Fiducia TogetherWriting to argue or persuade
Non-fiction writing to a form, an audience and a purpose. All three are marked.
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.
What it is
A transactional writing task — a letter, an article, a speech, an essay — arguing a position for a stated audience.
Where it applies
GCSE English Language paper 2.
How it works
Form, audience and purpose are assessed explicitly. A letter needs the conventions of a letter; a speech needs to sound spoken; an article for a broadsheet is not written like one for a teen magazine.
Rhetorical devices — direct address, rhetorical questions, triads, anecdote, statistics, counter-argument — are the tools, and a counter-argument that is answered is the mark of a strong response.
How to use it in your work
Plan four or five points, and put your strongest second-to-last.
Acknowledge the other side and defeat it. "Of course, some will say... but" lifts the response.
Match the register to the audience and keep it consistent.
Invent statistics and anecdotes freely — this is a writing test, not a research test — but keep them plausible.
Where to get help
Your teacher, your board's mark scheme and its examiners' reports — those say exactly what separates the bands, and they are free.
Revise this with a song
These are ours. We write revision songs because a lot of people remember a tune when they cannot remember a page, and because revising out loud in the kitchen beats staring at a highlighter.
- The English Exam Survival Song How to approach the English papers under time pressure.
Where to read more
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.