Description
This assignment requires: 1 persuasive letter and 1 analysis of your letter. The two documents combined should total 1,000 words.
The Persuasive Letter
1) Your letter is written to an actual person, group of people, or organization.
2) Your letter addresses a real issue that has real significance to your life.
This could be any area of your life, such as home life (Dear Dad, Please give me more money for books); school life (Dear Professor, You should allow notes on the final because…or Dear Appropriate Cabinet Member, I have an idea about something related to SJSU…); work life (Dear Boss, I deserve a raise because…or Dear Hiring Manager, I’m an ideal candidate because…); campus or community life (Dear Neighbor, Feeding the deer is dangerous because…or Dear Neighbors, Please join the block clean-up project…); political life (Dear Representative, Vote against this bill because…or Dear President Trump…); consumer life (Dear Tostitos, Please do not encourage double dipping on your packaging because…or Dear Trader Joe’s, To save on packaging, please create a 24 oz. package of your Hot Pico de Gallo…); entertainment life (Dear NFL, What’s up with some of your team names?); or another area of your life where a persuasive letter would be relevant.
For more ideas, see this Persuasive Letter Topic Brainstorm page.
3) Support your argument with evidence (e.g. you're good at using facts!).
Letter Analysis
REQUIRED Questions (every letter analysis should address these questions):
1) Who is your audience/reader? How did you keep this reader in mind when composing your letter?
2) What persuasive strategies did you use in your letter? Please point to specific examples of how you used these strategies. (e.g. show examples of your use of rhetorical language strategies and show ways you appealed to ethos, pathos, and/or logos).
OPTIONAL Questions (if your letter is short and you need to expand your letter analysis to reach the required total of 1,000 words, you might also consider these questions—pick and choose—you do not need to answer all these questions):
What strategy did you use in the introduction of your letter? Why?
Did you use an example or story in your letter? Why or why not?
Did you use statistics in your letter? Why or why not?
Discuss your conscious use of word choice in your letter.
Did you ‘show’ instead of ‘tell’ in your letter? Why or why not?
Could you write a similar letter to other people? If so, what changes would you make for your new audience?
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Running Head: PERSUASIVE ESSAY
1
Persuasive Essay
Institutional Affiliation
Date
2
PERSUASIVE ESSAY
Helping Cancer Patients through Art
Dear Colleagues, you have been part of the most beneficial relationships I have formed
over the past there years and I anticipate for more life changing experiences. As part of the
creative society, I would suggest that we use our talents and skills to make a positive impact to
the people around us. Why can’t we join hands and help the cancer patients in the City’s main
hospitals through our art. Through research, I have concluded that nothing works better in
changing the mood than having an aesthetic, personalized and relevant piece of art in a patient’s
room. We might not have the financial ability to help these cancer victims, but we can be able to
encourage them into living a positive life which helps in their recovery process.
The medical field allows patients to introduce aspects of their personal lives which are
meant to be a source of comfort if they do not interfere with the hospital’s policy. Most hospitals
prefer to accommodate visual elements that do not negatively interfere with the operations taking
place in the environment. We can therefore visit the different hospitals to learn more about the
kind of art pieces accepted and those that cause controversial feeli...