Persuasive Communication in Personal, Professional and Academic Contexts

This report defines persuasive communication and discusses its characteristics in personal, professional and academic contexts. It provides examples of persuasive communication in each context and highlights the importance of all-encompassing communication.

Running head: PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION
Persuasive communication
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION
Persuasive communication may be defined as the kind of communication which is
intended to change or affect or shape and reinforce certain responses from others. For instance,
communicating messages in a way that yields favorable responses and results would classify as
persuasive communication (Vlăduţescu, 2014). The following report attempts to study persuasive
communication in personal, professional and academic contexts.
In case of persuasive communication in the personal context, important characteristics
would include a strong opening statement, authoritative speech, catchy headlines and taglines
and use of powerful and impactful graphics. An example of persuasive communication in the
personal context would be a social media post. For instance, if the parent of a schoolchild puts
up a social media post highlighting the need for sidewalks near the school so as to ensure safety
for his or her kids, it would classify as a personal persuasive communication. The intended
audience in this case would be the school authorities who would be contacted using social
media. Most schools today have some kind of online presence and consider social media to be
one of the most effective means of communication. Posting about the issue on social media
would further garner the support of the other parents, who would be persuaded to join the
movement. The social media post would have to highlight the issue, the dangers associated,
attractive and eye catching visuals, how introducing sidewalks would address safety
concerns and what the school authorities could do to help the situation (Kernbach, Eppler &
Bresciani, 2015).
In the professional context, persuasive communication would include stating the facts in
an authoritative manner, with a logical pace and structure. Use of formal graphical
representations may also be used. An instance of persuasive communication would include an
email to one’s superior highlighting some issue in the workplace (Pearson, 2017). For instance, if

2PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION
an employee has observed certain inter-team conflicts owing to cultural differences or the lack of
safety measures in the workplace, he or she would have to take the issue up with the
management. In professional spheres, formal means of communication are usually used for
persuasion, and hence, the chosen means of communication in this case is email. A formal email
would have to be composed and sent to the boss, so as to highlight the concerned issue. The
email must mention the subject that the employee wishes to discuss and a detailed analysis that
would help the supervisor understand and gain better insight. Moreover, the email should also
state why the changes need to be introduced and the potential solutions for the same; this would
be effective when it comes to persuading the supervisors.
In the academic context, persuasive communication characteristics would include
formal speech, simple, concise language, logical flow of structure in communication and the
presence of strong arguments in the form of opening and thesis statements. For example, a
persuasive essay may be written about the community’s need for a night patrol program. Such an
essay would have the members of the community as the intended audience and would contain all
essential details about the issue. It would state why night patrol is necessary in a community and
how such a program would benefit the community as a whole. An essay would be used as the
medium, using clear, precise and concise language on the issue concerned (Petty & Wegener,
2014). This would help in conveying the message effectively to those concerned.
To conclude, it can be said that persuasive communication in any context would have to
be all encompassing and consist of the details of the concerned issue, proposed solutions and the
benefits it would offer; this is bound to grab the attention of the intended audience and even
convince them.

3PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION
References:
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M. J., & Bresciani, S. (2015). The use of visualization in the
communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International Journal
of Business Communication, 52(2), 164-187. Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sebastian_Kernbach/publication/
44021991_The_Use_of_Visualization_in_the_Communication_of_Business_Strategies_
An_Experimental_Evaluation/links/59ca46c545851556e97df6e8/The-Use-of-
Visualization-in-the-Communication-of-Business-Strategies-An-Experimental-
Evaluation.pdf
Pearson, R. (2017). Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the
idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge. Retrieved from:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351225731/chapters/10.4324%2F978135122
5748-7
Petty, R. E., & Wegener, D. T. (2014). Thought systems, argument quality, and
persuasion. Advances in social cognition, 4, 147-161. Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Duane_Wegener/publication/260670503_Thought_s
ystems_argument_quality_and_persuasion/links/5750778508aed9fa2bd368e1/Thought-
systems-argument-quality-and-persuasion.pdf
Vlăduţescu, Ş. (2014). Convictive Communication and Persuasive Communication. International
Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 15(2), 164-170. Retrieved from:
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=70241