Almost everything that is written is persuasive. Why would someone write something if they were not trying to convince an audience that what they are saying is true? Sources that were traditionally viewed as being non-biased—such as newspapers, news magazines, and even the news on television—are, in fact, biased and attempt to persuade the public that the “source” has the correct version of whatever happened. This bias is apparent if one watches or reads several different accounts of the same event, as reported by different sources. Many veteran newsmen complain because they are expected to present the owner’s point of view, even if it does not reflect what the reporter thinks actually happened. Science, industry, and other professions also attempt to persuade their audiences that their project, experiment, or theory is the correct one. There can be lots of money at stake for projects, experiments, or theories, so it pays to be persuasive in presenting the idea. Every paper written in this class is somewhat persuasive. This paper, however, is blatantly persuasive.
When constructing a persuasive argument, it is best to start with facts or ideas that most of the argu- ment’s audience will be familiar with and agreed to. The writer needs to do this to build his credibility so that the audience will be acceptable to concepts presented later that they may not automatically agree with. If one was to write an article opposing abortion, a good place to start would be with the argument that no one should take another person’s life. Few, if any, people will disagree with this concept. After starting with a concept that most people can agree with, the author then adds more possibly controversial points of view, building up to the conclusion. It is important for the writer to lead the reader gently and have good facts and examples to back up her argument. This is where the use of logic becomes extremely important. Arguments based upon motion are not as effective as logical arguments that also include emotion. While the audience might agree that taking a human life is wrong, it will take some persuasion to convince many in the audience that a 1-week-old embryo is, in fact, a human life, and therefore, wrong to kill. It will take a good argument and lots of persuasion to per- suade some people that this is a viable idea. A good persuasive writer is like a good salesman—she can “sell ice cubes to the Eskimos during the winter.”
