Requirements of Writing Persuasively

In this week’s module, Professor Kalm spoke about finding your niche in order to create your own voice of truth. The hardest part of this is the actual search for your niche. It needs to be something that comes natural and raises a passion within that causes you to want to pick it apart piece by piece. If you pick a topic that is not that interesting, the lack of passion will be noticed and you lose credibility. Professor Kalm noted, “Aristotle broke down rhetoric – the art of persuasion – into three requirements: to convince an audience with an argument, a voice had to be credible, logical and passionate[...]”

Convincing the audience with an argument could be one of the easiest tasks if you know your topic inside and out. This is where you show the audience you know the facts and are the right person to be persuading them to view this topic in your light. While writing my argument for topic about European Life I tried to emphasize that I have traveled around Europe and experienced first-hand the food and the culture of these countries. A personal experience of mine has changed my entire look on the global economy. One night at an Irish Pub, a middle aged mad said to me “When the United States sneezes, the whole world catches a cold.” This phrase has stuck with me and really shows me how each country and continent is connected through the state of the economy within each country. The knowledge behind this statement and the choice of his words convinced me to see the world through his eyes and notice how much of an impact the United States has upon the world.

Keeping your voice credible has everything to do with your online presence as well as your offline presence. If you write what is true to you and coincides with your values and standards than you are a credible source. Your credibility weakens when people veer away from their beliefs to discuss what they think other people want to hear. I mentioned in a previous discussion that it was difficult for me to pick a topic because I was trying to think of something that would stand out in people’s minds and write about what they want to hear. Professor Kalm brought up an amazing point stating that the people don’t know what they want until they see it right in front of them. At that point it is too late and you have set a voice for yourself that may go completely against what you believe. Sooner or later you will been be noticed for creating a false persona that is not truly you and labeled as a non-credible writer. Not worth it. Stick to what is true to you and the people will follow on their own.

Logical and passion is the last requirement from Aristotle’s list. Pick a topic that is interesting and causes your reader to think. Overall you are persuading them to see your point of view so make it an argument with strong and supportive facts. This will also make it a bit easier for the reader to agree. Lastly, passion. It is honestly the word I have been stumbling over for the past few weeks. Without the passion the topic is weak and will show in your writing. Pick something that you can pick apart and feel very strongly about. This will make writing about the topic easier as the words will pour onto the paper allowing you to then edit through to compile the best piece to submit each week.

Using these three requirements Aristotle suggests will help create a strong well structured argument to persuade your audience. I am currently working through these steps in an attempt to redefine my topic of European Life to a more specific area.