Taking a look at…
PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES
Starting off with a working
definition
 What does it mean to be persuasive???
 Can you give real life examples of a time
when you had to persuade someone to do
something in particular?
 If you were successful, what were some
reasons why you think you were able to
convince that person/group of people?
How to be persuasive…
 There are many ways to use persuasion, but
there are 3 main types or approaches:
 EMOTIONAL appeal
 LOGICAL appeal
 ETHICAL appeal
 “APPEAL” is a key word because, as a writer,
you want your message to be
APPEALING/MEMORABLE for your target
audience.
Emotional Appeal
 The meat of your argument plays to the
strengths of feelings and gets your intended
audience to experience certain emotions that
will influence them in a certain way.
 Have you ever tried to sympathize with
someone to gain their support and trust and
thereby present your argument to persuade
them?
 Examples?
Emotional appeals in songs
 “Mary You” – Bruno Mars
 No logic behind marrying someone you don’t know
well, action solely based on feelings at the time
 “I’m Yours” – Jason Mraz
 Deep emotional connection you can feel between
singer and who he is singing about
 “Grenade” – Bruno Mars
 Song says he would die for her but she doesn’t care 
not logical/rational; based on pure emotion
Logical Appeal
 The meat of your argument plays to the
strengths of sound reason. This approach
uses rational information as opposed to gut
emotions for the basis of your argument.
 Have you ever tried to win an argument by
providing facts or logical information in order
to prove your point? Or by trying to remain
neutral and levelheaded instead of reacting
on pure emotion?
 Examples?
Logical appeals in songs
 “Chasing Pavements” – Adele
 Poses questions to try to reason through a
situation
 Repetition of questions
 “Imagine” – John Lennon
 “Waiting on the World to Change” – John
Mayer  POWER OF ONE??? 
Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change
It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want
Ethical Appeals
 Deals with our human ability to treat others
with respect and fairness in order to consider
others’ perspectives and create resolutions.
 Ethics = morals and character; deciphering
good from bad.
 Kind of a combination of logical and
emotional appeals because you take both
feelings and facts into consideration when
you interact with others to solve problems.
 Examples??
Ethical Appeals in Songs
 “Born This Way” – Lady Gaga
 “Who Says” – Selena Gomez
 Repetition of questions to pose right vs. wrong
 Both deal with morals/right vs. wrong  wrong
to judge others; send messages of resolution of
self respect and confidence.
 “Waiting on the World to Change” is also an
example of ethical appeal and call to action.
Other strategies you can use
to be persuasive





Repetition
Rhetorical questions
Allusion
Parallelism
Inductive reasoning: going from a specific to a
general claim
 “All swans we have seen are white. Therefore, all swans are
white.”
 Deductive reasoning: going from a general claim to
a much more specific claim
 “All oranges are fruits. All fruits grow on trees. Therefore,
all oranges grow on trees.”
To sum it all up…
 There are many ways to persuade someone,
but always keep in mind:
 How to best convey your message
 Use a variety of techniques to make
your message memorable for you r
audience!
 How to best reach/target your specific
audience
 Motivate your audience to take action!