Determining a Goal
Now that we have looked at the various means of creating persuasion in a written document, we can then look at the first part of writing persuasion, which is determining the goal of what you are trying to persuade someone toward. If you are writing an effective persuasive document that is getting someone to agree that smoking causes lung cancer, then your goal is, "To convince the audience that there is a direct link between lung cancer and cigarettes."
The goals we place in life and in persuasive arguments are our guideposts. One saying goes, "You can't know where you are going, until you know where you have been." With persuasive arguments, it is the other way around. Instead of knowing where we have been, we are looking at where we are going. We have an end conclusion in sight and we have a goal for that conclusion. By knowing our goal, we can begin to formulate the entire persuasive argument around that end goal. Without the goal of the persuasive essay, there is no persuasion.
In many ways, your goal is essentially your thesis statement, something we will cover in more detail in Lesson Eight. Your thesis says, "I want to convince you of this," and your goal is essentially to convince the audience of this. They are one and the same; and since the thesis is your beginning statement, the goal you choose dictates everything from the start to the finish of the persuasive argument.
The goal of your paper needs to be a firm goal that you never waver from. If you were to waver from the goal, there is the risk that you could end up failing in your mission to convince someone else of your position. However, there may be exceptions, for example your goal can change or need tweaking depending on what type of situation you are in. For example, a persuasive paper works best when there is a disagreement of some sort. Typically this means that there is a situation that needs to be fixed. If there is no disagreement in a persuasive essay, then there usually is no reason to write the argument.
However, if you are writing to get a raise, causing an argument is the absolute wrong thing to do. Instead of creating an argument, you want to create a consensus with your employer. With the essay, your goal is to prove that the other person is wrong based on your persuasion. In the letter to your boss, you are trying to prove your worth to someone who may not realize it, yet there is no reason to feel that they disagree with you off the bat.