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• Read the two sources, highlighting the DAFOREST techniques as you find them. You
may not find them all, but there should always be at least five of them.
• Turn each one into a separate PEE paragraph, using the formulaic answers from the
table above. For example:
The writer of the anti-smoking leaflet uses direct address in the article, asking ‘do you want
to die young?’ The use of ‘you’ grabs the reader’s attention and makes them feel the article
is written just for them. It makes them want to read on.
The use of emotive language persuades the reader to want to give up smoking. Words such
as ‘barbaric’ and ‘torturous’ make smoking seem so bad that they are persuaded to see their
habit in an extremely negative light. The writer does this to make them want to quit’.
BUILDING ON THE BASICS OF DAFOREST
As I have said, DAFOREST is a useful starting point but for those of you aiming to achieve the
very top grades you will need to do more than churn out simple PEE paragraphs verbatim.
For example, you should also try to consider the structure of a text as seen in this sample
answer:
‘The writer uses a mix of fact and opinion to persuade the reader to give up smoking. When
we read 'each cigarette contains 0.2 grams of asbestos', this fact makes us feel that the
article is accurate and to be believed; facts give an air of authority to a text. By following this
with the opinion 'smoking is a disgusting habit', we are led to believe that this too is a fact,
like the one that went before it. The effect is that we believe the opinion to be fact and are
therefore persuaded that smoking is both a dangerous and disgusting habit.’
You should also look for examples of humour, irony, satire, hyperbole and other techniques.
For more on these, see this video: http://youtu.be/O_I5bWUA27k When you find these you
should follow the same format as stated above: mention the technique, back up your point
with a quotation and write about the effect on the reader.
Finally, if you are naturally a top level student you should also be willing to ‘go with your
gut’. If there is a word or phrase which seems significant to you then you should write about
it.
Do not forget that this is a comparison question. Because of this, you will also need to
consider how the two texts are similar and different. A comparative paragraph may read:
Source three does not use fact at all, but relies on emotive language to do its bidding. In an
attempt to sell the holiday package the text is littered with words such as ‘awe inspiring’ and
breath-taking’. These words are hyperbolic; this is but a simple two star package holiday.
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