Persuasive Writing: Purpose

In order to be persuasive, you have to develop your evidence, create an organization that’s logical, and write clearly and forcefully, but you must also do something else: reveal your purpose to your reader. 

The purpose of your document must be revealed by a purpose statement, which takes the place of a traditional thesis statement. Think about using in this statement such key words as examine, compare, identify, determine, evaluate, analyze, and describe.

Here are three variations of a purpose statement for a report on how to improve the safety of pedestrians using busy intersections on the Virginia Tech campus. Phrases that identify "here's comes the report purpose" are in bold italics.

The purpose of this report is to identify and propose potential solutions to improve the safety of pedestrians using busy intersections on the Virginia Tech campus.

Our goals in this report are to identify and propose potential solutions to improve the safety of pedestrians using busy intersections on the Virginia Tech campus.

In this report, we will identify and propose potential solutions to improve the safety of pedestrians using busy intersections on the Virginia Tech campus.

As with thesis statements, the purpose statement should be easy for your reader to find: in most cases, it should occur in the first paragraph. At times, it can be the first sentence in the opening paragraph; at other times, though, particularly when you think readers might need a little more convincing or you’d like to ease them into the subject, you might place it last in the paragraph.

First-Place Purpose Statements

A purpose statement can be quite blunt: it can say very forwardly that The purpose of this document is to X.  In fact, the more apparent to the reader, the better. The readers of professional documents are busy — they need the information quickly.  The more visible the information, the more quickly it can be digested and pertinent action taken upon it.

In general, then, just as with a thesis statement, it is better to provide your purpose statement early in the document.  This version would be called a first place purpose statement, and it might look something like the sentence in bold italic here:

The purpose of this report is to acquaint you with the progress I have made on my article about new advances in bluetooth technology. To date, I have interviewed three experts in the field, conducted seven hours of Internet research, and drafted the introduction. I anticipate completing the article well ahead of the due date.

Use a first-place purpose statement when you know your readers will be amenable to your message from the get-go.

Last-Place Purpose Statements

As noted, though, sometimes purpose statements need to arrive later. 

Consider a reluctant audience. For that reader, you might need to hold off on presenting your purpose statement in order first to build a strong foundation or background that will draw him or her into your subject. Consider how this last place purpose statement (bold italic) serves to do just that:

During a three-month period, from September to December 2019, seven Virginia Tech students were involved in pedestrian-bicycle accidents while walking on campus sidewalks. While three of those students escaped with minor injuries, four were hospitalized overnight for observation, with broken bones being diagnosed in three of those cases. In all instances, students had been riding bicycles on sidewalks clearly marked at each end by “No Bicyles” signs; however, when interviewed by campus police immediately after the accidents, none remembered seeing the signs--and, in fact, five of the riders reported entering the sidewalks in question at points other than the beginning and the ending. As a result, these five cyclists were not aware that riding was prohibited on the sidewalks where the accidents occurred. Inspired by the frequency of such accidents on campus and the potential legal problems such accidents could cause for both students and the university, this proposal will recommend that school officials begin a comprehensive study of sidewalk safety.

In order to help your document realize its purpose, you need to understand how to reach your audience — in other words, how to speak to them about your subject. One thing you can do is ensure that you mention how fixing the problem will benefit them.