Many of the commercials we see these days leave us wondering: "Is that really true?" What we're asking in these instances relates to the credibility, or trustworthiness, of the company and the products they sell. While it's almost impossible for an ad to establish credibility in 30 seconds, the same can't be said for a persuasive essay. You should have ample opportunity to let the audience know why they should believe you.
Use the tabs below to review three ways you can establish credibility in your paper.
Credentials
Write in a Formal Tone
Use Formal Standard English
You may recall that one way authors establish credibility is by including their credentials—things like degrees, work and personal experience, certifications, and licenses. Obviously, you don't have most of these, but you have probably used smart devices before.
As you consider what makes you a credible writer, think about your good and bad experiences with technology. Are you the tech expert in your house? Have people asked you to reprogram their TVs or fix their computers for them—and you were successful? Have you had a bad experience with a smartphone or other tech product? Have you ever been suspicious of a tech product's capabilities? All of these personal experiences and any others you've had can be used to make the case for your credibility.
Discuss your credibility near the beginning of the essay rather than at the end. This is because your audience needs to know up front why they should listen to and believe you. For this reason, the introduction is a good place to include information about your experience with smart technology.
Keep in mind, however, that this persuasive essay isn't supposed to be all about you! In other words, this isn't the time or place to list everything you know about smart technology. Rather, you need to include enough information so that your audience understands your experience but not too much information, making it seem as though you're bragging about yourself.
Another way for you to establish credibility is to write in a formal tone as opposed to a conversational tone. Remember that informal language is the language you use around your friends and family. Read through your paper carefully looking for any words that may sound like slang or conversational English. Be sure to use a thesaurus to look up synonyms. Just make sure you know what the new word really means before incorporating it in your writing.
The last way you can establish credibility is something you should always do in all of your papers: That is, edit it for grammar and usage errors. Look for things like subject-verb agreement, proper capitalization and punctuation, correct use of it's/its and there/their/they're, sentence fragments and run-on sentences, and comma splices, and correct spelling.
When it comes to punctuation errors, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and comma splices, it sometimes helps if you read your paper out loud. As you do, notice where you naturally pause in your reading. Often this indicates you need some type of punctuation there (comma, period, or question mark).
Return to the draft of your essay, and revise it to include these three ways of building credibility.
