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ПОСОБИЕ ПО АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ ДЛЯ СТУДЕНТОВ ГУМАНИТАРНЫХ ВУЗОВ

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С. Content and Structure

People are motivated by theatrics and a good story. They are moved by bold action and human drama. Your message should go beyond cold facts or even eloquent phras­es. If you can vividly describe what you are talking about — if you can paint pictures — your message will be more persuasive.

A number of techniques can make a message more persuasive; many of them have already been discussed. Here is a summary of additional writing devices.

Drama. Everyone likes a good story. This is often accomplished by graphically illustrating an event or a situation. Newspapers often dramatize a story to boost reader interest. Thus we read about the daily life of someone with AIDS, the family on welfare who is suffering because of state cuts in spending, or the frustrations of a middle man­ager who is unemployed for the first time in her career. In the newsroom, this is called humanizing an issue.

Dramatizing is also used in public relations. Relief organizations, in particular, attempt to galvanize public concern to attract donations. The idea is to personalize suffering and tragedy.

Saying that 3 million Africans are starving isn't as persuasive as describing a young mother in Somalia sobbing over the lifeless form of her skeletal baby. Readers and viewers can identify with the mother's loss, which graphically illustrates the need for aid. Large numbers alone are cold and impersonal and generate little or no emotional involvement.

A more mundane use of dramatizing is the application story, sent to the trade press. This is sometimes called the case study technique, in which a manufacturer pre­pares an article on how an individual or a company is using the product.

Statistics. For some reason, people seem to be awed by statistics. The use of num­ber, which appear so precise, seems to convey objectivity, largeness, and importance in a credible way.

Numbers can be effective, but a writer should use them sparingly. A news release crammed with them tends to overwhelm the reader.

□ Words and word-combinations

1. eloquent — красноречивый

2. writing devices — приемы письма

3. to boost reader interest — повысить интерес читателей

4. a newsroom — отдел новостей

5. to attract donation — привлечь пожертвования

6. to personalize—персонифицировать

7. to generate emotional involvement — вызвать чувство, сопричастности