A complete summary of the reader 'persuasive texts: research and design' by Hoeken, Hustinx and Hornikx (2017), so every chapter is included. The 168 long reader is summarized into 41 pages and still capturing the relevance of the reader.
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Persuasive Texts: Research and Design
2017 Hoeken, Hornikx, Hustinx
1 Convincing documents
There is an age-old fascination for the answer to the question of how to convince people: a system of
recommendations was developed, based on experience and a deep understanding of the way in
which the human mind works. Modern research has shown that some of these recommendations are
effective. This book will try to show how and why words can influence behaviour, and also why this
often fails.
1.1 Document design and persuasive documents
This book covers the design of documents aimed at convincing people: persuasive documents. 1.1.1
discusses the question of what document design entails. 1.1.2 describes what persuasive documents
are. 1.1.3 discusses the difference between persuasive and informative documents.
1.1.1 Designing tailored documents
Business documents are written to achieve goals: to inform, to convince or to instruct. Nevertheless,
many writers do not achieve their goals. Not only the document itself, but also the reader can be the
reason why writers do not achieve their goals: understanding, appreciation and persuasiveness are
the product of both document and reader properties. A good document exactly fits the properties of
its readers: it has been tailored to match the knowledge, preferences and values of its readers.
A document should stimulate the processes required to achieve the document’s goal. The processes
depends on the goal which the document is supposed to achieve. Hoeken (1992) distinguishes three
goals, linked to three document types:
1) Informative documents; to provide information (informing)
2) Instructive documents; to help readers perform certain actions (instructing)
3) Persuasive documents; to convince readers of a particular point of view (convincing)
To achieve these goals, readers must go through certain processes.
By making specific choices concerning content, structure and style, writers can control the
effectiveness of their documents. To design effective documents, a writer needs knowledge about
the way in which readers process documents and about the way in which document properties can
influence this processing.
From now on we will focus on one document type: the persuasive document.
1.1.2 What are persuasive documents?
O’Keefe defines persuasion as follows:
‘Persuasion is a successful intentional effort at influencing another’s mental state through
communication in a circumstance in which the persuade has some measure of freedom.’
According to O’Keefe, persuasion only occurs if the mental state of the persuade is indeed changed.
This has to be done intentionally. Also, persuasion can only occur, if the persuade had an alternative.
The mental state is usually equated with attitude. Attitude is defined as follows:
‘A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of
favour or disfavour.’
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,Hereby, ‘entity’ may be an individual or agency, behaviour, policy or a product. The evaluative
judgement (the attitude) is stored in memory along with any other information about the entity.
However, people can have an opinion about an entity without being able to recall the information on
which this opinion is based.
Although the definition does not mention behaviour, many attempts at persuasion are aimed at
influencing behaviour. Behaviour is not mentioned, because persuasion proceeds by means of
communication: the transfer of information, which affects people’s mental state. Communication
may lead to a new or different attitude, which in turn may change behaviour. Communication cannot
have a direct impact on behaviour.
With O’Keefe’s definition of persuasive, persuasive documents can be defined as follows:
‘Persuasive documents are designed with the aim of influencing readers’ attitudes through the
transfer of information, with the readers having a certain degree of freedom.’
1.1.3 The difference between persuasive and informative documents
The author’s intention determines the nature of the text. However, the writer’s intention does not
guarantee that the intended effect will be achieved. A writer of a persuasive document has the
intention to influence (convince) their readers. This intention to influence is the distinguishing
feature between persuasive and informative documents.
Informative documents seem to be read more from the perspective of the communication principle
(Van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 1992), which states that the four criteria clarity, honesty, efficiency
and relevance must be met, than persuasive documents. Readers’ distrust of persuasive documents
has led to advertisements being labelled as “sponsored content” or “messages”.
Another development is the advertorial, which disguises the writer’s intention: instead of
persuading, the text is informing. In this context, the distinction between directive and non-directive
communication is important.
- Directive communication has the intention to make the target group draw a particular
conclusion.
- Non-directive communication does not have the intention to steer people towards a
particular conclusion.
Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether non-directive communication is indeed non-directive. For
example: the non-directive communication about smoking does not literally state that smoking is bad
for you, but the writer does want to get this across.
1.2 Communication and behaviour change: alternatives and limitations
Persuasive communication is aimed at influencing people’s attitudes, with the underlying goal of
influencing people’s behaviour.
An important difference between the government and commercial organizations is that the
government has another behaviour changing tool in addition to communication: legislation.
Legislation enables the government to stipulate that certain behaviours are mandatory and others
prohibited.
