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Think about TV ads. Analyze. Ask questions. |
Consider these ideas for your own compositions. |
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| WHAT
IMAGE IS PROJECTED?
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WHAT
IS YOUR PROJECTED IMAGE?
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Establishing trust is basic. We often believe a message simply on the basis of our believing in, or our liking of, the speaker. Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle's Rhetoric emphasized that the most effective means of persuasion (more effective even that rational or emotional appeals) was the ethos, the "image" projected by the persuader of being expert, trustworthy, and benevolent. Today, such image building is not only done by an individual persuader, but is often done by a committee on behalf of a product, a candidate, corporation. Yet, principles remain the same: All persuaders (good or bad, public or private, commercial or political) can be analyzed in terms of their claims of being: (1) expert, that is, knowledgeable, informed, competent, wise, prudent, a person of good judgment and good sense; (2) trustworthy, that is, honest, sincere, truthful, open, candid, a person of integrity and good moral character; (3) benevolent, that is friendly to the audience, an ally, a person of good will, with your interest in mind, someone who is "on your side." The rhetoric of political attacks, for example, is the reverse of such image-building: negative campaigning consists of charges against opponents as being not expert (incompetent, inexperienced), not trustworthy (not of good moral character), or not benevolent (not on your side, but aiding others, such as "special interests," or self-seeking.) In the US, such negative political attacks are protected
by "free speech" laws; commercial ads, however, very seldom
attack other competitors because of libel and slander laws.
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Establishing trust is obviously important in persuasion, but it is also needed in straight expository writing. In exposition, the audience's purpose is to get accurate, reliable, and useful information for their own benefit. Thus, in informational writing, the most important aspect of the writer's projected image should be that of an "expert," someone who is knowledgeable, informed, and competent. People who do have genuine expertise and experience can emphasize this most successfully. If you do not have such expertise, then you want to keep in the background as a writer and keep the focus on the intrinsic quality of your writing. Such expertise should be shown, made self-evident by the writing itself: clear, coherent, careful, exact, logical, temperate, and well organized. In contrast, imagine a crazy "Letter to the Editor" filled with unsubstantiated generalities, incoherent arguments, unconnected ideas, and careless errors. Relatively less important in expository writing are the other aspects of the "image," of being seen as trustworthy and benevolent. Such sincerity and friendliness, while most important in persuasion, are usually not major concerns in straight informational writing. To project a good image in your writing, demonstrate your expertise by producing work that is careful, clear, and coherent: that looks good and reads well. |
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