A Companion to Composition by Hugh Rank http://webserve.govst.edu/pa | HOME |

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The more sensitive you are to the suggestions in ads (the indirect ways that messages are implied by the connotations of some words, by figures of speech, and by nonverbals), the more alert you will be to your own use of such indirect ways.

Most ads make very few direct explicit claims. Many ad messages are implicit, indirect suggestions, because they want the audience to add more, or to co-create the persuasive message.

In contrast, expository writing which transfers Information seeks to be direct, explicit, and to avoid potentially unclear suggestions.

Modem advertising emphasizes the association technique which simply links: (1) the product, with (2) something already liked or desired by (3) the intended audience. Thus, audience analysis and motivational research are important.

Ads link products with human needs and wants, suggesting "added value" benefits in such categories as: basic needs (food, activity, surroundings, security, sex, economy); a sense of certitude (from religion or science: or approval by the "best" people, or "most" or "average" people); a sense of space or territory (neighborhood, nation, nature): a sense of love and belonging (intimacy, family, groups); and other growth needs (esteem, play, generosity, curiosity, creativity, success).

Senders imply. Receivers infer.

Because inference-making co-creates, it needs a shared knowledge so that the receivers can "fill in the gaps" of fragmentary messages.

Words rich in connotations (with multiple meanings, imprecise, ambiguous, or vague) are very common and useful in ads and other persuasive messages.

Words with limited denotations (with more restricted, limited meaning, clear and precise) are more appropriate in much informational writing.

Figures of speech (such as hyperboles, rhetorical questions, puns) are common ways to intensify the suggestiveness of persuasive and expressive writing.

Metaphoric language transfers not only information, but also emotional feelings.

In exposition, the most common figures of speech are those of repetition, arrangement, and comparison (such as similes, metaphors, and analogies).

Nonverbals include all of the information and feelings which can be conveyed by means of visual images, sounds (music, tone of voice), smells, body language (gestures, facial expressions) backgrounds and contexts.

Nonverbals imply. They suggest, without explicitly saying anything. Wordless, they prompt us, as receivers, to co-create.