How to Write Persuasively
While teaching business and technical writing at Rutgers for over 15 years, I became aware of some teachers at Rutgers, and other highly-regarded universities, teaching persuasive writing in a very strange way. As I learned more about this dubious teaching method, I realized that it was not only ineffective teaching, it also revealed a specific type of problem that makes some college courses less effective and even irrelevant in the modern world. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, I had three decades of experience working in three of the leading advertising agencies in New York, and had managed a successful marketing and advertising consulting business of my own. What I had learned in my advertising experience contradicted what these teachers were telling their students about how to successfully create persuasive communication. Some faculty members agreed with me when I shared my conclusions, but no action was taken by Rutgers. So, I decided to write my plea to correct this kind of wrong teaching of persuasive writing in an essay format and I am now finally publishing it in this Substack post. Hopefully, I can help people trying to create persuasive communication of any kind, to do it better.
What is Persuasive Writing?
I define persuasive writing as any kind of writing that attempts to motivate the intended target audience to think, feel, or act as the author wants them to. This includes film writing, political speech writing, and countless other forms of communication that extend far beyond advertising. In fact, you might even say that all forms of communication, to some extent, have the intent to persuade; but I am focusing here on writing in which selling, or intentional persuasion, is the main purpose, or at least a primary, conscious effort on the part of the author. Obviously this includes almost all types of fiction and non-fiction.
Let me first describe how this type of writing is wrongly taught in the type of college courses I am talking about, then explain why it is wrong, and finally, explain what might be done to better align the teaching of persuasive writing with the way it is actually practiced in real world workplaces.
Aristotle's Triad: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos
The below diagram is one of the broadest definitions of this type of writing, credited to Aristotle.
Aristotle, the legendary Greek philosopher (384 to 322 B.C.E.) observed that Greek public speakers were successful at persuading their audiences by using three types of content; Logos (logic), Pathos (emotion), and Ethos (speaker expertise credentials). Aristotle was correctly identifying three generally definted types of content that these speakers used to be persuasive.
Fine, but these teachers then took one more step by assuming that Aristotle was offering a cause-and-effect relationship between any use of these types of content and the end result of persuasive writing. In other words, they tell their students that to be persuasive writers, they only have to include these three general types of content; i.e., logic, emotion, and their own expert credentials. It becomes a simple writing formula. Really? Is that what you would expect to hear Aristotle teaching, if you had attended one of his classes in ancient Greece?
Why Aristotle's Triad is Not a Simple Writing Formula
Simply said, as a simple writing formula, it doesn’t work. Imagine all the possible specific kinds of appeals you could use in each general type of content Aristotle names. Now ask, how many might or might not appeal to what your audience understands, or even cares about? For example, if you are trying to sell a brand of perfume to women, and you decide to go on and on about your love of baseball, how many women will you connect with? They’ll probably wonder if you even know anything about perfume, for one thing. You’re not connecting with the needs, wants, or interests of your audience. Obviously, the same problem can easily arise when you select the wrong logic or expert credentials to talk about.
Why Do Some Teachers Continue to Use Aristotle's Triad?
I think there are four basic reasons.
Who wouldn't love to claim he or she is teaching what Aristotle once taught? Aristotle is a celebrity name in any school.
It's an easy formula to remember, as there are only three things.
They assume that students will use common sense in selecting good Logos, Ethos, or Pathos claims, ones that the audience understands and cares about. But can you really assume this? Advertising agencies spend days and weeks finding appeals for ads. It's not so easy as you might think, and ad agencies always try to test appeals before using. Do any teachers talk about testing? I've never heard of it, if they do.
These teachers don't know what else to use. This is probably the most important reason for their continued use.
I would urge the teachers I am talking about to try testing some of the specific appeals students write using this approach. Ask the rest of the class if they think the appeals are motivating to them? My other suggestion is to research the way advertising agencies generate ads. Persuasive communication is their bread and butter. You must assume they know something about it by now.
How Do Ad Agencies Persuade?
They focus on knowing the needs and wants of their audience, and then deciding what appeals to use. The biggest problem with using Aristotle's appeal Triad as a writing formula, ad professionals know fully well from long experience, that different audiences can have much different interests and desires. This is why they begin by adopting what I call "The You Focus"; a focus upon how a specific audience behaves and what attitudes it has about the products or services the agency is trying to sell through different types of advertising (and there are many types today).
In brief, the top agencies begin their search for persuasive communication by trying to understand the target audience's behavior and attitudes for the brand and type of product or service they will be creating advertising for. They usually consider many other aspects as well, such as the budget, the types of media to be used, and what legal or other requirements must be met. At least five basic types of information are thoroughly developed before any writing or creating begins:
The product or service to be advertised.
The media to be used (which depends upon the budget)
The target group of prospects to persuade
The benefit or benefits to offer them
The support to offer to make the benefit promise credible.
Many meetings between the client and the different departments of the agency are commonly held until an overall strategy statement is agreed upon by all parties. If different appeals are considered, concept tests may also be conducted in focus groups or with personal interviews to better anticipate the response each appeal might have.
The complexity of persuasion communication methods and options goes far beyond what can be covered in this post, but a good example of the sophistication possible in the end result is seen in the famous Apple commercial created by Chiat Day to introduce the Macintosh computer in 1984. Notice this TV commercial makes intentional use of George Orwell's 1949 novel, 1984, and dramatically inspires young modern adults to break free of the IBM traditional product choices (notice the use of slavish blue robots to imply IBM uses). This TV commercial ran in the Superbowl in 1984 and is generally considered one of, if not the most persuasive television commercials of all time.
What About Very Difficult Persuasion Challenges?
Any attempt to persuade with communication must consider the possibility that some target audiences may be extremely difficult to attract and persuade. Extremely difficult to reach and influence audiences may require special methods or even lead to the decision to not even attempt persuasion. At this writing, the hard-core Trump loyalists might be a good example of such a difficult target audience to influence to alter their political thinking or behavior. They are often called a "cult" group for this reason.
The difficulty of this challenge is evident in the following text; a summary of the recommended approach to influence a cult member as found in the April, 2021 edition of Psychology Today magazine:
Be patient and respectful when asking questions.
Teach by sharing similar examples and experiences.
Learn about mind control techniques.
Work to establish a relationship and connect with your friend or family member, which will build trust.
To more fully understand how difficult it is to persuade someone to go against his or her beliefs, here are two interviews with Trump loyalists:
How Should College Courses Teach Persuasive Writing?
My first recommended action would be to stop teaching Aristotle's Triad as a valid method to define persuasive writing for any course or subject. Continuing to endorse this incomplete and often completely ineffective methodology encourages both writing teachers and students to see the art of persuasive writing as little more than a formula process, and in my opinion, shows students how far out of touch college teaching can be with the working world they hope to enter.
My second recommendation is to ask teachers to define persuasion needs more realistically to the target audience and the type of persuasion being attempted. For example, if your students are writing grant proposals for a specific type of grant funding, you can always find out which funders consider those types of proposals. For any specific funder, you can always find out what they are looking for, expect, and require in submitted proposals. The same approach can be used for any type of persuasive writing aimed at any type of target audience. But please do not assume that the same kinds of appeals work for all audiences.
If teachers need help in designing specific ways to persuade, I urge them to seek advice from people with that kind of workplace experience. As the working world becomes increasingly complex and advanced, colleges must make a concerted effort to match their teaching with the practices common in the real-world workplace. That's the only way colleges can maintain what they want students to have in the relevance of all college teaching.