Writing to persuade is a tough task, but with a bit of planning
it can be made easier and more effective.
When you try to persuade someone, often you'll be trying to do
one of these three things:
confirm an existing belief;
challenge an existing belief; or
change an existing belief.
In order to be as persuasive as possible, it's important to
decide before you begin writing which of these three you're
trying to accomplish as they each need different strategies.
Clearly this is a topic that can have a great deal written about
it, but here are a few starting points.
CONFIRMING
If you're trying to confirm a person's beliefs through
your writing, don't simply provide them with information; rather,
try to validate their beliefs and compliment them on them.
Try to make them feel comfortable, and remove any reason for them
to doubt their existing choice. For example, you might say:
I recommend that we continue these environmentally sound
procedures.
Words like "sound", "tried and true", "trusted", "fiscally
responsible" and "proven" reassure and subtly flatter the reader
that their current choices are good ones.
CHALLENGING
If you're trying to challenge a person's beliefs,
you'll try to persuade them to question them. You'll deliberately
try to upset the status quo and shake things up a bit. For
example:
Our belief that the leach pads are not leaking dangerous
contaminants into the groundwater supply may be unfounded. I
urgently recommend a research study to investigate this
potentially damaging situation.
Here the language is deliberately worrying. Words like "leaking",
"dangerous", "contaminants", "unfounded", "urgently" and
"damaging" all combine to persuade the reader that the current
situation must be investigated.
CHANGING
If you're trying to change a belief (the hardest of the
three tasks), you'll have to be especially persuasive as it's
human nature for people to resist such changes.
If the reader is to accept your argument for change then it may
require him to admit (even if just to himself) that his current
beliefs or practices are in error, and many people are deeply
reluctant to do this. There are issues of loss of face,
humiliation and status involved.
One approach to this problem is to be diplomatic and
emphasise how existing practices were sound in the past but
now need to change to meet new circumstances. For example:
Our existing security practices were well suited to
conditions in the early to mid-nineties. The changes brought
about by networking and the rise of the Internet, however,
mean that it is now time to change our attitudes. We need to
recognise the mission-critical importance of heightened I.T.
security.
Note that this appeal is polite and non-threatening. Also it uses
inclusive words like "we", not "you". Hopefully, accepting it
won't be perceived as losing face.
About the Author
You'll find over 200 tips like this in Tim North's e-book
BUSINESS PROPOSAL WRITING MADE EASY. It's just $9.95 and comes
with a 30-day, money-back guarantee.
http://www.scribe.com.au/ebooks.htm