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Writing Project 1:

Open Letter: a Powerful Way to Persuade Others

Honghao (Oliver) Li

University of California, Santa Barbara

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Open Letter: a Powerful Way to Persuade Others

Imagine yourself, one day, you become a president of a country, and you to make your

citizens' lives better. What should you do? As Dirk said in Navigating genres, "Knowing what a

genre in used for can help people to accomplish goals" (Dirk, 2010, p. 253), a president under

this circumstance should persuade their citizens to take action to boost their economic to live

better. Which kinds of the genre can be distributed widely and easily acceptable by citizens? The

answer is the open letter. In this essay, I am going to analyze two articles that are in the open

letter genre to evaluate the effectiveness of articles to persuade readers. In the first passage, Raise

the Minimum Wage, the author, Times Editorial Board, persuaded readers to support him and

pass the law. In the second article Looting Egypt's Heritage, the author, Ibrahim, condemned the

seriousness of the looting problem of Egyptian antiques and called for more efforts to resist

looting. Both articles identify serious issues that happened in society, and they both strategically

persuade readers and make them aware of the seriousness of problems. A clear logic supported

by lots of facts is essential for the article to convince others since it can increase the credibility of

the author's promotion to persuade readers better. Despite the comprehensive logic of these two

articles, the essential component of these articles is emotional appeals.

To successfully persuade readers, writers should identify the characteristics of targeted

readers. As Dirk illustrated in his article that, "the writer should use genre purposefully, and the

genre should fit specific readers" (Dirk, 2010, p. 254). For the first article Raise The Minimum

Wage, its purpose is to cancel the fear from both stroke holder and workers about rising wages

and pass the Alejo's law. Ibrahim, the writer of the second article Looting Egypt's Heritage,
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called for attention to the protection of Egypt's national treasure by stating the consequence of

looting.

To convince readers, authors from both articles use conceptual, logical reasoning to

convey their ideas. In the first article, Raise The Minimum Wage, the author used concession to

build up his logic. In the article, the author admitted that the companies may consider the

increase of workers’ wages will increase the total cost for companies, so they will potentially

respond by cutting workers' wages (BOARD, 2013). By mentioning the disadvantage of the bill,

it allowed the author to predict the potential doubts and to rebut objections that readers might

have. But the author subsequently eliminated the doubts by stating that "previous increase in the

minimum wage haven't decreased or increased hours or jobs in a statistically significant manner"

(BOARD, 2013). This indicated that the previous worries on unemployment are unrealistic.

Thus, the author convinced the audience that the bill is beneficial to both the companies and the

minimum wage receivers. By acknowledging a potential counterargument and refutes it, the

writer made the argument more protean and robust.

Similar, Ibrahim utilized reasoning in his article Looting Egypt's Heritage. In the article,

Ibrahim applied a cause and effect reasoning to strengthen his argument. Ibrahim stated that

"looting is an old central business and a crime that Egyptians will no doubt be

fighting" (Ibrahim, 2013). By defining looting is a crime, Ibrahim not only condemned those

who steal Egyptian antiques but also signaled his call for protecting these antiques. Then,

Ibrahim explained further the consequences of looting. He claimed that due to these crimes,

Egypt is now a country that "similar to those countries that are under attack" (Ibrahim, 2013).
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Using the cause and effect as a strategy to build up his argument, Ibrahim presented his points

logically and compelling. The use of logical reasoning made the article persuasive while help

reinforcing Ibrahim's argument on protecting Egyptian antiques.

An effective open letter should not only have clear logic but also should appeal to

readers' emotions. As Lunsford said in Rhetorical Analysis that "emotion can add real muscle to

arguments" (Lunsford, 2013), both of the writers created emotional resonance with readers.

Throughout the first article, the author appealed to the audience with sympathy. The writer

indicated 3.4 million Californians would receive the minimum wages with only $10 (BOARD,

2013). The description of the number of people included and the little of the wages alarm the

audience to the seriousness of the issue addressed by the article. The writer strikes an emotional

chord with his readers. By raising readers' concerns, the author urged them to weigh the

importance of increasing wages. More, the author suggests that "a third of minimum-wage

workers are parents" (BOARD, 2013). This further demonstrates the hardships when parents face

to support their entire family with minimum wage, which resonates with the readers. To help out

these parents and their children, the audience will be willing to improve their situation by

supporting the Alejo's bill.

With the same idea in mind, Ibrahim appeals to readers' sympathy by addressing the

significance of Egyptian archeology as well as the responsibility the audience held. At the

beginning of the article, Ibrahim states that "Egypt's future lies in its history" (Ibrahim, 2013),

and showing how artifacts facilitate tourism, which is the “lifeblood" (Ibrahim, 2013) of the

country. By indicating the facts first, he reminded the audience of how greatly significant the
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country's civilization was and that the protection of such civilization was both necessary and

beneficial. Then, the author underscores the severity of the artifact stealing by indicating that

such conservation was also vital for future generations and loot our nation's economic future and

steal from our children (Ibrahim, 2013). By doing so, the author effectively appeals to readers'

sense of moral responsibility and lays the emotional foundation for further developing his

argument. The last reference in the last paragraph that "the youth . . . deserve more" (Ibrahim,

2013) and that "there's no time to waste" (Ibrahim, 2013), acted as an ultimate appeal, which,

compounded with previous ones, could completely address readers of the determination to join

protection.

By using thoughtful logic and appealing to readers' emotions, these two open letters are

undoubtedly successful. Just after the first article was published, California's minimum wage was

significantly improved, and in 2017 it was raised to the $12 per hour, which is what people didn't

even think about five years ago. Mohamed Ibrahim, who wrote the second open letter, also

created a noticeable impact. Since the publishing of this open letter, Egypt's government and

citizens have a better realization about the importance of antiquities protection. While the

Egyptian Customs strengthen the customs inspections, the Egyptian Ministry of Cultural Relics

also retrieves many stolen cultural relics through other means.

Although these two open letters have already convinced most readers, they still have

certain limitations. Because open letters cannot contain too many jargon and use too many

complex logic, economists and politician may consider these articles are not comprehensive

enough to convince them. For the first letter, economists will doubt its credibility since the
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author does not use rational thinking to consider the marginal cost generated by increasing

wages. For the second letter, the politician will question about the trade-off between the positive

archeological value and potential political relationship damage between countries.

Despite those flaws, these two letters successfully convinced readers and achieved their

goals. Both of the writers set an excellent example for others who want to persuade their

audiences successfully. In conclusion, a powerful and effective open letter, no matter its purpose,

should not only conceptual, logical reasoning but also need to capture the reader's feelings and

resonate with the readers to achieve the desired goals.

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Reference

BOARD, T. T. (2013, September 13). Raise the Minimum Wage. Retrieved from Los Angeles

Times: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-minimum-wage-

increase-20130913-story.html

Dirk, K. (2010). Navigating Genres. In C. Lowe, & P. Zemliansky, Writing Spaces: Readings on

Writing (pp. 249-262). Anderson: Parlor Press.

Ibrahim, M. (2013, October 18). Looting Egypt's Heritage. Retrieved from The Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/looting-egypts-heritage/

2013/10/18/8a1effdc-380d-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html

Lunsford, A. A. (2013). Rhetorical Analysis. In A. A. Lunsford, Everythins's An Argument (pp.

91-120). Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s.