Download The Basic Principles of Persuasive Writing

The Basic Principles of
Persuasive Writing
Tips for Writing Your
Argumentative Research Paper
Persuasive writing is…
Writing that sets out to influence or
change an audience’s thoughts or
actions
You are subjected to persuasion
everyday…
From the time you wake up until the time
you go to bed…
When you turn on the radio, television,
read the paper or a magazine…
Buy a product or use a service, your
choice has likely been influenced by a
persuasive marketing ad.
The point is that understanding persuasive
strategies can help you in two very important
ways:
 Knowing the strategies helps you analyze the
ones other people are using to persuade you.
This way, you can protect yourself when, for
example, unethical marketers are trying to
take advantage of you.
 Knowing the strategies helps you to choose
which is the most effective way to persuade
an audience.
How do we get others to accept
our point of view?
 By appealing to their reason
 By appealing to their emotions
 By appealing to their ethics
AND…
 Offer opinions (not for your RESEARCH
paper)
 Urge actions
 Back up points with evidence
Appealing to Reason
 Remember that an argument is an appeal to a
person’s sense of reason; it is not a violent
fight, dispute or disagreement. It is a
measured, logical way of trying to persuade
others to agree with you.
 One critical thing to remember is that there are
at least two sides to every issue. If you take
the attitude that there is only one side--your
side--you will quite likely alienate your reader.
 Examples: Statistics, Court Cases, Studies
On your own paper…
Think of of an appeal to reason you have
already found for your argument or one
that you could use and write it down.
Appealing to Emotion
The logical appeal is certainly an
extremely persuasive tool. However, our
human nature also lets us be influenced
by our emotions.
One way of evoking emotion in your
reader is to use vivid images or
language that is emotionally charged
 Ex: anecdotes, vivid images, details of the
pain of certain procedures
On your own paper…
Think of of an appeal to emotion you
have already found for your argument or
one that you could use and write it down.
Appealing to our Good Character
The appeal to your ethics can occur on one or
more of the following levels in any given
argument:
 Are you a reasonable person? (willing to
compromise/concede?)
 Are you authoritative? (knowledgeable?)
 Are you an ethical/moral person? (is argument
ethically sound/morally right)
The ethical appeal…
Is based on the audience’s perception of
the speaker.
Don’t overlook it! It can be the most
effective of the three!
Elements of a good argument
 Remember to identify any unfamiliar or
uniquely used terms in your argument!
 If you forget to define your terms, (or choose
not to define them) you run the risk of
alienating your audience or confusing them!
 Ex: If you argue that teachers should
“monitor” their students, the word monitor
should be defined. What does monitor
mean? Does it include looking through their
registrar’s files? Reading through their
notebooks?
To assess the validity of your paper…
Ask yourself the following questions:
 Do I have enough evidence? (Is it sufficient?)
 Will my audience believe my evidence? (Is it
trustworthy?)
 What are the assumptions built into my
argument, and are those assumptions fair? (Is
it verifiable?)
 Does my conclusion follow logically from the
claims I make?
For the remainder of class…
Pair up with the student in class who has
the opposing argument. Discuss what
each of you are planning on using as
evidence for your topic. Look at/discuss
the sources you have found and see if
discussing what each of you have have
gathered will help the other.
Works Cited Page
All information on this PowerPoint was
copied from the following website:
“The Basic Principles of Persuasive
Writing.” UBC Writing Centre. The
University of British Colombia, 8
March 2010. Web. 23 March 2010.