effective persuasive communication in personal, professional, and academic contexts

Running head: UNIT 2 ASSIGNMENT 1

Unit 2 Assignment

Student Name

Purdue University Global

Please note that this is a sample Unit4 Assignment to help inspire and guide your own

original writing of the assignment. Be sure to review the assignment instructions and grading

rubric, complete each task in the instructions, and contact the instructor with any questions.

Commented [S1]: The title page and document are properly formatted in APA 6th edition style.

For tips on formatting, see the Writing Center’s

Citation Guides page:

https://library.purdueglobal.edu/writingcenter/cita

tionguides

UNIT 2 ASSIGNMENT 2

Unit 2 Assignment

One of the most interesting aspects of persuasion is that it can apply to so many different

areas in life, from the personal to the professional to the academic. A few months ago, I had an

opportunity to use persuasive writing on Facebook to help my cousin reach an important

decision. She had posted about wanting to adopt a cat but mentioned that she didn’t like having

to fill out the lengthy application that her local shelter required. She posted a little rant about this

and ended it with, “Maybe I should just buy a kitty at the pet store. It’d be a lot less

complicated!” As someone who has several rescue animals, I have strong feelings about this

subject, and I wanted to address this in a message to her. I told her about my experience adopting

my pets and how rewarding it was to know that these surrendered animals had found a loving

home with me. I even did a little research and shared some statistics I found: Over three million

unwanted cats are brought to shelters each year, and a significant percentage of them end up

getting euthanized (ASPCA, 2018). Since my cousin is a very down-to-earth person, I wrote

about all this in a way that I knew would speak to her: factually and straightforward, with a little

humor thrown in (I included some funny stories about Tippy, my newest rescue). She ended up

thanking me profusely for the message, and not two weeks later she was back on Facebook

again, posting pictures of the beautiful domestic shorthair cat she adopted from the shelter.

Another equally important area of persuasive communication is that which occurs in a

professional context. As a future psychologist, I will likely be responsible for proposing

treatment plans and collaborating on treatment plans in a team setting as well. For the time being,

I am working in a call center, and I recently had a firsthand experience with persuasive

workplace communication. My coworkers and I had been talking among ourselves about how

nice it would be to have “Casual Fridays” where we could have the option of wearing jeans to

Commented [S2]: This is a specific example of persuasive writing in a personal context.

Commented [S3]: This is a great example of how statistics can help you prove a point, and

since the student included a citation, the reader

can evaluate the credibility of the statistic, too.

Commented [S4]: Note how this example of professional persuasion stems from the student’s

current workplace but also mentions the type of

writing she is likely to do in her future profession.

UNIT 2 ASSIGNMENT 3

work instead of our usual business casual attire. I decided to broach this subject to my boss in an

email. Even before I started writing it, I knew I wanted this email to be precise, clear, focused,

and respectful in tone. I also wanted to pitch the idea in a way that would make it appealing.

After some thought, I came up with the idea of making Friday a “Dollars for Denim” day where

each employee could donate one dollar in exchange for wearing jeans; the money we collect

would go to one of the charitable organizations our company has supported in the past, such as

the March of Dimes. I described my idea and added another persuasive element by discussing

how a Dollars for Denim day could help with morale boosting and team building, which are two

things I know my boss cares about. Once the email was written, I proofread it carefully to ensure

that everything was correct, that my word choices were appropriate, and that my message kept a

positive tone throughout. My boss ended up liking the suggestion so much that she approved my

proposal and asked if I would like to be responsible for sending a company-wide email and

making a flyer to promote it.

In contrast to personal writing and professional writing, academic writing carries with it

an expectation of deeper critical thinking and the ability to produce and cite evidence to support

a claim. When I took CM107, I was fortunate to have a couple of classmates who were generous

with their feedback on the Discussion Boards and always offered constructive advice. At times

this advice led me to perceive my own ideas in a whole new light and gave me more than one “a-

ha!” moment. I specifically remember one classmate who helped me out with my thesis

statement when I was struggling a little with my draft work. I had been thinking of writing a

paper about PTSD because it directly relates to my future career field; however, I couldn’t decide

whether I wanted my thesis to focus on changing perceptions of PTSD or new treatments in

PTSD, such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). My classmate

Commented [S5]: Note the transition here that shows this example will contrast with the earlier

ones.

Commented [S6]: Thinking about one’s audience is always critical. Defining an acronym

is one way to do this. The student realized that

readers would know what PTSD is but be less

likely to know what EMDR means, so she

explains the acronym.

UNIT 2 ASSIGNMENT 4

mentioned some of the possible advantages and disadvantages of writing about each aspect of the

topic and referenced the unit Learning Activities to remind me of the criteria for a good working

thesis statement. Ultimately, he suggested that the topic about treatment might be more relevant

to my work and would better suit the assignment criteria. After reviewing his suggestions, I

could see that he was right. The benefits of this ended up being twofold. My classmate’s helpful

tone and use of textual evidence persuaded me to visualize my topic and purpose more clearly,

which led to composing a successful assignment. Even more importantly, the classmate’s

feedback served as an example of excellent discussion work, which I have tried to emulate in my

responses to other classmates ever since.

UNIT 2 ASSIGNMENT 5

References

American Society for the Protection of Animals (ASPCA). (2018). Pet statistics. Retrieved from

https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics

Commented [S7]: Note that since the student included a reference to a source in her paper, she

included a citation on the references page. For

tips on formatting the references page, see APA

Style Central as well as the Writing Center’s

Citation Guides page here:

https://library.purdueglobal.edu/writingcenter/cita

tionguides