Persuasive Memo
Business Correspondence: Writing a persuasive memo
“Your success as a business person is closely tied to your ability to convince others to accept new ideas, change old habits, or act on your recommendations.” Writing a persuasive memo will give you the opportunity to practice these skills.
Memo
You will write a persuasive memo. This time you have an opportunity to choose your topic. You may choose a scenario from the list, or you may write a memo you might actually use. Perhaps you are in an organization, and you need to sell tickets, get volunteers, have people attend your event, or solicit funds for an event. Maybe you need to convince your organization to sponsor an event or ask members to do something. The event may have been in the past, and you may use the facts to write this memo as a future event.
You may have a job and would like your supervisor to consider changing a policy or institute a policy.
If you decide to use a scenario from the text, you might consider these. • #3 Although the task says write a letter, you write a memo. p. 319 • #4 Although the task says write an email, you write a memo. p. 319 If you like another scenario, you may modify it to fit this assignment.
You will use the AIDA model for a persuasive strategy.
A Attention Before you can persuade someone, you must attract his or her attention. p. 297.
I Interest Support your claim in the attention getter. p. 297
D Desire Expand your support. p. 299
A Action Ask your reader to do something. p. 299
To increase your credibility, you will add research. You do not need a formal in-text citation. You only need one quotation or one phrase mentioning your source. This is not a research project.
Avoid these mistakes. • Don’t use an up-front hard sell Don’t push. People resent it. • Don’t resist compromise. Don’t dig in your heels. • Don’t rely solely on logic.
“Your success as a business person is closely tied to your ability to convince others to accept new ideas, change old habits, or act on your recommendations.” Writing a persuasive memo will give you the opportunity to practice these skills.
Memo
You will write a persuasive memo. This time you have an opportunity to choose your topic. You may choose a scenario from the list, or you may write a memo you might actually use. Perhaps you are in an organization, and you need to sell tickets, get volunteers, have people attend your event, or solicit funds for an event. Maybe you need to convince your organization to sponsor an event or ask members to do something. The event may have been in the past, and you may use the facts to write this memo as a future event.
You may have a job and would like your supervisor to consider changing a policy or institute a policy.
If you decide to use a scenario from the text, you might consider these. • #3 Although the task says write a letter, you write a memo. p. 319 • #4 Although the task says write an email, you write a memo. p. 319 If you like another scenario, you may modify it to fit this assignment.
You will use the AIDA model for a persuasive strategy.
A Attention Before you can persuade someone, you must attract his or her attention. p. 297.
I Interest Support your claim in the attention getter. p. 297
D Desire Expand your support. p. 299
A Action Ask your reader to do something. p. 299
To increase your credibility, you will add research. You do not need a formal in-text citation. You only need one quotation or one phrase mentioning your source. This is not a research project.
Avoid these mistakes. • Don’t use an up-front hard sell Don’t push. People resent it. • Don’t resist compromise. Don’t dig in your heels. • Don’t rely solely on logic.