Hello Fellow Students
Today I’d like to talk about how to write persuasively in assignments and papers. Most of you probably believe that if you simply invest the time in your paper that your professor or TA will automatically be persuaded into giving you an A, nothing could be farther from the truth. Many students have talked to me as a tutor in the vta method or when I was a teaching assistant and asked me why their papers weren’t getting their desired marks. If the writing was good, the form was good, the research was good, but the paper was boring, you’re doomed to failure.
Persuasive paper writing is somewhat counterintuitive in the university setting as less is usually more. Let me explain. Let’s say you want to start writing a persuasive research paper. If you get all your research together, do all your analysis, get a good outline together and write a technically correct paper you will ‘technically’ have an A+ paper on your hands. However, persuasive paper writing has nothing to do with the paper being write and much more to do with the paper convincing the reader that it is right. Here are some quick tips on how to make your paper more persuasive.
Persuade your reader with a story
I usually try to throw a story in at the beginning of a paper. It’s really important to set the mood and also to begin to suck your reader into your world. If you go directly into your thesis statement and your supporting evidence, your reader will get bored.
Write your paper for a 12 year old
Even though your professor and/or TA have many years of education and experience behind them, they like an easy to read paper just as much as you. Write something that anyone can understand, even from a theoretical standpoint. This brings me to my next point.
Persuade your readers with examples!
Provide many examples, usually ones that will make a complex idea simple and easy to understand. As an example I was recently reading an article on ‘pagerank’ which is how google ranks each page in your website. The article made sense when the author included a simple example and harkened each page on your website to a bucket full of water. If you were to link from that page you’d be drilling a hole in the bucket and pouring the water (pagerank) into another bucket. Being easy to read and intuitive is your goal.
Edit for persuasion
Don’t try to make your paper sound more academic, if anything try to make your paper seem less complex. Put yourself in the shoes of your marker and ask yourself how you can make this paper easier to understand.
I hope this is useful to you all, if you’d like more information on writing a persuasive paper, go check out my main online study mentorship program.
