The Persuasive Letter
Assignment Prompt
For this assignment, you will be writing a letter compelling a friend or family member to change either a behavior or a belief with which you disagree. Choose your own topic, but for example, this letter could petition an enthusiastic neighbor to scale down his blinding Christmas decorations, an immature cousin to take a gap year between high school and college, a grandparent to vote to pass the new school district budget, a friend to stop drinking, or a spouse to reconcile with an estranged sibling. Because the letter will be written to an individual of your choosing, you must tailor your language and logic to the person to whom you are writing.
Assignment-Specific Requirements:
Length: This assignment should be at least 750 words.
Thesis: Underline your thesis statement or the main claim of your letter.
Sources Needed: None required. Cite if used, following MLA guidelines.
Page Formatting: Use MLA guidelines. Also add an opening salutation (e.g. Dear Sarah, or Hello, Jon.), and a closing salutation & signature (Best regards, Tom or Sincerely, Liza)
MLA Requirements: See Formatting your Essay: MLA 8th Edition
Rhetorical Mode
The goal of persuasive writing is to get a reader (your audience) to agree with your point of view. Persuasive writing blends facts and emotion to convince the reader that the writer is right. This genre relies on opinion and emotion to a greater extent than argumentative writing, but in moving a reader, the successful persuasive letter also deploys logically sound argumentation and quite often researched support and fact.
Rhetorical Considerations
Purpose:
The purpose of drafting a persuasive letter is to move your reader to agree with your point of view. Persuasion is single-minded; it is based on a conviction that a particular way of thinking or acting is the only way to go; all of the energy of the letter works toward this end. As a writer, you will present one side–your side. While an opposing point should be mentioned, it is only mentioned to be refuted or dismissed in the service of your position.
Audience:
Persuasive writing is almost always written with a particular audience in mind. For this piece of writing, you will direct your persuasive letter to one person. Thus, your audience is not imagined, but rather very real, and that person and their characteristics will inform many of the choices you make as a writer. The persuasive letter requires constant negotiation with another person’s mind. At every phase of the writing process, as you prewrite, draft, and revise, this assignment will ask you to imagine and anticipate how your reader feels, responds, and thinks.
Form:
This piece of writing will be presented using a letter format. Thus, while you still need an MLA-style heading to format your work for submission, you will address your letter directly to your reader with a formal letter salutation.
Five Features of a Persuasive Letter
Rhetorical Situation: Persuasive Writing vs. Argumentative Writing: Persuasive writing, in a way, is a form of argumentative writing; however, the goal of persuasive writing is to get a reader or group of readers to agree with you/your point of view on a particular topic, and the goal of argumentative writing is to get the reader to acknowledge that your side is valid and is worth considering. Persuasive writing blends facts with emotion in an attempt to convince the reader that the writer is “right,” while in argumentative writing, the writer cites relevant reasons, credible facts, and sufficient evidence in order to convince the reader to consider a particular perspective. The nuances are subtle but important to consider. (Later in this course you will be crafting an argument and will see the differences in these genres of writing with greater clarity. The letter makes balanced use of the three rhetorical appeals to persuade a reader to change a behavior or belief. The three appeals, which come to us from that consequential deceased Greek, Aristotle, are:
Ethos: a writer’s or speaker’s credibility. In your letter, therefore, ethos is you, sort of. It’s the “you” that your writing transmits to your reader, the sum total of your tone and language choices, and also the values and intelligence that your writing communicates. Therefore, be vigilant with your work because ethos is the appeal that’s most immediately harmed by faulty word choices, punctuation mistakes, and lapses in tone.
Pathos: the appeal to a reader’s emotions and values. Get your reader to feel. Play (in a non-evil way) on their emotions–their compassion, their fears, their sense of community.
Logos: the appeal to a reader’s logic or reason. Ensure your claims are logical, free of fallacies, and backed with specific support.
Organization: Organize using argumentative structure: an introduction with a thesis/main claim, body paragraphs that advance points in support of the thesis/main claim, and a conclusion.
Transitions: Uses transitional phrases to connect your ideas and move the reader forward smoothly and logically between sentences.
Known Audience: The letter’s appeals are personalized to the reader’s characteristics–their professional role and its obligations, as well as their values and emotions.
Formal or Informal Writing? The tone of the letter depends upon the recipient and your relationship and also upon subject matter. The tone should enhance the letter’s persuasive efforts, not undermine them. Always strive for a respectful approach.
Mini-Lesson on ETHOS – PATHOS – LOGOS
Plan to use these appeals heavily throughout your Persuasive Letter.
Ethos
This is an ethical appeal. It relies on your reliability and credibility as the author.
Includes reliable sources
Is written from an unbiased perspective
Shows the writer’s expertise through the presentation of careful insight and research
Pathos
This is an emotional appeal. It relies on the construction of careful connection between the claims presented and the emotions of the readers.
Includes the writer’s values and beliefs
Uses stories or examples that convey emotion
Contains broader appeal and focus
Logos
This is an appeal to logic and reason. It relies on facts and figures that can convince the reader of the claims.
Relies on fact and opinion
Focuses on reasonable claims and organization of ideas
Only includes relevant material with a narrow focus
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