Persuasion

Here's the thing. I could blog every day. I really could, but I don't think I will. I love writing to you guys and reading your responses, but sometimes it just isn't very practical to force out a post every day just to have a post every day. Quality could suffer and I could run out of ideas much sooner than I want to.

All that aside, the new post for the day is advice for trying to persuade a person or group of people. There's a right way and a wrong way, and hopefully next time you want to convince someone that clubbing baby seals isn't as fun as it sounds, you'll think twice about the sandwich board.

Grammar, Spelling, and Syntax
Nothing is more disconcerting to me than to see someone trying to "sell" me something, even if it's just an idea, and noticing something spelled wrong. Our campus is raising awareness about AIDS, so we have facts sidewalk chalked all over the sidewalks. When I read that "6,000 children loose a parent each year because of AIDS every day," I don't feel bad for the child, I feel bad for the parent who is being loosed, I'm guessing in a similar way that Macaulay Culkin essentially broke up with his parents. You might as well tell me that "Every minute, because of AIDS, someone loses someone they hold deer." Of course, I'll be mentally placing a semicolon between "someone" and "they" to make it two independent clauses.

Overdoing it
The second problem I notice is the persistence of the sales pitch. Even the worst salesman wouldn't resort to "Please? Please? How about now? Are you sold now? Let me tell you more. Okay, how about now? Is it working? Please?" People tend to tune repetitive messages out. Not to downplay the seriousness of AIDs, but when I'm walking through campus and every 6 steps shows me a new fact about the epidemic, it loses its shock value and desensitizes me, which is exactly opposite of the goal.

Offer Realistic Solutions
When someone sells a product, the product is, in fact, the realistic solution. My problem is I have no shoes. You offer me shoes. Pretty simple. If the problem is AIDS has killed 28.7 million people in 27 years, I'm left with very few options. Knowing seems to be the only option you've given me. If that's the case, what were you trying to persuade me of in the first place?

Well, that's my best advice if you want to sell something to me. If you want to practice, persuade me to go back to posting every day.