Presenting Yourself Effectively

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Presenting Yourself Effectively

No matter how strong your arguments, your audience won’t read them—or won’t read them sympathetically—unless they see you as a professional.

Creating a Professional Persona

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Your persona is how you appear to your readers. Demonstrating the following four characteristics will help you establish an attractive professional persona.

  • Cooperativeness. Make clear that your goal is to solve a problem, not to advance your own interests.
  • Moderation. Be moderate in your judgments. The problem you are describing will not likely spell doom for your organization, and the solution you propose will not solve all the company’s problems.
  • Fair-mindedness. Acknowledge the strengths of opposing points of view, even as you offer counterarguments.
  • Modesty. If you fail to acknowledge that you don’t know everything, someone else will be sure to volunteer that insight.

The following paragraph shows how a writer can demonstrate the qualities of cooperativeness, moderation, fair-mindedness, and modesty:

In the first three sentences, the writer acknowledges the problems with his recommendation.

The use of “I think” adds an attractive modesty; the recommendation might be unwise.

The recommendation itself is moderate; the writer does not claim that the plan will save the world.

In the last two sentences, the writer shows a spirit of cooperativeness by focusing on the company’s goals.

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ETHICS NOTE

SEEMING HONEST VERSUS BEING HONEST IN PERSUASIVE WRITING

The young actor asks the old actor, “What’s the key to great acting?” The old actor replies, “Sincerity. Once you learn how to fake sincerity . . . .” Any discussion of image and persuasion has to address the question at the heart of this old joke. Does a writer have to be honest to appear honest?

There are tricks for appearing honest, and they can work for a while. But the easiest way to appear honest is to be honest. As suggested in Chapter 2, you need to tell the truth and not mislead your readers. As suggested in Chapter 4, you also need to be cooperative, diplomatic, and constructive. And as suggested in this chapter, you need to remember people’s broader goals: to protect their own security, to achieve recognition, to learn and grow in their professional and personal lives, and to connect with others.