Persuasion Techniques

1. Emotional Appeal: Writers may appeal to fear, anger or joy to sway their readers. They may also add climax or excitement. This technique is strongly connected to the essay's mood.

2. Word Choice (Diction): Is a person "slim" or "skinny"? Is an oil spill an "incident" or an "accident"? Is a government expenditure an "investment" or a "waste"? Writers tend to reinforce their arguments by choosing words which will influence their reader's perception of an item or issue. Diction may also help to establish a writer's "Voice" or "Tone".

3. Rhetorical Question: Sometimes a writer will ask a question to which no answer is required. The writer implies that the answer is obvious; the reader has no choice but to agree with the writer's point.

4. Repetition: Overly repetitive writing can become tiresome. However, when used sparingly for effect, it can reinforce the writer's message and/or entertain the reader. Writers may repeat a word, a phrase or an entire sentence for emphasis.

5. Parallelism: When an author creates a "balanced" sentence by re-using the same word structure, this is called parallelism. Always strive for parallelism when using compound or complex sentences.

6. Analogy: This tool is not limited to poets. Essay writers often use figures of speech or comparisons (simile, metaphor, personification) for desired emphasis.

7. Appeal to Authority (association): A writer may mention an important event or person in an essay to lend importance or credibility to his/her argument.

8. Hyperbole: This is one of the more enjoyable persuasive techniques. It involves completely overstating and exaggerating your point for effect. (Like when your mom says, "I must have asked you a million times to clean your room!" Get it?)

9. Irony: Irony is present if the writerÕs words contain more than one meaning. This may be in the form of sarcasm, gentle irony, or a pun (play on words). It can be used to add humour or to emphasize an implied meaning under the surface. The writer's "voice" becomes important here.

10. Testmonial: using words of an expert or famous person to persuade.

11. Bandwagon: persuade people to do something by letting them know others are all doing it.

12. Repetition: idea is repeated over and over.

13. Transfer: using names or pictures of famous people but not direct quotes.

14. Free or Bargain: a speaker suggests that the public can get something for nothing or almost nothing.

15. Glittering Generalities: in glowing terms and offering no evidence the speaker or advertiser supports a candidate or a solution to social problems.

16. Name Calling: describing bad aspects of a competitor's product so that the advertised product seems better.

17. Plain Folk: using actors who represent "average" people to suggest that, because people in advertisements resemble friends and neighbors, the product they are using must be good

18. Repetition: repeating an element within one advertisement so that viewers will remember the advertisement and will buy the product; also refers to the repetition of the same advertisement

19. Card Stacking: telling the facts for one side only