news report misreads the genre. A better judgement asks whether the evidence is accurate and whether opposing views are acknowledged. The letter uses statistics without sources, which is a genuine weakness, and it does not address residents who use the bus lane. The judgement call is separating purpose from reliability: a text can be openly persuasive and still be well or poorly evidenced, and the exam rewards identifying which criticism applies.