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How to convince your reader

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Writing is about the art of persuading people. When you are writing a story or poem, you are attempting to persuade your reader that the situation you have created is believable and convincing. When you are writing about an argument of some kind, your attempt to persuade someone to agree with your point of view is rather direct. Here are some techniques you can use.

Rhetorical questions: They are posed by the writer as a way of moving the argument forward or emphasising the point he/she is making. Sometimes they are impossible to answer, or alternatively, the answer is obvious and forces us to agree with the point of view being put forward by the writer. For example, an essay arguing that smoking ought to be banned in public places might ask: 'Smoking can shorten life expectancy by up to 10 years. Do you want to die earlier than is needed?' No, of course not! So the rhetorical question forces you to agree with the writer.

Vocabulary is important and you should always choose your words carefully. It is sometimes helpful to use technical vocabulary as a way of showing your reader that you know what you are talking about. If someone thinks that you are knowledgeable, they are more likely to agree with you. So you might talk about 'meteorology' rather than 'studying the weather' in an essay about global warming.

Careful choice of vocabulary can also allow you to appeal to the reader's heart as well as their head. In other words, you can make your argument emotionally as well as intellectually convincing. Here are more possible ways of writing about smoking:

'Many families are saddened by the loss of a father who had the smoking habit.'

'Many families are devastated by the loss of a father who had been a slave to smoking.'

I have used two emotive words in the second example to make it more powerful. The word 'devastated' suggests a far greater impact on the family and makes it sound as if they are destroyed by the death. It is a more extreme word than 'saddened'. A habit is something that you do, but which you can fairly easily stop if you wanted. The word 'slave' is more emotive because it suggests a person who is forced to do terrible things against their will. The emotive vocabulary makes us feel the power of the cigarettes.

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