In business writing, the composition of memos, reports, and proposals often relies upon a writer's powers of persuasion and argumentation. With this in mind, it is important to understand that to develop these skills one must practice the use of evidence and proofs to support persuasive and argumentative writing. This requires moving beyond merely drawing upon one's personal opinion and broad point of view to prove a point.

This page introduces students to the notion of incorporating evidence and proofs into persuasive business writing. Furthermore, it examines the Toulmin Model of deductive logical development and also offers tips on evaluating arguments for their effectiveness.

• Evidence

• Proofs

• Sample Proof

• Toulmin Model

• Using Toulmin Logic in a Sample Memo to Subordinates

• A Problem-Solving Persuasive Memo

• Evaluating Arguments