Persuasive writing is the art of trying to convince others of your point of view using the written word. The goal of it is to persuade someone to do something or think a certain way.
While it can use elements of creative and expository writing, it is almost in a category all on its own because the goals are different. If you are not trying to persuade someone, then it is not persuasive writing.
If you have not written any persuasive writing in quite some time, you might be a little rusty on how to write it and what to include.
Let’s talk about what persuasive writing is, what it is not, and give you seven persuasive writing tips to help you make a strong written piece.
What Is Persuasive Writing?
Persuasive writing is writing that tries to convince the reader of something, usually the writer’s opinion.
It can use a wide variety of writing styles, but it must have the goal of persuading the reader to be considered persuasive writing.
Persuasive writing can come in many forms, from ads to articles. It will often spend time throughout the piece acknowledging the other side’s arguments and combatting each of the opposing side’s arguments.
Someone writing a persuasive writing piece should know exactly what they’re talking about. Sure, some types of persuasive writing will use made up facts or arguments that do not work logically.
It is important to always double-check your facts when you are writing a persuasive writing piece.
Examples of Persuasive Writing?
Persuasive writing should be used anytime you need to convince someone of your argument.
This could be in opinion pieces, on social media, in blogs, in advertisements, or more. It could even be as simple as trying to convince your family why they should go to a city you love for the annual trip.
When you understand how to use it, you will also be able to see it all around you. It is in ads, movie trailers, on social media, and so on.
No matter what you are using persuasive writing for, there are some elements you should be using each and every time, which we will dive into down below.
One example of persuasive writing you can easily imagine is a review of a product. Go on Amazon and look at almost any review of any product. You will see persuasive writing pushing you to either buy or not buy that product.
7 Persuasive Writing Tips
Now that you know what persuasive writing is and when you should use it, let’s cover some ways you can make your writing more persuasive.
#1 – Find your best argument
The first thing you want to do is to find either your best argument you want to highlight or find the main angle of your writing.
Lots of people try to be persuasive by bringing in every good point they have in their arsenal. That is the opposite of what you want to do.
While it helps to have your main facts and supporting facts, throwing a thousand pieces of new information at someone is only going to overwhelm them instead of help your argument.
It can help to lay out all of your main arguments and highlight your strongest ones that would persuade your reader. Only after you figure those out and present them to your reader can you dive into your supporting points.
#2 – Know who you are writing to
You cannot create persuasive writing if you do not know who your audience is.
When you know who your audience is, you will be able to pick particular words and thoughts that will resonate with that audience.
Depending on the platform you are using for your persuasive writing, you will need to narrow down who the people are you are writing to (or single person if it is something like a college paper).
This helps you form your arguments because you understand who the reader is and what they care about.
#3 – Keep them intrigued
If you want to keep someone reading your argument, you will need to keep them invested enough to keep reading.
You will need to meet the reader where they are at with their understanding of your topic. You do not want to start a persuasive writing piece with being mean and aggressive trying to prove your point.
Instead, you will want to show that you understand their perspective on things, but guide them to understand your perspective and why you believe the things you do.
It is important to do whatever you can to keep them reading. if you lose the reader and they are no longer interested in what you have to say, you have lost your persuasive writing point.
#4 – Prove your point
Now is the time to bring in all of the facts and experiences you can to prove your point.
You have done enough work to walk them through your thoughts, facts, and perspective, but now is the time to hammer it home and highlight your best points.
Ideally, you pick only a handful of main points as you do not want to overwhelm them. You want to keep your main points focused and on topic.
Take the time to deep dive into each point you have and use supporting facts to back up what you are claiming.
#5 – Overcome their objections
Once you have laid out your arguments, the reader will often have objections in their mind about why you are not right. Maybe it is not always full-on objections, but they might have reservations at the very least.
You will need to outline what these are and take a moment to overcome them. You do not need to dance around what they are, you can address them head-on.
Address them head on and it will only make your writing that much stronger.
#6 – Bring in emotional elements
Whether you want to use storytelling or facts, you need to rile their emotions. This does not mean to manipulate or lie to them, but when you bring emotions into it, you are able to connect with them in a different way.
Of course, you want to use facts to back up your main arguments, but this is not journalism, this is persuasive writing.
Telling stories and writing ideas that spark their emotions is not always a bad thing. Humans love stories to connect to and understand things better.
You do not want to go overboard with emotions, because then your writing will not seem grounded, but a few here and there is a good idea.
#7 – Bring in social proof
Social proof is essentially making sure that you show how the point you are arguing is working for other people.
Few things will hammer home your argument quite like showing how other people feel or think about your topic. It is a great way to back up your argument with a real life example.
This is why things like health supplement companies and gyms use “before and after” photos to showcase what people have done with their product or service.
The social proof you bring into your argument needs to have that kind of impact.
What To Do Next
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