Persuasive Writing
Description
Developed from powerful techniques consistently proven in the world of multi-million pound commercial bid writing, Persuasive Writing reveals the most efficient and effective ways to make your words work, time after time.
Discover how to:
Transform any document into something truly compelling and persuasive
Understand what your reader really wants to hear and use this to get what you want
Combine logic and emotion to convince even the most sceptical reader
Whether you're writing for business or for pleasure, the longest document or the shortest email, with these and many more proven techniques, Persuasive Writing will ensure every word works for you.
Reviews / Votes
"With guidelines and rules set out in each chapter, would-be writers are provided with clear instructions on how to make the most out of words."eManager, August 2011
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Persons
Pete Frederick has spent the past 10 years as a professional persuasive writer. He is currently the senior bid writing expert for Pera Innovation, a leading research and development consultancy. He provides training, guidelines and internal evaluation to around 50 writers both within Pera and across other research organisations in Europe. Over the past 3 years, he has written and evaluated successful research bids worth ?67m. His guidelines and training courses have contributed to writers securing projects worth over ?200m over the same period.
Content
Contents
Introduction
Section 1: What is Persuasive Writing?
Why are you writing?
Who is your audience?
Reader Response = Result
Section 2: Tools for Persuasive Writing
Ethos, Logos, Pathos
Using emotive language
You, We, I ? getting personal
Storytelling
Persuasive writing example
Section 3: Persuasion ? Beyond Logic
The science of decision-making
Primacy ? why coming first matters
Availability
Consistency and why we hate changing our minds
Justification and evidence
Simplicity
Loss and reward ? a bird in the hand?
Outside influences ? following the herd
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
Anchoring ? decision-making all at sea
The Halo Effect
Recency ? the here and now
The reader is always right
Commercial Break: Advertisement Slogans
Section 4: Conciseness Equals Clarity
Ason and the Jargonauts
Sentence length
The writer?s diet ? cutting padding
Culling lazy words
Examples, similes and analogies
A 7-step concise writing process
Section 5: Verbs Equal Vigour
Grammar refresher
Verbs just wanna have fun
Verbs in disguise ? noun suffixes
Section 6: Mistakes
Commonly confused words
Using the wrong word
Scattershot punctuation and no punctuation
Poor spelling
?Mistakes? that aren?t mistakes
Section 7: Planning and Structuring
Plan, Draft, Edit
Document structures
Section 8: Layout, Fonts and Formatting
Font choice
Layout
Headings
Bullets
Tables and diagrams
Section 9: Tips for Common Documents
More effective emails
Writing for the web
Persuasive CVs
Executive summaries and abstracts
Grant funding
Feedback, fear and a favour
Section 10: Persuasion ? the Dark Arts
Assume causality
It?s common sense, stupid
It?s common knowledge
Abuse statistics
Widen or narrow definitions
Flattery will get you everywhere
And a few more?
The End
Appendix 1: Summary of rules
Appendix 2: Supersized words and their alternatives
Appendix 3: Recommended reading
Appendix 4: Persuasive writing flowchart