GEB 3213Week 10

Persuasive WritingEffective Reports

Three Responses to Persuasion

1. Compliance

2. Identification

3. Internalization•

Last month we paid out nearly $5,400 in overtime to word processing specialists who worked 50- and 60-hour weeks to keep up with heavy demand for printed documents. Yet our turnaround time for submitted documents is currently 5 working days. Many of these documents are either already keyed in to a computer or in print when submitted to us, but because many of our engineers’ software programs are not compatible with ours, we have to re-enter their material.

I estimate that we could eliminate at least 40 percent of our overtime and reduce turnaround time on our documents by 2 days if our operators had two items: (1) a scanner, and (2) conversion software. While these items will not solve all our problems, they will certainly help. Scanners do not provide 100 percent accuracy, but they certainly reduce word processing time considerably. Together, these two pieces of equipment would bring the following benefits:

1.  Savings of at least $2,700 in overtime each month from reduction of re-keying of documents

2.  Reduction of turnaround time from 5 days to a maximum of 3 days3.  Improved morale and efficiency of word processing specialists

Therefore, I recommend that we purchase a Quad Turbo Scanner, Model 420S, along with Software Design “Magic Disk” conversion software. The purchase price of these two items (approximately $5,000) will be recovered in one month from reduced overtime payments. I have attached further details about this computer equipment for your information. If you agree with my recommendations, please give me authorization for a purchase order by June 1 so we can improve the situation before our July peak period.

To: Jane Davis, Fiscal ManagerFrom: Mark Reynolds, Central Services SupervisorSubject: Reducing Overtime Costs

CLASSIC PRINCIPLES of PERSUASION

1. LOGOS

2. PATHOS

3. ETHOS

Three Persuasive Strategies Central to

Business• ___________________

• ___________________

• ___________________

1. LOGOS:Support your Argument with Evidence

Examples of convincing evidence:

Facts and figures alone will never persuade anyone. If you can’t connect your facts to the dreams of the client, then all the statistics and charts in the world won’t make any impression.

Source: Rene Nourse, VP Investments: Prudential Securities, Inc.

Connect Data to Audience

2. Pathos

How do you respond to readers’ needs?

3. Ethos: How to Establish

Your Credibility

Indirect Pattern for Tough Sell

When Should You Adopt the Two-Sided Approach?

Purpose of Reports

Report Components

1. __________2. __________3. __________

1. Front Matter

(use lower case Roman numerals)

Executive Summary

Note Importance of Report Sections

•

2. Report Text

1. __________2. __________3. __________

Introduction

Body/Discussion

Conclusions/Recommendations

3. End Matter