Writing 3
"How do you get people to do what you want them to do?" "By writing a letter of persuasion"
Mother at sixty-four? Rose is sixty-three years old. She is married to Paul, sixty-nine. They are quite wealthy but they are about to become childless, as their only daughter, Irene, has been in an accident that she will not recover from. She is expected to live at the most for two days. The surgeon in charge of Irene, Dr Drummond, is married to the world’s leading specialist in in-vitro fertilisation, Professor Drummond. The professor suggests to Rose and Paul that they remove some eggs from Irene, place the fertilised eggs in Rose’s womb and she can then experience the wonder of having a new daughter! Rose is overjoyed! She will not have to grow old and die childless. Paul is somewhat more reluctant — he feels he’s too old for fatherhood. However, he still loves Rose after forty-two years of marriage and he will do anything to make her happy. After all, they can afford nannies. There is only one snag: there is a Board of Ethics which must approve the operation. Task Choose one of the following: You are Rose. Write to the Board and argue your case, pleading them to see it from your point of view. You are professor Drummond. Write to the Board and explain how important it is for your scientific work that you can prove to the world that it is possible to become a mother at sixty-four. Find as many points to consider as possible. You are a member of the Board, and you are strongly against the whole idea. Write to the other members and try to convince them to say no. How do you write a letter of persuasion? Once you have chosen your topic, you do the following: Think about what arguments you would like to include. If you spend a lot of time pre-writing by thinking, the letter will be easier to write. Jot down all the arguments you have thought of, even if you don’t think they are good enough! Remember that the modal auxiliary verbs are particularly important, so take out your grammar book and see how creative you can be with your use of modals! List your arguments. Order them by the most important to the least important arguments. Begin your letter by simply stating who you are and why you are writing the letter. State your arguments. Close you letter by simply saying what you want the addressee to do.