Tactics for Persuasion

1. Relate to Your Audience  Comparisons  References to pop culture  Describe experiences everyone can relate to  Think about what they like and appeal to that thinking  Speak to their level—add personality, but don’t treat them as if they aren’t intelligent.

2. SHOW that you care  Show Passion  Use Power Words—focus on verbs  Illustrate with imagery—the senses  Avoid clichés  Avoid dead words

3. Facts and Evidence  Illustrate your points with:  Lots of examples  Reasoning  Facts if you have them  Connections and possibilities

Your assignment  Write the first supporting paragraph of your essay. It should show that you can:  Relate to your audience  Show that you care  Facts and Evidence  Start off with a solid topic sentence that will captivate your audience.

Introduction  “ You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Your job is to… 1. Hook the reader 2. Tell them your opinion (thesis) at the end.

Strategies: Attention Grabber  an intriguing example  a provocative quotation  a puzzling scenario  a vivid and perhaps unexpected anecdote  a thought-provoking question

DON’T BE DULL  Instead of stating, ― “In my paper I will tell you about how good I think bananas are”…think of how to SHOW your readers that bananas are delectable.  Don’t say “in this paper” or “I will write about” or “I will say”. Never refer to your process of writing in the paper.  Don’t just use a lame question. “Have you ever thought about how good bananas are?”

Conclusions  Your final impression.

The Purpose:  It’s your chance to have the last word on the subject.  It allows you to summarize your thoughts, demonstrate the importance of your ideas, and propel your reader to a new view of the subject.  It’s your chance to make a good final impression and to end on a positive note.  Your conclusion should make your reader feel glad they read your paper, giving them something to take away from it or appreciate your topic in a personally relevant way.

The Formula: 1. Briefly summarize what has been proven about your topic without saying “I have proven” or “So now you know” etc. 2. Show the “so what”. 3. Restate your thesis (what you believe about bananas.)

Strategies:  It should answer the ―so what?  Draw back on the theme from your introduction and make the reader feel like he/she has come full circle  You can use same attention-grabber strategies as intro.  Synthesize--briefly summarize your main points showing how the points you made and the examples you used all work together  Include a provocative insight or quotation  State your thesis (main point)