Instructions
If we’re lucky, at some point we’re entirely captivated by something—a new idea, an activity, a person, a food, an experience. In fact, we’re so excited by it, we can’t help but try to spread the word about this thing that we love. Passion and enthusiasm can be very persuasive. Excitement can be contagious; if you can convey your excitement to your audience, they may give your passion a try.
Your goal in this experience is to convince your audience to want to try your passion by showing them how they would benefit from it.
Audience
Your audience is curious and open to new experiences, but they aren’t going to say yes to something just because you mentioned its existence. They need convincing. Facts and figures may be useful, but ultimately this audience is going to respond to how well you address their needs with a strong and persuasive emotional appeal built on your passion.
Process
- Identify your passion. What’s that thing you keep saying people need to do? A sport you started playing, this new snack you’ve been getting every day, a show you’ve been binge-watching, or a book that changed your whole life! What are you convinced that everyone else must check out?
- Consider your passion. Why are you passionate about your passion? How do you benefit? How is your life enhanced? One way of assessing this is to consider your life before and after your passion. Be as concrete and specific as possible about how your passion enhances your life. Don’t even think about your audience yet; concentrate on your own experience.
- Write your “down draft”: Let your passion run wild. There’s no definite model or template for this piece, but it is an argument…so focus on being persuasive. Sell it. Just come up with as many bits of information about your passion as possible.
- Figure out what you’ve done (in the first draft). Now that you’ve unleashed your passion on the page, it’s time to think about how to translate it into something coherent for your audience. What are their needs? What will they already know about your passion? Who is a good target audience for your passion? Write to these people directly.
- Write a complete draft. Then test it out on someone if you have time to see how they react. Collaborate with a classmate to make it better and to get feedback.
- Revise, edit, polish.
- Test your draft. Find someone that is either in your target audience or willing to temporarily adopt the attitudes and viewpoints of your target audience to read your draft and give it a rating on a ten point scale where one means they’re not interested, and ten means they’re totally into it.
- Title. Finding a title that illuminates your subject and conveys the depths of your passion should cap off the effort.
Reflect
- Was it easy to write about something that you’re passionate about?
- Do you think you were convincing?
- Are you so passionate about this thing that it is hard to hear criticism of it?