Monday, April 30, 2012

Explaining Your Opinion

One of the key ways to have people believing in your opinion is to explain your opinion.  Without a strong explanation, our opinions are basically, just our opinion.

The key point is to provide reasons that other people will find reasonable and convincing.  Three ways to do this is by making comparisons, show a contrast or show a cause-and-effect relation.

A comparison compares between different things.  This comparison shows that something is better than or worse than something else.

ex.)  Eating dinner at 6PM is better than eating dinner at 7PM.
        There are more benefits running than speed walking.
        The new law has more advantages than the old law.

Showing a contrast is putting the opposites against each other.

ex.)  Women multi-task quickly; men don''t.
        Children can learn a new language easily; adults can't.
        The city helps senior citizens; the state will not.

A cause-and-effect pattern emphasizes a potential result when something is or is not done.

ex.)  If you elect me, I will lower taxes.
        Eating late at night causes weight gain.
        If we cut spending by 10%, we can extend social security by 10 years.

You may choose to state your opinion with an explaination.  You can also use multiple explainations to convince people to believe in your opinion. 

No comments:

Post a Comment