Much of the work of writing persuasively involves structure. Knowing how to create a persuasive essay, for example, means setting up your argument with a good introduction and a solid thesis. Even so, setting up your arguments only creates the opportunity to persuade. To make the most of that opportunity, you must write well within that structure.
Writing well, of course, creates a subjective goal, one that moves a bit for any given reader. Still, objective criteria by which to measure writing do exist. Some writers write more persuasively than others. This does not mean, of course, that the better writer will always persuade, or that the lesser writer will not. It simply means that, given an equal opportunity to persuade an impartial reader (admittedly close to being a mythical creature, but that is a topic for another day), the better writer will persuade more often.
While this article will not exhaust the topic, it will identify some ways in which you can make your writing more persuasive. As always, I welcome any supplementation via comment.
Pay Attention to Sentence Length
Varying your sentence length through your writing project makes your writing more interesting. While the long, winding, comma-laden sentence can be a thing of beauty, such writing becomes tedious if you don’t allow the reader a chance to recover. And tedious writing seldom persuades. In fact, when driving the point home, short, declarative sentences can be particularly effective. You have set up your argument, and you have laid out the support for your position. You now have to tell the reader what to take from the writing. Think of your writing as a sales pitch; you have to tell them what you want. If you have set up your argument, you will be telling the readers what they want – but you still have to tell them.
Pay Attention to Sentence Structure
This is related to sentence length, but is not the same thing. The way you set up your sentences says much about the way you perceive your position. If you have an intricate point to make, complex sentences work to set it up. Further, if you want to let readers know that a concept is more complex than they believe, complex sentences help make that point. Again, though, keep the most intricate sentences in the earlier portions of what you are writing, where you set up your arguments.
In short, think of your earlier portions as creating the world about which you are writing. Creation can be tricky, and your sentences can – indeed, should – reflect the complexity of your thoughts. Once your world is created, just allow it to work for you. A concluding paragraph is no place for a complex sentence. Use short, declarative sentences to tell your readers what, by now, they inexorably know.
Use Parallelism to Strengthen Your Point
A concluding paragraph can be quite powerful if you let sentences build momentum. After varying your sentence length and structure throughout, the cadence of short, parallel sentences, with a variation at the end, jolts the reader. The reader knows your points. The reader knows how you arrived at your points. The reader knows you are right. Now, make sure your reader remembers this.
Be Honest
When creating your world, though, keep your creativity to organizing, rather than making up information. A very good lawyer once told me that there are not good facts or bad facts; there are just facts. Writing something blatantly untrue will persuade only the gullible reader. Your task, on the other hand, is to persuade the thoughtful reader. You can support your position with any set of facts, as long as you organize them well. Once you have lined everything up, you can drive your point home.
Neither Overstate Nor Understate
A common mistake among writers is to try to overcome shortcomings in an argument by being more forceful. If such writers cannot support a claim, they declare it to be “obvious,” or “clear”; “clearly, this is true, and such is beyond argument.” Such writers try to shame the reader away from thinking through the argument, or from wondering why the writer could find no supporting argument or evidence. For the careful reader, though, such words and phrases act as alerts to weaknesses in an argument. How, for example, can two parties be arguing about something that is “beyond argument”? If you simply declare something to be so, in forceful language with no support, you highlight the weaknesses of your own logic.
On the other hand, opportunities will arise to use powerful adjectives and adverbs. These can be quite effective if used sparingly, at the right moments. Once you have set up a powerful argument, the logic tight and the facts lined up exactly as you want them, consider slipping in an amplifying word or phrase: “While it may appear at first blush that writing is only as persuasive as the position is generally accepted, the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates otherwise.” Save such words and phrases, though, for when your writing has given you room to use them honestly. Trust your reader, and let your reader trust you. Accomplish that, and persuasion will follow.
