Persuasive writing : how to harness the power of words

Cover......Page 1
Persuasive Writing......Page 2
Contents......Page 6
About the author......Page 10
Introduction......Page 11
Acknowledgements......Page 13
What is Persuasive Writing?......Page 14
 Why are you writing?......Page 17
 Who is your audience?......Page 20
 Reader Response = Result......Page 25
Tools for Persuasive Writing......Page 30
 Ethos, Logos, Pathos......Page 32
 Using emotive language......Page 34
 You, We, I – getting personal......Page 37
 FABU......Page 38
 Storytelling......Page 40
 Persuasive writing example......Page 44
Persuasion – Beyond Logic......Page 48
 The science of decision-making......Page 50
 Primacy – why coming first matters......Page 52
 Availability......Page 53
 Consistency and why we hate changing our minds......Page 56
 Justification and evidence......Page 59
 Simplicity......Page 61
 Loss and reward – a bird in the hand . . .......Page 63
 Outside influences – following the herd......Page 66
 Repetition, repetition, repetition......Page 69
 Anchoring – decision-making all at sea......Page 70
 The halo effect......Page 71
 Recency – the here and now......Page 73
 The reader is always right......Page 75
Commercial Break: Advertisement Slogans......Page 78
Conciseness Equals Clarity......Page 84
 Ason and the jargonauts......Page 87
 Sentences that are too......Page 89
 The writer’s diet – cutting padding......Page 91
 Culling lazy words......Page 93
 Examples, similes and analogies......Page 95
 A seven-step concise writing process......Page 96
Verbs Equal Vigour......Page 100
 Grammar refresher......Page 102
 Verbs just wanna have fun......Page 103
 Verbs in disguise – noun suffixes......Page 105
Mistakes......Page 108
 Commonly confused words......Page 110
 Using the wrong word......Page 113
 Scattershot punctuation and no punctuation......Page 114
 Poor spelling......Page 117
 ‘Mistakes’ that aren’t mistakes......Page 119
Planning and Structuring......Page 120
 Plan, draft, edit......Page 122
 Document structures......Page 127
Layout, Fonts and Formatting......Page 130
 Font choice......Page 132
 Layout......Page 134
 Headings......Page 137
 Bullets......Page 139
 Tables and diagrams......Page 140
Tips for Common Documents......Page 144
 More effective emails......Page 146
 Writing for the web......Page 150
 Persuasive CVs......Page 151
 Executive summaries and abstracts......Page 155
 Grant funding......Page 157
 Feedback, fear and a favour......Page 165
Persuasion – the Dark Arts......Page 168
 Assume causality......Page 171
 It’s common sense, stupid......Page 172
 It’s common knowledge......Page 173
 Abuse statistics......Page 174
 Widen or narrow definitions......Page 177
 Flattery will get you everywhere......Page 178
 And a few more . . .......Page 179
 The end......Page 182
Appendix 1 Summary of rules......Page 184
Appendix 2 Supersized words and their alternatives......Page 186
Appendix 3 Recommended reading......Page 187
Appendix 4 Persuasive writing flowchart......Page 188
Appendix 5 Persuasive writing checklist......Page 189
Appendix 6 Exploiting and countering human decision-making......Page 190
Appendix 7 The seven-step concise writing process – worked example......Page 194
Index......Page 202