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Using Persuasive Strategies To Persuade People

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Using Persuasive Strategies To Persuade People

In my first year in high school, our teacher taught us pathos, ethos, and logos as

persuasion techniques. It surprised me because I didn't know that people needed to use specific

persuasion techniques. However, the teacher emphasized that these strategies can help persuade

anyone to do what we want. I took it upon myself to test these strategies with my overprotective

mother.

There was a seniors' summer camp, and that's when I was going to test these persuasion

techniques. I was going to ask my mother to let me go, but I knew she would disagree. I knew

she would disagree because I was too young for a seniors' summer camp. However, this summer

camp was something I had wanted to go to since I was young, so I had to convince her to let me

go.

As the summer camp was two weeks away, I told my mother about it. I had to start early

because my mother is a difficult person. For her to listen to me, I had to approach her nicely. "Hi

mum, how are you doing?" I greeted her. "Hi, I'm fine," she answered. We had a son-mother

small talk before I brought up the topic. "Mum, there is a seniors summer camp coming in two

weeks; one of my friends is going, and I wanted to be there too," I said. She hesitated for a

minute, so I started listing many reasons why I wanted to go.

I explained to her that my friend would be there with me the entire camp, and our class

teacher was one of the teachers chosen to accompany the seniors. "Son, you know you are a

junior, and it's a seniors camp," she said. I knew she was being difficult, so I kept pushing.

"Mum, I will call you every night and tell you how I spend my day'" I told her. I could tell she

had started to waver and began considering it, so I gave it one last push. " I have been looking
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forward to this camp, and I would be disappointed if I didn't go," I said. I started crying. At this

point, I knew I had her because I could see the conflict in her. Finally, she eased up and told me I

could go to the summer camp. I couldn't hide my joy, so ai gave her a big hug and thanked her

for letting me go. At last, I used persuasion techniques to persuade my mum to let me go to the

summer camp.

I used the pathos strategy to convince my mother of my emotions. I cried when I told her

I would be disappointed if I didn't go. I could tell she was already feeling pity for me. At this

point, I knew my technique was working. I used the availability of my class teacher and my

friend to convince her. The strategy I used here was the ethos. I used the logos technique to

logically reason with her and explain why she wanted me to go to the summer camp. These

strategies were very effective. I managed to convince my mother.

This experience has improved my persuasion skills since then. It has made me aware of

different strategies, and I have had first-hand experience using them. Now I am more mindful of

which techniques to use depending on my relationship with the person I’m trying to convince.