Persuasive Writing
What will it take to convince you?
Over the duration of this course, we analyzed various political speeches, TED Talks, and essays about the different elements of a successful speech. Going back to the roots of rhetoric, with ethos, logos and pathos, we were able to take sections of Obama and Trump speeches for comparison and highlight why these speeches resonated with their intended audiences. Through examples of case studies and actual speeches, my peers and I were taught about how to create content that relates to persuading our audience through education and emotional manipulation. It also causes us to stop and think critically about what we hear from other figures attempting to persuade their audience.
As a very heavy theoretical course, we were tasked with conducting our own research about any topic we wanted to explore. We were able to be creative with how we presented our campaign book, so I decided to make an extended deck talking about the importance of Employee Recognition in relation to employee retirement, burnout effect and NPS scores.
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The campaign book below is 43 pages, but I was able to use this during my time at Delta Air Lines and present it to my manager and director. My director was very impressed and ended up showing this to Delta's Sr. Executive VP of Human Resources, Joanne Smith. Smith used some of the points during a town hall meeting around Q4 in preparation for first-quarter earnings and employee survey reports.
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Download the PDF campaign book here.
Overview Document
But why a pretty deck?
This overview document explains the goal, audience, key problem and the potential solution of introducing an employee recognition program into a company's HR department. HR documents are traditionally boring and sterile, and the interactive aspect of the deck makes it engaging and visually appealing.
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Download the written report here.