How to Improve Your Persuasive Writing

The main thing to remember in persuasive writing is that the reader wants to know what's in it for them. That's all they really care about and it is your job to show them.

Students of advertising and public relations, who are taught to be masters of persuasion, are taught Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and this is perhaps the best basis for understanding how to show a reader what's in it for them.

There are four basic levels of needs we all must have met. Decide which of these needs you are addressing and then show your reader how doing whatever it is you are trying to persuade them to do will fill that need for them.

The four levels of need fulfillment, according to Maslow, are: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization.

The most basic of needs, physiological, are breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis and excretion.

The next level, safety, centers around security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, and of property.

Love/belonging includes the need for friendship, family and sexual intimacy.

Self-actualization is the highest form of need fulfillment and can only be addressed once all the other lower needs have been met. This includes the need for morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts.

Find out which of these needs you can fulfill for the reader if they do what you are trying to persuade them to do, and then proceed to give them concrete examples of how doing so will fulfill those needs. Always be specific and address the needs from bottom to top. This approach should make your message much more persuasive and really show the reader what's in it for them.

Bruce W. Coffman of Coffman Communications http://www.freewebs.com/coffmancommunications

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