Professional and Technical Writing/Rhetoric/Purpose
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Contents |
[edit] Being persuasive based around readers viewpoints
When creating effective professional documents it is always important to use persuasive. Sometimes you want to be more obvious about your persuasive style, but almost every document you will write will try to persuade or inform the readers. What is important to take into account is that readers have viewpoints on everything they are looking at. It begins with an initial thought and continues to change throughout the time they are looking at your document. It is important to realize that readers goals, concerns, feelings, and responses are likely to change from situation to situation. The following points are centered around being able to successfully communicate with the readers, so your documents can correctly persuade or inform the readers the way they are suppose to.
[edit] It is important to help your readers locate valuable information first.
- In professional documents you often can see that the main idea and purpose is stated in the first paragraph and usually in the first few sentences. This is unlike papers that you may have written in regular writing classes throughout you time in school. Use headings, topic sentences, and lists to guide your readers towards specific points and information that you would like them to comprehend. Then later in the document you can go onto explain what your points make sense. If a reader really cares to read on, they will.
[edit] Use easy to read styles to make it readable to all levels.
- Take away unnecessary or more inter specific wording to make sure that your document can be understood. Put in action words to effectively make your point. Use low impact versions to make it easier to read, and so people can read the document faster.
[edit] Highlight persuasive points you are trying to make.
- Put you main points in the beginning to capture the reader’s attention. Show how their actions will enable them to achieve their own goals. When deciding on what elements that are persuasive, look at arguments that are credible and compelling to insure they believe what you are trying to say.
[edit] Communicate with your readers.
- Before you write and document, understand who is going to be reading your documents and what they current beliefs are. This will allow you to write towards the correct set of people. Then when writing your document, ask readers how they will use the presented information and what they are looking for in the communication.
It is believed that if you cannot communicate with your readers that they will not understand the introduced concepts and strategies that are serving as a springboard into you argument. Without having a jumping point into your supportive information, you will not be effectively communicating you document. You also need to be creating an ethical dimension to you documents that are not going against any of you reader’s viewpoints and personal thoughts. It is said that you are suppose to be talking with your readers and not towards them. This is explaining that you are not directing them towards something they are not willing to pursue. But instead direct them towards something they are considering, and offer those ideas and concepts that can pursue them towards a certain idea.