Public Service Announcement (7th grade CA): Step Two: Prewriting

You must include 3 of the persuasive techniques into your PSA. You must use information from the research you have done. If someone famous does not support your organization, you may not use this technique.

1. bandwagon: urging others to join a cause or activity because everyone else is joining (example: You can join the thousands that already contribute their time to helping around the community.

2. glittering generalities: use of words to attract attention but they are vague (example: Your time will help our organization accomplish their mission.)

3. testimonials: someone famous endorses a product or organization (example: My name is Justin Bieber and I am a supporter of the organization.)

4. citing statistics: using statistics to support your cause (example: 6% of all children under the age of 18 have Diabetes.)

5. emotional appeal: pictures or words that appeal to a person's emotions (example: What would you do if you lost everything due to a tornado?)

The second step is to create begin your Power Point for your PSA. Before you start your Power Point, complete the prewriting questions. Look under documents for a copy to print and complete.

Answer the following questions as you prepare to create your PSA.

1.      What is the goal of your PSA? (What is the purpose? Are you trying to get people to donate an item, money or time?)

      2.      Who is your audience? (Who is the PSA geared toward? Volunteers, those that need help, or those that can donate, etc.)

      3.      What is a catchy intro or hook you will use to grab the attention of your audience? (You need to grab your audience's attention by using a question, a statistic, a quote, and /or a picture.)

      4.      What is your call to action? (In other words, what do you want your audience to do. Do you want them to donate?  Do you want people to come to the organization for help?)

      5.      What are 3 persuasive techniques you plan to use in your PSA? Provide an example of each from your research. (Look at the definitions on step two of the LibGuide.)

You are now ready to begin adding your research to the Power Point. Open the PSA Power Point from the documents at the top of this page. In the comments section on the Power Point, it tells you what information to add to each slide. Use your notes to add this information. Do not change the font or add pictures yet. Write complete sentences. Your sentences should be free of spelling and grammatical errors.

When you have completed all Power Point slides, you will need to have it peer edited before moving on to step three. Save the Power Point to your folder.