Using The Languange

of Influence
Nurcahyani Restu Utami
4 primary purpose in communication :
a. To inform
b. To influence/persuade
c. To instruct
d. To engage
Communicating concisely but not
too concisely
Concise = expressing much in a few words

Concise writing
To the Free of
Direct
point jargon

Wordy
Pomposity constructi
on
Communicating concisely but not
too concisely
Conciseness creating problems
Writing concisely but not to concisely requires =
Practice and critical eye
Understanding audience
Expectations in the different media
Communicating directly and
forcefully
1. Use active voice instead of passive
Passive :
Happiness is sought by all and suffering desired to be
avoided. The same basic human needs and concerns
are possessed by all.

Active :
We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We
have the same basic human needs and concerns.
Use passive voice only if :
We want to protect the actor in the sentence

We are not sure who is responsible for the action

The actor is unimportant

The company style, discipline style, or some other mandate

dictate otherwise

We want to vary our sentence structure or have another stylistic

purpose
Communicating directly and
forcefully
2. Avoid overusing expletives, let your meaning and
emphasis guide your use

Expletives :
there is
it is
it is that
Communicating directly and
forcefully
3. Avoid the use of prepositional idioms
Idioms to Avoid Concise Replacements
Due to the fact that Because
During the time that While
For the purpose of To
For the reason that Because, since
If the conditions are such that If
In order to To
In the event that If
In the area of In
In the case of In
In the interest of For
In the nature of In
In the region of Around
Next to By
On the top of On, above
Over and above Beyond
With regard to Regarding
With the purpose of To
Communicating directly and
forcefully
4. Avoid the overuse of relative pronouns (who, which,
that)
Unecessary relative pronouns Sentences without relative
pronouns
Mr. Bigelow is a man who never Mr. Bigelow never misses a
misses a meeting meeting
The documentation which was Joan Brownings documentation
written by Joan Browning is is helpful
helpful
Communicating directly and
forcefully
5. Avoid the needless repetitions of words and ideas
Do Dont
In order for an employee to quality for For employees to qualify for
reimbursement, the employee must reimbursement, they must :
satisfy all of the following requirements : 1. Be of production foreman level
1. Employee must be of production 2. Enroll in state-accredited
foreman level or higher or the rank of institution
secretary or higher 3. Complete the course with at least
2. Employee must enroll in a state- a C
accredited institution in courses at the
college or graduate level
3. Employee must complete the course
with at least a C
Communicating directly and
forcefully
6. Avoid weasel words (ambiguous, noncommittal words)

almost different like special

as much as elements look things
aspect feel manner up to
basis field situation virtually
can be help
Communicating directly and
forcefully
7. Be aware of jargon and other kinds of gobbledygook
Jargon = language used in particular disciplines
Jargon can make portions of our audience feel excluded or lead to their
misunderstanding our message

8. Use active verbs and avoid nominalizations

X The team will perform an investigation of the design flaws for a
determination of what caused the crash
The team will investigate the design flaws to determine what caused the
crash

9. Use the simple word over the complex in most case

Making communication memorable
and persuasive
1. Tell a story
2. Use strategic repetition of key words, phrases or
clauses, sentences
3. Use parallel structure