Professional Writing

Topic: Professional Writing
Planning for Persuasion

• Two kinds of persuasion
1. To influence other people’s attitudes and actions
This is the persuasion most of us are familiar with—argument or
case-making to change readers’ attitudes
2. To foster a collaborative environment that encourages speakers

and listeners to explore ideas and possible courses of action
This is the persuasion common to group work such as
brainstorming sessions—facility and flexibility to respond to
ideas and keep communication channels open
• Most of our work will focus on the first type of persuasion
How Persuasion Works
• Persuasion is shaping your reader’s attitudes
• You might need to
• Reverse an attitude you want your readers to
abandon
• Reinforce an attitude you want them to hold more
firmly
• Shape their attitude on a subject about which they
currently have no opinion
How Persuasion Works
• What determines a person’s attitude towards an idea, object, or
action?
• Not a single thought or argument
• The sum of various thoughts a person associates with the idea, object,
or action
• For example
• If you are in the market for a new car, how do you decide what to buy?
• Research
• Prior experience with brands
• Other people’s experience with brands or specific models
• Personal associations with brands or specific models
• Favorite color
• The list is nearly infinite—some of the attitudes are positive, some
negative; some count for more than others
Guidelines for Persuasion
1. Listen—and respond flexibly to what you hear
2. Focus on your readers’ goals and values
3. Address—and learn from—your readers’ concerns and
counterarguments
4. Reason soundly
5. Organize to create a favorable response
6. Build an effective relationship with your readers
7. Decide whether to appeal to your readers’ emotions
8. Global guideline: Adapt your persuasive strategies to your readers’
cultural background
9. Ethics guideline: Employ ethical persuasive techniques
1. Listen—and respond flexibly to what you hear
Successful persuasion relies on how well you listen as well as how well
you write or speak
Listening well will help you successfully

counterarguments
• Identify your readers’ goals
• Determine how the ideas or actions you are recommending can
help your readers achieve their goals
• Focus on the ways your recommended actions and ideas can help
your readers achieve their goals
counterarguments
• Remember readers respond moment by moment asking themselves
questions and generating counterarguments
• Good persuasive writing anticipates readers’ questions and answers
them satisfactorily
• Good persuasive writing anticipates counterarguments and provides
reasons for relying on the author’s argument and not the
counterargument
The remaining key guidelines focus on the three main persuasive strategies identified
by Aristotle in his Rhetoric
Logos
4.Reason soundly
Ethos
5.Organize to create a favorable response
6.Build an effective relationship with your readers
Pathos
7.Decide whether to appeal to your readers’ emotions
Logos
• How reasoning works (according to Stephen
Toulmin at least)
• Sound reasoning involves
• A claim
• Sufficient and reliable evidence supporting the claim
• The line of reasoning that led the writer from the
evidence to the claim
EVIDENCE CLAIM
The facts, observations, and
The position you want your
other evidence that supports
readers to accept
your claim
LINE OF REASONING
How you (the writer) have and they
(the readers) should interpret the
evidence so as to arrive at the claim.
Logos
• To accept your claim, readers must be willing
to put faith in both your evidence and your line
of reasoning
• Readers require sufficient and reliable evidence
• And readers often need to see and understand
your line of reasoning
Logos
• Sufficient evidence:
• Is there enough evidence to support your claim?
• Have you provided the necessary details the reader wants?
• Reliable evidence:
• What counts as “reliable” evidence varies from field to field
• Widely accepted types of evidence include
• Data—readers typically respond to claims supported by numerical
data
• Expert testimony—people with credentials, firsthand knowledge, or
extensive experience are often credited with special understanding
and insight
• Examples—specific instances can effectively support (and illustrate)
general claims
Logos
• Explicitly justify your line of reasoning (when
necessary)
• Writers frequently leave out how they moved
from evidence to claim, thinking that the line of
reasoning is obvious
• When in doubt, be explicit—you can always
revise it out later
Ethos
• Organize to create a favorable response
• Direct organization
• This organization is the one you have been taught since grade school
• Main point upfront (thesis statement) followed by evidence supporting that
point
• The required organization for most academic writing
• Usually the best choice for most kinds of writing, especially when you can
expect a favorable or at least open-minded response from your audience
• Indirect organization
• The main point is postponed until later
• The situation/problem is described, analyzed, and used as evidence for reaching
a specific conclusion (the main point)
• Readers can be frustrated by this organization so use cautiously
• Usually the best choice when you believe the readers will respond negatively to
your main point unless you prepare them for it first
Ethos
• Organize to create a favorable response
– Ensure that the parts fit together
– Make connections for readers (do the work for
them)
Ethos
• Build an effective relationship with your
readers
• Present yourself as a credible person
• Strategies for building credibility
•Expertise
• Mention your credentials
• Demonstrate command of the facts
• Avoid oversimplifying
• Call on experts so their expertise supports your position
Ethos
• Build an effective relationship with your
readers
•Trustworthiness
• Appear open and objective
• Stress values and objectives that are important to your readers
• Avoid drawing attention to yourself
• Demonstrate knowledge of the concerns and perspectives of
others
Ethos
• Build an effective relationship with your readers
•Group membership
• Draw attention to shared membership in groups
• Appeal to group goals and objectives
•Dynamic appeal
• Be confident in your message
• Show enthusiasm for your ideas
•Power
• If you are in a position of authority, note that
• If not, try to associate yourself with authority
Ethos
• Build an effective relationship with your readers
– Present yourself as a friend not a foe
• Praise your readers
– Mention recent accomplishments or something they take pride in
• Present yourself as your readers’ partner
• Show that you understand your readers
– Even if you disagree with your readers, state their side fairly
– Focus on areas of agreement
• Maintain a positive and helpful stance
– Present yourself as wanting to help
– Avoid criticizing and blaming
Pathos
• Decide whether to appeal to your readers’ emotions
• Pathos is commonplace and highly effective in many kinds of
communication
• Advertising
• Personal writing
• Advocacy writing (press releases, public policy, editorials, and other
kinds of non-technical persuasive writing)
• Pathos is considered highly inappropriate in most academic
writing and most business and technical communications
• How to decide?
• The more personal the writing, the more tolerant audiences will be of
pathos; the more impersonal the writing the less tolerant audiences will
be.
• If the genre of the writing discourages evidence of the “personality” of
the writer, then pathos will not be welcome.
Thank You

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Topic: Professional Writing

Planning for Persuasion

2. To foster a collaborative environment that encourages speakers

2. Focus on your readers’ goals and values

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