Rational & Emotional Strategies for Persuasive Language

Persuasive language refers to words and phrases that convince people to take a particular action. Words contain connotations that can spark emotional reactions. For example, someone can call an idea "magnificent" or say that an expert is "trustworthy." Negative things can be called "harmful" or "unpatriotic." Instead of using rational arguments, the persuader relies on the emotions the listener feels when hearing these particular words and hopes these emotions will drive the listener to a particular conclusion. Another approach is to use rational persuasive language, which requires that the used words have support backing them.
  1. Rational Support

    • Rational support for an argument can come in the form of a logical premise or from evidence. For example, whether someone states that a particular investment is profitable, this person can point out how investors earned more money on this investment than on others. A person can also point out that a particular battery is "inferior" by proving the battery does not last as long as other batteries.

    Assumptive Adverb

    • One emotional strategy in persuasive language is to include an assumptive adverb to the beginning of a sentence, such as "clearly" and "undoubtedly." For example, "Clearly, a student won't get into a good college without a high GPA." These adverbs imply only a foolish person would disagree, causing other people to agree to avoid appearing foolish.

    Experiential Language

    • Another strategy involves experiential language, when the person explains how things personally affected them. Using this method, people describe their feelings of anger, sadness or happiness. These emotions connect to specific experiences. The person putting forth the argument must explain the cause-and-effect relationship. Listeners can experience empathy for the speaker, causing them to experience an emotional reaction that can change their mind about a particular topic.

    Intensifiers

    • People can use intensifiers to make something sound more exciting. Intensifiers are adverbs that increase the intensity of a particular idea. For example, people can say, "this is very, very useful." Adding more than one "very" increases the intensity of the word "useful." People can also make something sound less exciting by saying "this is somewhat useful," downplaying the usefulness. These adverbs can manage the listener's feelings about the concept.

    Power Words

    • Power words are words that have a lot of emotion attached to them. Some words reflect beliefs and values, such as "freedom." Similarly, some words repel people. For example, if a speaker wants to attack a government policy, he can call the policy "fascistic," since the term has a negative connotation. Some words promise to fulfill a need. For example, saying an instructional eBook is "easy" fulfills the need people have to accomplish goals with little difficulty.

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