Question

Chapters:

CH14: Asking for small favors changes self-perception, introducing ways for big favors. Researchers asked a group of homeowners to place a large “Drive Carefully” sign on their front lawn. Only 17% agreed. With the second group of homeowners, 76% of people were ok with road traffic people maintaining the sign on their beautiful lawns. What was the difference between two groups? A few weeks earlier group B was asked to display a small non-intrusive window sign asking drivers to slow down. This mental foot-in-the-door technique made homeowners from the group B view themselves as socially responsible and safety-aware, hence a request for a larger favor few weeks later didn’t startle them.

CH15: Labeling people into a social group tends to increase their participation ratio. A group of people was interviewed regarding their voting patterns. Half of them were told that based on their response criteria, they were very likely to vote, since they were deemed to be more politically active. Later on the election day that specific half did indeed turn up a participation rate that was 15% higher than participation of the control group.

CH16: Asking people to substantiate their decision will lead to higher commitment rate on that decision. Researchers called a group of people asking them how likely they were to vote in an upcoming election. Those who responded positively were either asked nothing, or asked why they felt they would vote. Any reason would suffice, but when the election day came, the turnout for the control group (who all responded “Yes” to the question of whether they were going to vote) was 61.5%. Turnout for the group that actually gave a reason (any reason)? 86.7%. A restaurant stopped telling customers “Please call to cancel your reservation” and started asking “Will you call and let us know if you need to cancel?” Net result? Number of reservation no-shows dropped from 30% to 10%.

CH17: Writing things down improves commitment. Group A was asked to volunteer on AIDS awareness program at local schools, and was asked to commit verbally. Group B was asked for the same kind of volunteer project, but was given a simple form to fill in. 17% of volunteers from Group A actually showed up to their assigned local school. From Group B 49% of volunteers showed up.

CH19: Sometimes asking people for help makes them more open. Group A was given some bogus research that included a sum of prize money. After the experiment, the researcher approached them and asked whether it wouldn’t be inconvenient if they had to give the money back, since the researcher was using his own money. Group B was not approached with such request after their portion of bogus experiment was done, and was allowed to keep the money. After this both groups were asked to rate their impression of the researcher. Even though it was the first group who didn’t get to keep any money, all of them consistently rated the researcher higher on likability scale.

CH20: Asking for little goes a long way. Researchers went door-to-door asking for American Cancer Society donations. Group A just asked for a donation, group B ended their spiel with “even a penny would help”. Results? 28.6% response rate for Group A vs. 50% response for Group B.

Assignment:

As powerful as social proof it, the next persuasion tool is even more common and widely used. It taps into a person's own action. In other words, a person can persuaded by her own action.

Read the Yes! book's Chapter 14~17, and 19~20, all those chapters related to the "Consistency" principle.

After reading all the chapters, write an email message that satisfies the requirements below:

(1) Email target audience: Business students at Salem State

(2) Message objectives: To persuade students to complete a specific community service project (you can choose any type of projects, or use your own service project) before graduation.

(3) Persuasion methods: Use one of the Consistency tools you learned from the reading, and use a social proof as an additional push.

(4) Format requirements:

a. Your email's subject line is required.

b. Use [ ] to Indicate sentences that use one or some of the following sentence style:

Participial Phrase

Appositive

Compound sentence with FANBOYS

Complex sentence.

Your writing should include all the four styles, and make sure to use a pair of [ ] at the end of each of those sentences to indicate what style it qualifies. please help me with this assignment.

Answer 1

Subject: As a business student, you could bring value to a community.

Veronica, a student who was new to the school, began fundraising by selling cake and stationery in her apartment building with the help of her family and friends.

She said: ‘When I was in Windsor Hospital, [I didn’t just feel the joy of painting but the happiness of helping a hospital for children]. It was my first project – volunteering and helping out the hospital is one of my biggest achievements in Boston. I will never forget the experience.’

[Being knowledgeable is usually associated with academic understanding, but wise goes beyond this to include notions of living well, making good decisions, act compassionate and caring about the community and others. ]

[Participating in community service not only makes a difference to the organization and people being served but also makes a difference to your career prospects]. Community service helps to enhance your resume by allowing you to obtain work-related skills before graduation, builds good references for employers in regards to community involvement, and provides a forum to network with future potential employers. You can develop civic and social responsibility skills and become more aware
of community needs.

A report by the Points of Light Institute states that if volunteers were paid for the services they freely offer, the wages would amount to between $113 billion and $161 billion a year. The report also asserts that, in 2009, 63.4 million American volunteers donated 8.1 billion hours of service, amounting to $169 billion worth of work.

According to research by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, about 140 million people in 37 countries volunteer their services to the equivalent of 20.8 million full-time jobs, contributing about $400 billion to the global economy.

[Sometimes, the best things in life come in small amounts]. So plan for your community project, today and put small efforts to bring value to a needy community.