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The Art Of Persuasion In An Essay
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Introduction
"Rhetoric is the art of discovering, in a particular case, the available means of persuasion."
--Aristotle
Every single human requires the art of persuasion at some point in their lives. As a child, one might use persuasion for the attainment of a toy or as an adult for the acquiring of other objects. A person here might whine, throw tantrums, but this behavior never seems to attain what is wanted by the person and just makes things worst. What one needs here is persuasion as it is the only method that can be sued by one to achieve what he wants. According to definition, Persuasion is a form of influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not only logical) means. It is a problem-solving strategy and relies on "appeals" rather than force (Persuasion, p.1).
Techniques
It is to be noted here that when writing an essay, a person needs to use persuasion so as to make people conform to the ideas that he or she presents in his essay. To write a persuasive essay, first of all the writer needs to have an argument. The argument has to be one-sided and the other side of the argument or the opposite answer is disregarded, but another fact is that a persuasive essay is never related to the pros and cons of the topic, but general facts related to its factuality. According to sources, It can't be a fact. If you were to choose as your topic, "Vipers are dangerous," you wouldn't have to persuade anyone of that. However, if your topic was, "Vipers should be eliminated from the animal kingdom," then you would have presented an opinion that could be debated. Your persuasive essay will focus on only one sideyour chosen sideof the argument. This will not be a pros-and-cons essay. Also, it won't be a personal opinion essay. You must be prepared to back up your logic with evidence collected in research that supports your position (Covert, p.1).
Persuasion requires techniques. No one would believe anything said by another until and unless he or she is persuaded into believing it. Persuasion can be done by certain methods.
-- Evidence
First of all evidence is required so as to support the claim made by the writer in the essay. The evidence cannot be general statements but have to be valid with good sources. Apart from evidence, persuasion needs to be sequential with one fact of the topic leading to the other for the betterment of the reader, as this would help him or her in understanding the topic as well as the claim. For example, if one is writing an essay on the above mentioned statement that is, Vipers should be eliminated from the animal kingdom," the writer needs to begin by the dangers posed by the vipers and then move on to numerical data as to how much disaster is caused by them and then carry this argument forward.
--Introduction of Controversial Issues
In the essay, the writer should also bring forth a general introduction to the issues that are against the topic at hand. This would lead to a negation of the controversial topic and would help the reader into conforming with the arguments as well as to understand the whole topic.
Conclusion
In the light of the above-mentioned statements, we can hereby conclude that persuasion is an art that is used by everyone at some point in their lives. It is necessary to note that persuasion plays a major role in an essay, which is related to a certain debatable argument. Persuasion requires some techniques, which have been mentioned above.
Works Cited
Covert, Brenda. The Art of Persuasion. Retrieved on May 17, 2007 from: http://edhelper.com/ReadingComprehension_33_32.html
Persuasion. Retrieved on May 17, 2007 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persuasion
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BONUS : The Art Of Travel And The Art Of Writing
In Alain de Bottons engaging book, The Art of Travel, he distinguishes between the anticipation and recollection of travel versus the reality of actually traveling.
When we anticipate, we study travel brochures and create in our imagination all sorts of exotic adventures, lying ahead of us. Once really there, we photograph the Eiffel Tower with our friends or family, their arms slung over one anothers shoulders and grinning into the camera. That forms the recollection, the moments we choose to remember.
Magically gone from memory are the delayed flight, the lousy food and the hotel room overlooking the alley, where the garbage collectors banged tins at 5am. But, if we otherwise enjoy ourselves, we select those good moments and photograph them to construct a different reality from the real reality.
De Bottons next idea is fascinating. He says thats exactly what the artist does. Whether writing a novel, painting a picture or scoring a symphony, the artist imagines the outline of the work (anticipates the delights of the trip) then selects that which is felt to have artistic value (forgets the garbage men and includes friends at the Eiffel Tower). Just as the traveler now has a fine and satisfying memory of the trip, the artist has a wonderful novel, painting or musical score. The artist has created art through imagination, selection, rejection and combination of artistic elements resulting in something new. The happy traveler has created a wonderful trip.
Then he tells of a man who had a very peculiar experience. After feasting his eyes upon paintings by Jan Steen and Rembrandt, this traveler anticipated beauty, joviality and simplicity in Holland. Many paintings of laughing, carousing cavaliers had fixed this image in his mind, along with quaint houses and canals. But on a trip to Amsterdam and Haarlem, he was strangely disappointed.
No, according to De Botton, the paintings had not lied. Certainly, there were a number of jovial people and pretty maids pouring milk, but the images of them were diluted in this travelers mind, by all the other ordinary, boring things he saw. Such commonplace items simply did not fit his mental picture. Thus, reality did not compare to an afternoon of viewing the works of Rembrandt in a gallery. And why not? Because Rembrandt and Steen had, by selecting and combining elements, captured the essence of the beauty of Holland, thereby intensifying it.
This is exactly what a writer or any artist tries to do and as a traveler, you may do much the same thing
When writing about a day in your protagonists life, you dont start with what he had for breakfast or that his car wouldnt start unless its germane to the plot or his character. You compress. You select and embellish. You toss out. All the details of your story must combine to intensify real life in order to create something interesting and of artistic merit. When I started writing the first novel in the Osgoode Trilogy, Conduct in Question, I had to learn it wasnt necessary to build the whole city with lengthy descriptions of setting and character, before Harry Jenkins (the protagonist lawyer) could do anything. But many nineteenth century novelists did write numerous pages with glowing descriptions of the Scottish moors or a county hamlet. And that was necessary because, with the difficulty of travel, a reader might well need help in picturing the setting. But today, with the ease of travel, the surfeit of film, web and television images, no reader needs more than the briefest description. Just write walking down Fifth Avenue and the reader immediately gets the picture.
