Investigating 'Persuasive Strategies' in Business English

Abstract

  Persuasion is the process of creating , reinforcing , or changing peoples' beliefs , values or actions . It is the art of convincing an audience , listeners or readers,  to believe , think , or act as the speaker or writer wants them to.

  Persuasion constitutes a 'speech act' , an act performed in , or by speaking. . It describes when the persuader induces a particular kind of mental state in the persuadee.

  Persuasive strategies are the various means of persuasion available to any speaker.

  The present paper investigates Aristotle's three different persuasive strategies (ethos , pathos , and logos) in order to see  whether these strategies in business English fulfill most or all of the speech acts.

  Results of the analysis show that assertive and directive speech acts constitute the highest population in the language of business English , and as for the persuasive strategies , 'logos'  ─ causal reasoning ─ is most  used .

 Repetition of words and long patterns of syntactic parallelism of clauses are recognized in this study as a means of persuasion.