1. Guidelines for Building Effective Persuasive Arguments

Guidelines for Building Effective Persuasive Arguments

Develop Your Credibility

Earlier we talked about the need for establishing credibility in your presentation. We said that credibility is the perception that you are qualified to speak on a particular topic. We also mentioned that your credibility needs to be reinforced throughout your presentation. This is even more true when it comes to persuasive presentations. In fact, the very power to persuade is often contingent on those assessments of your credibility.

Choose the Appropriate Appeals

Any argument requires the use of appeals, be they appeals to credibility, appeals to logic, appeals to emotion or appeals to cultural values. As you persuade, you will necessarily use all four types of appeal as they are interdependent components of proof used to support claims.

Address Resistance and Concerns of the Audience

Finally, in persuasive situations it is important to anticipate the potential resistance and counterarguments your audience might feel. When you have a sense of what objections the audience might raise, you can and should address the most significant points of disagreement in your message. ( Addressing Resitance)