In a novel, usually only the most meaningful, coherent thoughts are included, unless you are James Joyce, the brilliant stream of consciousness writer. And so, you as the writer can order your protagonists thoughts so as to make complete and utter sense apparently the first time. In the Osgoode Trilogy, the protagonist, Harry Jenkins, does lots of thinking and analyzing (the novels are mysteries, after all). But his coherence of thought is only produced after much editing and revising. Not much like real life, you say?
Same for dialogue. Interesting characters in books speak better and much more on point than people really do, partly because the writer is able to take back words. In real life, we often wish in retrospect, if only I had said this or that to set him straight. No problem for the writer. Hit the delete button and let him say something truly sharp and incisive.
And so, after comparing what the traveler and the writer do, what can we conclude? I quote De Botton in the Art of Travel.
The anticipatory and artistic imaginations omit and compress, they cut away the periods of boredom and direct our attention to critical moments and, without either lying or embellishing, thus lend to life vividness and a coherence that it may lack in the distracting woolliness of the present.
And so therein lies the difference between Art and Life! And so, the similarity between the traveler and writer.
In Alain de Bottons engaging book, The Art of Travel, he distinguishes between the anticipation and recollection of travel versus the reality of actually traveling.
When we anticipate, we study travel brochures and create in our imagination all sorts of exotic adventures, lying ahead of us. Once really there, we photograph the Eiffel Tower with our friends or family, their arms slung over one anothers shoulders and grinning into the camera. That forms the recollection, the moments we choose to remember.
Magically gone from memory are the delayed flight, the lousy food and the hotel room overlooking the alley, where the garbage collectors banged tins at 5am. But, if we otherwise enjoy ourselves, we select those good moments and photograph them to construct a different reality from the real reality.
De Bottons next idea is fascinating. He says thats exactly what the artist does. Whether writing a novel, painting a picture or scoring a symphony, the artist imagines the outline of the work (anticipates the delights of the trip) then selects that which is felt to have artistic value (forgets the garbage men and includes friends at the Eiffel Tower). Just as the traveler now has a fine and satisfying memory of the trip, the artist has a wonderful novel, painting or musical score. The artist has created art through imagination, selection, rejection and combination of artistic elements resulting in something new. The happy traveler has created a wonderful trip.
Then he tells of a man who had a very peculiar experience. After feasting his eyes upon paintings by Jan Steen and Rembrandt, this traveler anticipated beauty, joviality and simplicity in Holland. Many paintings of laughing, carousing cavaliers had fixed this image in his mind, along with quaint houses and canals. But on a trip to Amsterdam and Haarlem, he was strangely disappointed.
No, according to De Botton, the paintings had not lied. Certainly, there were a number of jovial people and pretty maids pouring milk, but the images of them were diluted in this travelers mind, by all the other ordinary, boring things he saw. Such commonplace items simply did not fit his mental picture. Thus, reality did not compare to an afternoon of viewing the works of Rembrandt in a gallery. And why not? Because Rembrandt and Steen had, by selecting and combining elements, captured the essence of the beauty of Holland, thereby intensifying it.
This is exactly what a writer or any artist tries to do and as a traveler, you may do much the same thing
When writing about a day in your protagonists life, you dont start with what he had for breakfast or that his car wouldnt start unless its germane to the plot or his character. You compress. You select and embellish. You toss out. All the details of your story must combine to intensify real life in order to create something interesting and of artistic merit. When I started writing the first novel in the Osgoode Trilogy, Conduct in Question, I had to learn it wasnt necessary to build the whole city with lengthy descriptions of setting and character, before Harry Jenkins (the protagonist lawyer) could do anything. But many nineteenth century novelists did write numerous pages with glowing descriptions of the Scottish moors or a county hamlet. And that was necessary because, with the difficulty of travel, a reader might well need help in picturing the setting. But today, with the ease of travel, the surfeit of film, web and television images, no reader needs more than the briefest description. Just write walking down Fifth Avenue and the reader immediately gets the picture.
In a novel, usually only the most meaningful, coherent thoughts are included, unless you are James Joyce, the brilliant stream of consciousness writer. And so, you as the writer can order your protagonists thoughts so as to make complete and utter sense apparently the first time. In the Osgoode Trilogy, the protagonist, Harry Jenkins, does lots of thinking and analyzing (the novels are mysteries, after all). But his coherence of thought is only produced after much editing and revising. Not much like real life, you say?
Same for dialogue. Interesting characters in books speak better and much more on point than people really do, partly because the writer is able to take back words. In real life, we often wish in retrospect, if only I had said this or that to set him straight. No problem for the writer. Hit the delete button and let him say something truly sharp and incisive.
And so, after comparing what the traveler and the writer do, what can we conclude? I quote De Botton in the Art of Travel.
The anticipatory and artistic imaginations omit and compress, they cut away the periods of boredom and direct our attention to critical moments and, without either lying or embellishing, thus lend to life vividness and a coherence that it may lack in the distracting woolliness of the present.
And so therein lies the difference between Art and Life! And so, the similarity between the traveler and writer.