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,1.2.1 Choosing between legislation and communication
In 1992 the WRR (the Dutch scientific council for government policy) published a report about the
various instruments available to the Dutch government to promote ecological behaviour among
citizens and organizations.
In addition to financial instruments (e.g. higher road taxes for heavier vehicles) and private law
instruments (e.g. allowing the trade in manure permits), the report also distinguishes between direct
regulation (via legislation) and social regulation (via e.g. public information). The choice depends
primarily on the properties of the available instruments, but also on the nature of the situation.
In its comparison of these instruments, the WRR (1992) distinguishes two dimensions:
1) Enforcement burden: when adopting laws or regulations, the government must be prepared
to enforce them (it comes with a certain enforcement burden, which sometimes takes
considerable effort). Prohibiting smoking in Dutch bars and restaurants
2) Personal responsibility: the government used social regulation to promote the desired
behaviour (to appeal to the personal responsibility). Start a campaign to encourage people to
stop smoking in the house
These dimensions are “communicating vessels”. The more the instrument appeals to citizens’
personal responsibility, the lighter the government’s enforcement burden. If the instrument allows
less personal responsibility, the enforcement burden increases.
Direct regulation will be used in very urgent situations, since this instrument is more effective to
enforce the desired behaviour. The severity of the risk will justify the high enforcement burden. In
less urgent situations, the government can choose between several instruments, based on the nature
of the situation, with the following dimensions playing a role.
- Measurability of the behaviour: the measurability or knowability of the behaviour is the ease
– or difficulty – with which the government can monitor whether people abide by the rules.
The easier it is to ascertain that people do so, the lower the enforcement burden.
- Structure of the target group: the size and heterogeneity of the group of people who are
supposed to change their behaviour. If the group is small and easy to identify, the
enforcement burden will be light. If it is large and more divers, the burden increases.
- Costs for the target group: the costs of the behaviour change. The higher the people in the
target group perceive the costs to be, the less they will be inclined to adopt the desired
behaviour.
These dimensions must be taken into account when choosing between direct and social regulation.
Even if the government opts for direct regulation to prevent undesirable situations, communication
can still play an important role in making it easier to implement and enforce the rule. (By, for
example, explaining the rationale behind the measure)
1.2.2 Communication’s potential for changing behaviour
Noar (2006) concludes that campaigns can influence people’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.
The behavioural effects, however, are very small. Nevertheless there is optimism about the feasibility
of using communication campaigns to change behaviour, based on two factors:
1) The scope of the campaigns (how many people does the campaign reach?)
2) The differences in quality between the campaigns
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, Noar (2006) believes steps must be taken to develop an effective communication campaign, at which
the chance of success is highest. The following seven steps must be taken.
1) Conducting formative research
- Conduct research to identify the determinants of the target behaviour and the conditions
under which this behaviour is exhibited.
- Pre-test the specific messages in the target group to determine their suitability and
effectiveness.
2) Using theory
Theories and models can give direction to decisions concerning the messages and the target
group and the ways in which the messages should be delivered.
3) Segmenting the target group
Divide the target group into subgroups, each of which should be reached in a similar manner
and/or through similar channels
4) Using an appropriate message design
Develop new and creative messages that the members of the target group will talk about.
5) Choosing appropriate channels
Choose media and channels that have a wide reach across the target group.
6) Controlling the process
Conduct research during the campaign to see whether the choices made concerning target
group, message and channels have the desired effect.
7) Conduct good evaluation research
1.2.3 The limited influence of message properties
The designer of a message must make choices concerning its properties: content, structure, style and
illustrations. The effect caused by message properties are generally small. Communication specialists
should therefore be modest when it comes to using message properties to turn fervent opponents
into enthusiastic supporters.
1.3 Aim, target audiences and limitations of this book
The recommendations Noar (2006) presents show that in order to achieve successful behaviour-
changing communication, we need an understanding of the properties that make a document
convincing. Although a lot of research has been conducted into ways in which document properties
can influence the persuasion process, there is no integrated theory or all-encompassing model for
message effectiveness.
1.3.1 Aim and target audiences
The principle underlying this book is that a good persuasive document is tailored to the properties of
its readers. When designing a document, the way in which readers process it must be taken into
account. This presupposes knowledge in two areas:
- the way in which readers process a document.
- the influence of document properties on this process under various circumstances.
This book will benefit the following target audiences.
- Students of degree programs in which functional communication is an important element:
future professionals.
- Students of degree programs: future researchers.
- Current professionals: designers of communication campaigns and campaign messages.
The central question of this book is: how do document properties influence the persuasion process?
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