Writing/Reading HW

What Is Persuasive Writing?

!  The process of influencing attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior

!  form of social influence by guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action

Persuasive vs. Informative !  The goal of the persuasive writing is to influence

audience choices

!  These choices may range from slight shifts in opinion to wholesale changes in behavior

!  Persuasive writing seeks a response or action

Classical Persuasive Appeals

! Ethos ! Pathos ! Logos

Persuasive writers employ many techniques to improve their argument and show support for their claim.

Aristotle – Greek Philosopher

Ethos !  appeal to authority/credibility/character

!  Ethos is related to the English word ethics and refers to the trustworthiness of the speaker/writer.  Ethos is an effective persuasive strategy because when we believe that the speaker does not intend to do us harm, we are more willing to listen to what s/he has to say. 

!  how well the author convinces the audience that he/she is qualified to speak on the particular subject.

!  By being a notable figure in the field in question (such as a college professor or an executive of a company whose business is that of the subject) !  You, as the writer, will employ credible sources, which, in turn, makes you credible

!  For example, when a trusted doctor gives you advice, you may not understand all of the medical reasoning behind the advice, but you nonetheless follow the directions because you believe that the doctor knows what s/he is talking about.  Likewise, when a judge comments on legal precedent audiences tend to listen because it is the job of a judge to know the nature of past legal cases.

Example of Ethos Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail” excerpt

My Dear Fellow Clergymen:

While confined here in Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely."...Since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable in terms.

    I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in."...I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here.  I am here because I have organizational ties here.

    But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.  Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town.  Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Ethos is present in ads and organizations.

Ethos is present in older advertisements

(what do you think about these “recommendations”? These were real ads!)

Examples of ethos in student academic writing !  According to research conducted by Sheffield and Baum… !  Researchers at the University of Chicago found… !  Police officials reported… !  Trained graphic design artists were able to… !  Program developers found that…

Pathos !  Appeal to emotion/heart

!  Pathos is related to the words pathetic, sympathy and empathy.  !  Audience feels driven to believe the speaker's opinion as a fact, thus joining the

speaker in belief as it being a commonly accepted idea.

!  Whenever you accept an claim based on how it makes you feel without fully analyzing the rationale behind the claim, you are acting on pathos.  !  They may be any emotions: love, fear, patriotism, guilt, hate, joy, etc

!  A majority of arguments in the popular press are heavily dependent on pathetic appeals. 

!  Appeals to pathos touch a nerve and compel people to not only listen, but to also take the next step and act in the world.

Example of Pathos James Garbarino "Children in a Violent World: A Metaphysical Perspective”

For me, commentary on war zones at home and abroad begins and ends with personal reflections.  A few years ago, while watching the news in Chicago, a local news story made a personal connection with me.  The report concerned a teenager who had been shot because he had angered a group of his male peers.  This act of violence caused me to recapture a memory from my own adolescence because of an instructive parallel in my own life with this boy who had been shot.  When I was a teenager some thirty-five years ago in the New York metropolitan area, I wrote a regular column for my high school newspaper.  One week, I wrote a column in which I made fun of the fraternities in my high school.  As a result, I elicited the anger of some of the most aggressive teenagers in my high school.  A couple of nights later, a car pulled up in front of my house, and the angry teenagers in the car dumped garbage on the lawn of my house as an act of revenge and intimidation.

Pathos is present in advertisements

Examples of pathos in student academic writing

!  The young woman's emaciated face shows the ravages of AIDS. Though only 28, her thin, wrinkled skin looks like that of an elderly woman.

!  The teacher, young and energetic, welcomes students on the first day of school with a wave and, to the amazement of the ninth graders, hands each student an Ipad, resulting in “oohs” and “ahhs.” One boy even tears up – his family would never have been able to afford this sort of technology.

!  Only a heartless human being wouldn’t donate time or money to an animal shelter.

!  The Bush regime tightly controlled military assets.

Logos !  Appeal to logic/mind

!  The Greek word logos is the basis for the English word logic.  !  Used to describe facts and figures that support the topic

!  Logos is a broader idea than formal logic (the highly symbolic and mathematical logic that you might study in a philosophy course)

!  Logos refers to any attempt to appeal to the intellect, the general meaning of "logical argument." 

!  Everyday arguments rely heavily on ethos and pathos, but academic arguments rely more on logos.  Yes, these arguments will call upon the writers' credibility and try to touch the audience's emotions, but there will more often than not be logical chains of reasoning supporting all claims.

Example of Logos Christopher Lasch, "The Lost Art of Political Argument"

Let us begin with a simple proposition:  What democracy requires is public debate, not information.  Of course it needs information too, but the kind of information it needs can be generated only by vigorous popular debate.  We do not know what we need to know until we ask the right questions, and we can identify the right questions only by subjecting our ideas about the world to the test of public controversy.  Information, usually seen as the precondition of debate, is better understood as its by product.  When we get into arguments that focus and fully engage our attention, we become avid seekers of relevant information.  Otherwise, we take in information passively--if we take it in at all.

Motor vehicles crashes are the number one cause of death for teens in America. They take nearly 6,000 lives and injure another

300,000 each year. (Allstate Ad)

Examples of logos in student academic writing !  Fair trade agreements have raised the quality of life for coffee

producers, so fair trade agreements could be used to help other farmers as well.

!  Time considerations when treating trauma patients require effective diagnosis and prompt method for treatment in order to save lives.

!  Genetically modified seeds have caused poverty, hunger, and a decline in bio-diversity everywhere they have been introduced, so there is no reason the same thing will not occur when genetically modified corn seeds are introduced in Mexico.

Persuasive Purposes !  How can you determine whether your topic and goals are

persuasive? !  When you seek to influence an audience�s attitudes about

an issue !  When you seek to influence an audience�s beliefs or

understanding about something !  When you seek to influence an audience�s behavior !  When you seek to reinforce an audience�s existing attitudes,

beliefs or behaviors*

Factors that increase persuasion efforts:

!  A message should meet the psychological needs of the audience

!  Establish common ground between yourself and the audience

!  Leave your audience feeling satisfied and competent

!  For change to endure, people must be convinced they will be rewarded in some way

To Appeal to Logic (logos) To Develop Ethos To Appeal to Emotion (pathos)

Factual data Language appropriate to audience and subject

Vivid, concrete language

Definitions Restrained, sincere, fair minded Emotionally loaded language

Statistics Appropriate vocabulary level Connotative meanings

Quotations Appropriate grammar Emotional examples

Citations from experts & authorities

Appropriate word choice Vivid descriptions

Informed opinions Emotional tone

Figurative language

EFFECT EFFECT EFFECT

Evokes a cognitive, rationale response

Demonstrates the author’s reliability, competence, and respect for the audience’s ideas & values and appropriate use of support and general accuracy

Evokes an emotional response