The Importance Of Writing To Persuade People

The weather is perfect for racing: not too hot, not too humid, not too windy. I dash down the twisted trails in the woods, trying not to stumble on the gnarled roots protruding from the dirt. My spikes puncture the soft earth with every stride, and my legs repeatedly pound on the ground, soreness surging through them. As sweat trickles down my face and dirt smears across my aching calves, I ascend a steep hill, trying to bring forth the strength I have accumulated throughout endless hours of practice. Now that I am nearing the final two hundred meters, I must force my body to begin sprinting. Breathing heavily, I dart for the imminent finish line, trying to beat the uninterrupted tick of the timer. Even though the crowd surrounds all around me, I can barely hear their animated cheers, because all I can focus on is crossing the line before the girl next to me. I can feel adrenaline surging through my body, and I widen my stride to cap off the remaining distance. When I glance at my Garmin watch, a new personal best time flashes across the screen. I realize that all of the gruelling work I have put in is worth the final result: happiness. (Snapshot Lead)

In the most widely quoted and discussed model of presidential power, Richard Neustadt states that the power of the president lies in the power to persuade. According to Neustadt, the key to presidential success and influence is persuasion. Although some may view the president as a powerful authority figure, the checks and balances established by the founders makes the president’s skills of persuasion crucial.

Authors use language to persuade citizens to examine personal biases. Language persuades citizens by making them want to do good things for their community, or try something new. Persuasion is to cause someone to believe something, or convince.

Defining someone by their skin color is an everyday phenomenon. Many people see a specific shade of skin and believe they know exactly how that person is going to speak, carry, and illustrate themselves. It seems to be embedded in one’s head at a young age to have specific views given by family, friends, and coworkers such as, believing interracial relationships are immoral, or it being acceptable to judge others according to their skin color. In the articles “Race is a Four Letter Word” by Teja Arboleda and “Mr. Z” by M. Carl Holman, the color of the authors skin plays a substantial role on how they are treated and perceived. Living in a society that doesn’t understand one’s culture can make their life extremely difficult.

The separation of races in stereotypical ways is an ongoing problem throughout the world. Brent Staples is an individual who know this issue all too well. In Staples’ essay titled “Just Walk on By”, he uses countless rhetorical strategies to convey the harmful effects of stereotypes and race diversity. From his own personal encounters, he describes racial issues and how they can wrongfully define an individual. Staples begins by using powerful diction to bring this issue to life.

In the town of Longtown, Ohio, all races have mixed freely for nearly 200 years. This early integration town was founded by James Clemens, a freed slave from Virginia. People there have married and befriended each other no matter the color of their skin. These conditions are outstanding considering the racism outside the town at the time. We can learn from these people living in almost perfect harmony by not judging anyone by anything else other than their character. In paragraph 4 of the article “Ohio town holds rare history: Races mix freely for nearly 200 years”, the Connor Keiser states, “We were the usual Longtown family. We all looked different, and we were taught that color didn’t matter.” Keiser demonstrates how when he grew up around different colored people, no one cared. They just became friends and lived peacefully because happiness and harmony doesn’t have to be a result of segregation. Another piece of evidence that demonstrates this is in paragraph 21 when the author states, “The Tigers’ appearance often confounded opponents.

    Are moral standards in the eye of the beholder? According to one author, “we’ve seriously lost our way”, going on to state, “we are like mean adrift at sea without a compass” (Hulme). In literature as in biology, the mantra of form fits function applies and heightens a reader’s appreciation of a writer’s choice and how they contribute to a work of literature. In Tim O’Brien’s collection of short stories, The Things They Carried, the narrative, the experience of reading and the alternating Vietnam and modern day settings not only shape the author’s world view, but reflect upon his own experiences in the 1960’s and 1970’s war. The short stories within

Gerard A. Hauser covers a plethora of details on how to create a well-made persuasive argument in his book, an Introduction to Rhetorical Theory; however, he covered three specific essentials that are necessary for persuasion: the components logos, pathos and ethos; purposive discourse and rhetorical competence; identification. I will argue for each constituent, respectively, to prove that persuasion cannot thrive without the aforementioned essentials.

Throughout American history, people of color have been treated as inferior to whites in everything from beauty standards to criminal records. While this tactic provides validity to more whites, it also further divides society, building a barrier many don’t realize they create. The film discusses the subconscious biases many people have against those with darker skin, immediately discounting them as humans and demoting them to a lower place in society. Research has shown this through a test which asks participants to associate white with good and African American with bad, and then flips this to associating African-American with good and white with bad. For someone with an implicit bias, the latter task will be more difficult, time consuming, and laden with error as compared to the former. The acceptability of appearance-based judgement widens the color line, disregarding all people of non-European ancestry, and making the quest for validation near impossible for many. Nevertheless, the human race has proved that it will do anything to find validation, as noted by Gunnar Myrdal. “My general opinion of human beings is that they are very confused in their mind. Their public opinions are certainly not their private opinions” (Smith 0:49-1:00). People follow those whose opinions have been marked as valid, even though they may not agree. To them, the glory of their own validation outweighs the value of another human being; they have no qualms about changing their

The Art of Persuasion Used since the times of the ancient Greeks, the art of persuasion has

Advertisements of movies and other forms of media can be used to persuade children into wanting certain toys. These companies are now promoting toys to children that are gender-biased. Toys can be seen as gender-biased by the colors they have or the actions that the figures are restricted too. When here are great movies out in heaters that intrigue many children, this children will most likely want a toy that relates to the movie. Sometimes this can create conflict when companies do not make toys that represent some of the characters. Some people might believe that the companies are being gender-biased by doing this. In the article “Asleep at the switch? “Force Awakens” heroine missing from the toy line,” it says that Disney did not release

According to the text , Social Psychology, “social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another”(pg. 4) this is viewed in a variety of social topics incorporating group behaviors, attitudes, conformity, obedience to authority, stereotypes and peer pressure. Outside factors can have a positive or negative affect our view of ourselves and each other. These outside factors are used to persuade and influence group behavior. Persuasion is defined as “the process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors” (Myers, 2010, pg. 230). The principles of this process of persuasion according to researchers, Robert Cialdini and Thomas Davidson, are attractiveness and

The sun reflects off the green blades of grass and onto my light grey two story house with white window shutters. 90 degrees fahrenheit, I read on my phone. Why do I have to go outside? I think to myself.

Changing the world is a heavy topic. From a young age, people are told that they can change the world, all they have to do is put their minds to it. What they weren’t told was changing the world isn’t very easy. As someone once said, “If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got” (Brainy Quotes). This unnamed person is correct in their thinking, now the problem is how do I change what I am doing to get different results. Well if a person really wants to change the world they will have to change the way they think and act. Even though it's difficult to change oneself that is the only way to change the world.

Persuasion is described as the deliberate process that intends to change an individual’s attitudes, behaviours or beliefs from their previous initial views and ways of behaving in society. Persuasive communication is widespread and evident all around us, including in central areas of politics, marketing and media. Burkholder et al’s (2003) findings support the idea that there are cultural differences evident in the effectiveness of persuasion, in which they found that shortly after the end of the Iraq war, surveys indicated that although Americans favoured the use of military action against Iraq by 2:1, Europeans opposed it by the same margin. There are four key factors that help influence persuasion amongst the masses, depending on their