Science of Persuasion

1. Reciprocity
1. The idea that if someone gives you something, there is a need to give something back in return can be applied to blogs. In blogs, writers are often times sharing personal experiences with their readers. Because of these shared personal experiences the audience feels the need to reciprocate or give a piece of themselves back, maybe leaving a comment or even making a donation to a cause.
2. Scarcity
1. This can translate into a blog as well. the idea that people want what they cant have can apply to the amount you choose to chair with your audience. If you withhold  certain information from your audience until they, for example, subscribe to your blog for a small fee. More people would be likely to subscribe because of this rule. 
3. Authority
1. When writing a blog it can be helpful to have some sort of authority. For example a person would feel more willing to take advice from someone with a degree in psychology rather than just a housewife sitting at home. This however is not necessary, part of the appeal of a blog is the blogger being reliable and this tactic can sometimes feel more like a forced therapy session or a new article rather than a blog.
4. Consistency
1.  No one likes hypocrites and least of all the internet. the one thing about having a blog is that EVERYTHING is recorded. going back on something you previously said will ALWAYS be pointed out and ridiculed. Being consistent in your stances and your beliefs make the audience more willing to believe what you are trying to stand for. People believe when they believe what you believe. Contradicting yourself does not help that.
5. Liking
1. This is the most important and relatable to blogs on the list. People will not read your blog if they do not like you. It is so easy to click away from a blog, a blogger must be likeable is some way. No one wants to talk or listen to someone they do not like, simple as that.
6. Consensus
1. It is easier to do something that a group of others are already doing. For example, noting that a multitude of people have donated to your cause already will persuade a person to donate to the cause as well. Everyone wants to be part of the "in" crowd.
Ethos, Pathos, Logos


A blogger is more likely to use pathos because it connects with the reader on an emotional level and is more likely to build a deeper connection with the audience. This is often time how writers of connect with their readers. If a person is emotionally invested in the text it make the text easier to read, more likely to come back to the text, and more likely to read future text.
Ethos and Logos can also be useful tools more are more supportive in most writing. having a logical argument is always the best way to go about things at a basic level, and showing you are a credible source is also extremely helpful with certain topics however for most writing, especially fiction, pathos is always a safe bet.

The Art of the Personal Essay

I find it really interesting the way that honesty plays a part in writing and how it can put more work on the audience. Honesty in writing is a huge attention grabber, the way that some writers make their pieces feel like an honest conversation between themselves and the audience draws the reader in to the piece. It creates a very intimate feeling, however it also puts more work on the audience. One of the major issues of writing an honest piece is getting over the self-rationalizing and embellishment that all humans are subject to. The audience must work to get to the real truth of a personal essay, being able to look past the embellishment made to keep an audience interested and the lies that the writer may or may not be convincing themselves of. Being aware of these internal and external influences is import to both reading and writing a personal essay.

Sometime your own experiences can influence the way you interoperate a work. Your own bias and personal views of certain topics can lead you to come to the conclusions you want to see instead of the ones that the author intended. For example a person who had a traumatic experience on a roller coaster may not be the one to plan the company party at a fair, or a person with trust issues will not be the type of writer that blatantly tell the audience important facts. When a writer puts more work onto the audience to interoperate the truth, it is not a guarantee that everyone will come to the same conclusion that lines up with the author's intention. Its more of a guarantee it won't.

Everyone is an influencer in their own way. We influence the people around us, we influence demographic statistics, we influence social media and fashion and everything else around us. The world will never stop being influenced by people.

Truth In Memoir

The writer explores the line between memoirs concerned with only truth versus those that have been embellished. The writer also admits that through the process of writing this submission she had blurred these lines herself. The writer recognizes that there is truth in fiction and vice versa. the writer considered questions such as: what are the boundaries between fact and fiction, does narrating life fictionalize life, who owns a story, how can writing about and memories of trauma help its truthfulness, and the what the role of memories are in constructing these novels. She also breaks up the thesis into two parts. Part one which explores truth in fiction, the role of imagination and its affect on the reliability of the narrator, facts in storytelling and writing processes. Part two focuses on the authors memoir as a novel. The reader makes strong arguments about truth in novels and the way that different things affect the credibility of the author.

Not all memoirs can be taken as 100% truth. If all were in fact 100% true I would imagine most would be a little boring to read. Embellishments and imagination make the real world a little more exciting and help books fly off the shelves. I like the way the author says that there is both truth and fantasy in nonfiction and fiction writing. Many forget the writers are really storytellers, we all have a tendency to embellish. The idea that writers are turning reality into art is the closest description of a writer I have heard.

The question then becomes where the line between nonfiction a fiction really is. A question which the author addresses. The author admits the all writing forms are fictionalized in some way. the balance between fiction and truth is a tricky one but when 90% of the text is true I believe a little embellishment can be allowed.