BUS 128 Grossmont College Persuasive Message Essay
Persuasive Message
Assume that, as a volunteer for a nonprofit organization in your town, you have been asked to write the next fundraising letter for the organization. In what ways might you gather enough information about the intended readers to write a successful message?
When you are not doing your schoolwork, you volunteer for People working Cooperatively (PWC) an Ohio based non-profit organization that provides free home repairs for low income, elderly or disabled homeowners. Repair Affair, the PWCs main spring event is about to take place and you have been asked to write an email message to persuade students at colleges and universities in your area to participate.
For this assignment, make a list of potential benefits you can think of that would appeal to college students. This list should have at least 10-15 reasons students would want to volunteer. These benefits can be tangible (gift cards, free food, free music, etc.) or intangible (good will, good cause, extra credit, experience etc.)
Include some things you as a student would be willing to volunteer for?
Please go over the persuasion lesson attached to have an idea about what is required from the assignment
Persuasion Advice
• Know your readers.
o Gather audience information through marketing
surveys, reports, focus groups
• Choose and develop targeted reader benefits.
o Benefits can be tangible or intangible
o Benefits can be intrinsic or extrinsic
• Make good use of persuasive appeals.
o Logic based
o Emotion Based
o Character based
• Make it easy for readers to comply
o Make the desired action clear
o Make the action easy to perform
Persuasive Requests
• Asking reader for something they may oppose
• Need to develop Strategy to convince reader to comply
• Open with words that set up the strategy and gain
attention
• Present the strategy (the persuasion) using persuasive
language and your viewpoint
• As a logical follow up, make the request clearly and
without negatives
• End the message with the request or appeal.
Persuasive Strategy
Opening
Dear Ms. Smith;
I am sure you would agree that business communication
instructors need to be in touch with business experts in the
field.
Experienced professionals like you can give teachers the
realistic input that is so important to their practical coursework.
Body
For this reason, I believe that you can make an important
contribution to the national meeting of the Organization for
Business Communication which will be held in San Diego this
October. The conference attracts 300 business communications
professors from the world who are looking for ways to keep
their teaching current. Your perspective could be valuable to
them.
Could you join us on Friday October 10th to share your
work as a supervisor at Lennox? What are some common
writing problems today and how can we train college students
to prepare to join the workforce? A 30 minute presentation
with 15 minute discussion in a break out session would be
relaxed for a group of 25 attendees.
Closing
Would you be able to share your experiences and advice with
us? This will help professors teach with a practical perspective. I
would appreciate letting me know by June 1.
Sales Writing Steps
• Learn the product or service you are selling
• How it is made, how it works, what it will do
• Learn about the prospective customers
• Their economic status, nationalities, tastes,
preferences, etc.
The Central Appeal
• Logical
o Appeals to the thinking mind (saving money, doing a
better job, etc.
• Emotional
o Appeals to the senses (feeling, tasting, smelling,
hearing)
• Character Based
o Uses the writer’s voice and image to win trust and
invite readers to identify with the speaker.
