Most successful arguments appeal to our hearts as well as to our minds; in fact, current research suggests that people make decisions based on emotion rather than logic alone. Thus, good writers supplement appeals to logic and reason with emotional appeals to their readers.

Description and concrete language

Like photographs, vivid, detailed description can bring a moving immediacy to any argument. A student may amass facts and figures, including diagrams and maps, to illustrate the problem of wheelchair access to the library. But only when the student asks a friend who uses a wheelchair to accompany her to the library does the student writer discover the concrete details necessary to move readers. The student can then write, “Marie inched her wheelchair up the steep entrance ramp, her face pinched with the sheer effort.”

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Figurative language

Figurative language, or figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, and analogies, paints detailed pictures that build understanding. It does so by relating something new or unfamiliar to something the audience knows well and by making striking comparisons between something you are writing about and something else that helps a reader visualize, identify with, or understand it.

A student arguing for a more streamlined course-registration process may find good use for an analogy, saying that the current process makes students feel like laboratory rats in a maze. This analogy, which suggests manipulation, frustration, and a clinical coldness, creates a vivid description and adds emotional appeal to the argument. For the analogy to work effectively, however, the student would have to show that the current registration process has a number of similarities to a laboratory maze, such as confused students wandering through complex bureaucratic channels and into dead ends.

As you use analogies or other figurative language to bring emotion into an argument, be careful not to overdo it. Emotional appeals that are unfair or overly dramatic—known as fallacies—may serve only to cloud your readers’ judgment and ultimately diminish your argument.

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Appeals to your audience

As with appealing to credibility and logic, appealing to emotions is effective only insofar as it moves your particular audience. A student arguing for increased lighting in campus parking garages, for instance, might consider the emotions such a discussion might raise (fear of attack, for example, or anger at being subjected to danger), decide which emotions the intended audience would be most responsive to, and then look for descriptive and figurative language or appropriate visuals to carry out such an appeal.

Shaping your appeal to a specific audience calls on you to consider very carefully the genre, media, and language you use. The student arguing for better lighting would probably stick to standard academic English when communicating with the university administration but might use informal language and media content when writing for students.

Remember, however, that you can’t always know which audiences will see your work—especially if it is posted online where anyone can read it. While there is no foolproof way to shape an appeal that will be effective for every audience everywhere, bear in mind that a variety of people may read your writing, including people from cultures very different from yours and people whose ideas or actions you are criticizing. Before making your argument public, take the time to imagine the response from such audiences. Are your appeals fair and civil? In addition, if you are writing on social media networks like Facebook, ask how you might limit or shape your audience so that you reach those you most want to talk with.

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Sample: Emotional appeals in a photograph

Visuals that make emotional appeals can add substance to an argument. To make sure that visual appeals will serve the purpose you intend, test them with some potential readers to see how they interpret the appeal. Consider, for example, this photograph, which shows a funeral arranged by an American Legion post in Florida to honor U.S. military veterans who died homeless. Some readers might see this image as an indictment of the government, which allowed soldiers who had fought for their country to end up without a place to live—but others might view it instead (or also) as confirmation that patriots come from every walk of life or that veterans honor their own even when others fail to do so.

A visual that makes an emotional appeal

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