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Being Effective in Your Persuasive Writing
The goal of persuasive writing is to have the ability to influence or change a persons mind with your words. You
encounter these in your normal everyday life. Whether it is a politician trying to convince you to vote for them, a
commercial for a company that wants you to buy there product, or from your children trying to explain the reason
why they should be allowed to go to that concert, persuasion is all around. You may even use the power of
persuasion on yourself, like deciding why or why not you should eat that last piece of pizza or if you really need
to buy another white shirt even though it is a really good deal. Everyday you have to decide on whether one choice
is better than another and why.
To succeed in your persuasive writing venture you need to follow a few simple rules. You must have focus. Decide on
what position you are trying to persuade. Are you for or against the topic your writing about? Choose a side and
stick with it. Arguing both sides of the fence will be detrimental to your persuasion. There are three techniques
that you will need to use to have convincing persuasive writing.
Now you need to provide facts and evidence to support your writing. Statistics and examples are used to provide the
reason people should choose you position and believe your writings. You can also include facts and evidence that
demonstrate why the opposition is wrong. This should be eased into. Remember you are trying to persuade and
convince them on why you position is better not offend or alienate them. This is called the logos technique of
persuasion writing.
Another persuasive writing technique is ethos. This is where you have to prove yourself to be a creditable person.
To be able to make your readers believe that they should have confidence in what you are telling them. The best way
to prove your credibility is to provide true and undisputable facts, be articulate, and explain why you are capable
of proving this information to them.
Pathos is the third technique you will use in your writing. This will appeal to the emotions of the readers. This
can be the most important technique but also the most critical. It must be used with caution or you can just as
easily turn the readers against you as you could bring them with you. Appealing to your readers emotions can be
tricky. This must be done subtly To work this effectively you must have the ability to make the reader feel your
emotions, the joy, the pain, the hurt whatever the case maybe.
You need to pin point your target audience and write to appeal to them. What sounds interesting and persuasive to a
teenager most likely will not work with a middle age woman. Whether you are targeting men or women will make a
difference in you writings. Identify with your target audience. An example of this would be “only the cool kids
will be wearing product XYZ” or “we know as a respectable home owner you will want to…..” By identifying with the
intended audience it pulls them into what you are writing and how or why it pertains to them.
Persuasive writings can be a challenge. You have to objective and opened minded to other positions of the topic at
hand even though sometimes you don’t want too. Remembering you goal is just to persuade them why yours is better.
This does not necessarily mean that the opposition is bad or wrong, just that yours is a superior
choice.
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