Let's rough out your main ideas
Once you've grabbed your reader's attention, explain your key ideas, one at a time.
In this series on persuasive writing, we’ve looked at 1) the differences between specialist and public writing, 2) defining your audience, 3) tricks for getting out your first draft, and 4) grabbing someone’s attention right away.
Now let’s give them something to think about.
We said that writing a first draft was like dumping out a lot of large rocks. You’ve smashed out the opening into smaller rocks, and paved those to get your reader’s attention. Now let’s build the rest of the road — getting your ideas in the right order and substantiating them.
As you read over your first draft, sort out the main ideas. Move material around so that all your writing about each idea is grouped together, in a flow that makes sense. Those groupings (one paragraph or more) in which you explain and buttress an idea are the road your reader will travel to get where you want them to end up. (In the next lesson, we’ll think about the “turns” from one segment to another.)
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Let yourself spend awhile on this. You are building a structure for an argument that has lived mainly in your head. Doing so takes some hard thinking. Once the key ideas are sorted, read it over to be sure each segment has all the information you need to persuade your reader.
How do you know whether you’ve got what you need in the piece? Think back a couple of lessons, when you picked one imaginary reader. Let’s say it’s your cranky Uncle Joe. What facts or explanation or insight does Uncle Joe need to accept this segment of your argument? Would he follow you if you offered some statistics, a historical example, an insight from a literary wit, a quick anecdote about someone in the hospital? Or would he snort cynically at you?
Use only what will keep Uncle Joe’s attention. Don’t bore him with too much information — you know how impatient he gets! Just keep him following your thinking.
In a short piece, you’ll probably have about three of those segments. There might just be two, along with an intro and a conclusion. Next time you read it over, you might realize that some things are out of order, and move it around. That’s great. It means that your thinking keeps progressing when you step away.
You’ve laid down the beginnings of a road!
That’s your piece, mostly roughed out, with each segment in its place. Next lesson, we’ll connect all those segments at the turns from one to another, adding signals that help Uncle Joe understand what you’re trying to say.
As always, get in touch if you want a free consultation. My transformative teaching, coaching, and editing help you say what you mean, clearly and persuasively.
“E.J., your editing superpower is unbelievable.”
— Christopher Stout, Associate Professor, Public Policy, Oregon State University