Persuasive Techniques

If you want to make someone agree with you, persuasive writing skill is important. Here are some things you can do to write persuasively:

1. Reason
2. Character
3. Emotion
4. Testimonial
5. Expert opinion
6. Bandwagon
7. Appeal to greed
8. Appeal to laziness
9. Argue against the contrary
10. Analogy
11. Choose words
12. Use humor
13. Rhetorical questions
14. Generalize
15. Transfer and association
16. Repetition

Reason:

Make a logical argument for your way of thinking. Use "If . . . then . . . because" statements. Present logical reasons why your choice is the best.

Character:

Appeal to what is right and fair. Your reader wants to be a good person; tell them that your choice is the most moral and right.

Emotion:

Ask your reader how he or she would feel. Show how your choice as the one which would make them feel best. Ask them to put themselves in someone else's place. Tell them how they should feel.

Testimonial:

Give an example of someone who believes in your opinion. Tell a little story about that person. Provide a quotation from that person, agreeing with you.

Expert opinion:

If someone with a great deal of knowledge agrees with your point of view, say so.

Bandwagon:

If most people agree with you, if everybody's doing it, if all your friends hold the same opinion, this persuades people even when it's wrong.

Appeal to greed:

Make it seem less expensive, cheaper, or even free to do what you are suggesting. Offer something for nothing, or a great deal of value for a very little investment.

Appeal to laziness:

Make it seem easier and more convenient for your reader to follow your opinion. Offer them more free time, less effort, or more relaxation.

Argue against the contrary:

A very effective way to deal with objections is to think of those objections in advance and come up with reasons why the objections are not good. First, you can state the objections in a way that makes them seem weak. Second, you get your words in before the reader can object to them.

Analogy:

Compare one thing to another. Use simile and metaphor.

Word choice:

Word choice is a very effective tool. Sometimes one word has a negative feeling, while its synonym has a positive one. We call this connotation. If you want your reader to like something, use words with positive connotations. If you want them to dislike it, use negative connotations.

Use humor:

Be careful with humor. You don't want it to backfire. Making fun of people who disagree with you often works if your reader already is on your side, but makes your reader angry otherwise. You can make jokes to relax your reader and get him or her to agree with you.

Rhetorical questions:

Rhetorical questions are questions that don't really expect an answer. They are used for effect. For example: "Wouldn't you really rather have good food than bad?" is a rhetorical question. These force your reader to agree with you.

Generalize:

Make general statements that nobody can disagree with, and then make it seem as if they support your opinion. "We all want peace. " is a generalization, and you could use it to support both invasion of Iraq and withdrawal of troops. Watch out for this. It's a weak spot in your argument if your reader notices it.

Transfer and association:

Commercials do this all the time. They use attractive people having fun to demonstrate their products, and the audience thinks that the product will make someone attractive and happy. Again, this can backfire if your reader notices that your example has nothing to do with your opinion.

Repetition:

Another dangerous technique, but sometimes effective. If you just repeat something often enough, people remember it and start to agree with it.