Real Words

This is a guest post by Nancy Farrell. Learn more about her from the bio below.

According to the National Association of Social Workers, “social workers aim to open the doors of access and opportunity for everyone, particularly those in greatest need.” As a result of this goal, social workers and those interested in improving social justice for all work under a variety of conditions, especially those perhaps less than ideal, in order to reach out to those in need. For example, the director of an inner city shelter might face budget restrictions every fiscal year while a shipping manager at a volunteer organization that sends aid overseas must deal with the rising cost of gasoline and how it affects shipment fees.

In other words, careers in social justice can be extremely difficult and yet extremely rewarding. The rewards, naturally, arise out of the effects such work on behalf of social justice has on other people. Social workers thrive on the connections they make with people of all sorts, and at the end of the day, these connections make the job worthwhile.

Because of this emphasis on personal connection, social workers must have excellent communications skills if they hope to do their jobs well. They must be comfortable speaking to rooms of people, sending out emails and newsletters updating the community on their services, and soliciting funds from donors via personalized letters. At its foundation, the kind of writing social workers generally do is persuasive in nature, whether they are writing a speech for a keynote speaker at a fundraising dinner or urging mothers to take their babies to a free clinic for seasonal flu shots.

So what abilities do you have to have if you want to be a good persuasive writer in a social justice career path?

Develop Great People Skills

First of all, you should have excellent people skills. Being able to relate to people means that you have an awareness of how other people’s wants and needs and expectations interact with your own. By understanding how this works, you can better sympathize with them and tailor your message, whatever it is, into persuasive writing that appeals to your audience’s value systems, ideas, and emotions.

Create a Coherent Argument

Secondly, you should understand how to put together a coherent argument that appeals to your target audience while also getting your message across. An argument is classically made up of a claim plus reasons to bolster that claim; these reasons are supported by evidence.

Research and Organize Well

Finally, as a persuasive writer, you have to be able to research well in order to find evidence relevant to your argument. Furthermore, you have to be able to organize that information within an essay to produce the best effect on your readers and help support your claims. In many cases, choosing the right evidence and framing it in certain ways is more important that coming up with a persuasive argument in the first place!

Of course, the above three abilities are in addition to the standard set of good writing skills that all writers must possess. Certainly, if you can think of others, feel free to leave them in the comments section!

Author Bio:

Nancy Farrell is a freelance writer and blogger. She regularly contributes to criminal justice schools, which discusses about child abuse, human rights, divorce, and crime related articles. Questions or comments can be sent to: nancy.farrell13@gmail.com.