Understanding an Emotional Audience

Introduction

Know Your Audience;

Target the Audience;

Persuade the Audience

Using Ethos to Influence the Audience: Introduction

Before starting the journey of writing a successful essay, one should always keep in mind the audience of the essay.

Which type of audience will read the essay?

What is the purpose of this essay?

What emotional, logical, and statistical evidence do you already know about the topic?

Any author should be well prepared to answer these questions.

The biggest mistake you can make when writing an essay is not having a clear audience in mind when constructing the thesis statement. An essay is essentially an argument; being wishy-washy defeats the purpose. If you do not know where you stand, how can you persuade anyone else over to your side? Coming up with a thesis statement can be tough, but it helps if you learn enough about the topic so that you can feel strongly about the issue. Make sure you outline exactly what it is you think, and then try and find supporting reasons of why you think that way.  In addition, you need to know what others might think, how they might oppose your ideas, and find supporting reasons for your side to debunk these alternate views.

One way to persuade your audience of your argument is to understand appeals.  While appeals come in many forms: logical, emotional, and statistical, if done well, an emotional appeal can quickly pull your audience to the middle of the argument, if not all the way over to your side of the issue.

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Introduction: Understanding an Emotional Audience Page 1: Emotional Appeals: Defining Emotional Appeal Page 2: Producing an Effective Emotional Appeal Page 3: Ethical Usage