Persuasive Writing: How To Harness The Power Of Words, 1st edition

Published by Pearson Business (March 3, 2011) © 2011

  • Peter J. Frederick Wabash College
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Title overview

Developed from powerful techniques consistently proven in the world of multi-million pound commercial bid writing, Persuasive Writing reveals the most efficient and effective ways to make your words work, time after time.

Discover how to:

Transform any document into something truly compelling and persuasive

Understand what your reader really wants to hear and use this to get what you want

Combine logic and emotion to convince even the most sceptical reader

Whether you're writing for business or for pleasure, the longest document or the shortest email, with these and many more proven techniques, Persuasive Writing will ensure every word works for you.

Table of contents

Contents

Introduction

Section 1: What is Persuasive Writing?      

Why are you writing?   

Who is your audience? 

Reader Response = Result       

Section 2: Tools for Persuasive Writing      

Ethos, Logos, Pathos   

Using emotive language

You, We, I – getting personal  

Storytelling      

Persuasive writing example       

Section 3: Persuasion – Beyond Logic        

The science of decision-making

Primacy – why coming first matters

Availability       

Consistency and why we hate changing our minds

Justification and evidence

Simplicity

Loss and reward – a bird in the hand…

Outside influences – following the herd

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Anchoring – decision-making all at sea

The Halo Effect

Recency – the here and now

The reader is always right

Commercial Break: Advertisement Slogans

Section 4: Conciseness Equals Clarity

Ason and the Jargonauts

Sentence length

The writer’s diet – cutting padding

Culling lazy words

Examples, similes and analogies

A 7-step concise writing process

Section 5: Verbs Equal Vigour

Grammar refresher

Verbs just wanna have fun

Verbs in disguise – noun suffixes

Section 6: Mistakes  

Commonly confused words      

Using the wrong word  

Scattershot punctuation and no punctuation      

Poor spelling    

‘Mistakes’ that aren’t mistakes 

Section 7: Planning and Structuring 

Plan, Draft, Edit           

Document structures    

Section 8: Layout, Fonts and Formatting    

Font choice     

Layout 

Headings         

Bullets 

Tables and diagrams    

Section 9: Tips for Common Documents     

More effective emails   

Writing for the web      

Persuasive CVs           

Executive summaries and abstracts       

Grant funding   

Feedback, fear and a favour    

Section 10: Persuasion – the Dark Arts      

Assume causality         

It’s common sense, stupid        

It’s common knowledge           

Abuse statistics

Widen or narrow definitions

Flattery will get you everywhere           

And a few more…       

The End         

Appendix 1: Summary of rules 

Appendix 2: Supersized words and their alternatives     

Appendix 3: Recommended reading     

Appendix 4: Persuasive writing flowchart          

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