Persuasive Letters

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Persuasive Letters

• Writing to Change the Attitudes, Beliefs, or
  Actions of Others

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Have an Opinion

• Research your topic.
• Become an expert. (You must know more than your
  audience to be persuasive, so do the legwork.)
• Choose a side. Take a stand. Collect evidence
  that supports your position.
• Make connections to your life/modern day times.

3
Its Not Begging!

• Please, please, please may work on your grandma,
  but its not an effective persuasive technique.
• Dont use that tone of voice with me! Never
  anger or offend your audience. Thatll get you
  nowhere fast.
• Consider the needs of your audience. See your
  issue from their perspective. Be respectful of
  their opinions.

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Purposes for Persuasion

• To arouse sympathy
• To stimulate concern
• To win agreement
• To support a cause
• To make a commitment
• To take action
• To change a situation
• To change a behavior or attitude
• To counterpoint a belief or theory

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Audiences

• Readers who agree and want to see their position
  stated well
• Readers who want to see more so they can be
  convinced
• Readers who want good facts to help them decide
• Readers who truly want to consider both sides of
  the issue

6
Lead

• Get the audiences attention and let them know
  why youre writing.
• Be direct. When people read letters, theyre not
  hoping to be entertained.
• You can start with facts, a story, a quote but
  mostly people expect you to get to the point
  early in a letter.
• In other words, state your concern/opinion in the
  lead. (Hint It can make a good transition.)

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How do you Become the Expert?

• Research books, articles, the internet
• Interview other experts
• Do a survey
• Collect relevant quotes
• Collect statistics numbers that reveal the
  situation
• Collect relevant examples and stories
• Brainstorm reasons, benefits, disadvantages,
  solutions, roadblocks

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Elaborate

• Once youve brought up their problems/concerns
  with your request, its time to counterpoint.
• The solutions and explanations that you present
  will make or break your argument.
• Remember, respect their opinions as you help them
  look at your issue through new eyes from a
  different angleyours.

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Different Types of Supporting Details

• Answers
• New questions
• Facts
• Statistics
• Surveys and polls
• Quotes
• Examples
• Anecdotes (stories)

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• Theories
• Principles
• Interviews
• Solutions
• Roadblocks
• Arguments
• Personal experiences
• Implications

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Organizing your Ideas

• Always chunk your details into categories and
  arrange them in ways that will make sense to your
  audience. A few options are--
• Chronological order
• Cause/effect
• Problem/solution

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Closing

• There are many ways to close persuasive writing
• Call the reader to action
• Show how the future could be better (or
  worse)
• End with a pointed question
• Circle back to the lead

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Adapted from--

• Lessons that Change Writers (2002) by Nancie
  Atwell
• Write to Learn (1999) by Donald M. Murray