ABSTRACT
This chapter deepens the exploration of those grammatical systems that are most 'at risk' in the construction and analysis of verbal, visual and multimodal forms of persuasion. It draws on the principles and terminology of Metafunction, but also ranging over notions of System, Stratification and Rank. Appreciation and critical analysis of high stakes forms of persuasion is a central component of subject English in many Anglophone countries. The chapter links each probe question to relevant rhetorical terms like Thesis, Warrant and Evidence. It returns to the probe questions as it explores the development of students in composing written expositions. The chapter also addresses the questions by simultaneously tracking the development in written expositions of a number of students across the years of schooling. It demonstrates how a grammatics attuned not only to texts, but to the development of resources of argumentation over time can enable teachers to support their students' rhetorical work more effectively.
