9: Writing Persuasive Messages pg. 216

Test your Knowledge
1. What are some questions to ask when gauging the audience's needs during the planning of a persuasive message?
Who is my audience? What are my audience members needs? What do I want them to do? How might they resist? Are there alternative positions I need to examine? What does the decision maker consider to be the most important issue? How might the organization's culture influence my strategy?

2. What role do demographics and psychographics play in audience analysis during the planning of a persuasive message?
Demographics include characteristics such as age, gender, occupation, income, and education. Psychographics include characteristics such as personality, attitudes, and lifestyle.

3. How do emotional appeals differ from logical appeals?
Emotional appeals attempt to connect with the reader's feelings or sympathies. Logical appeals are based on the reader's notions of reason; these appeals can use analogy, induction, or deduction.

4. What three types of reasoning can you use in logical appeals?
Analogy: reason from specific evidence to specific evidence
Induction: work from specific evidence to a general conclusion
Deduction: work from a generalization to a specific conclusion

5. What is the AIDA model, and what are its limitations?
AIDA model, which organizes your presentation into 4 phrases: Attention-->Interest-->Desire-->Action
Limitations: AIDA is a unidirectional method that essentially talks at audiences, not with them. AIDA is built around a single event, such as asking an audience for a decision, rather than on building a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship.