--- title: Writing persuasive political material url: https://propagandaarchive.org/write/ description: 'A handbook and templates for writing open, attributed political material: framing, story, structure and language, with the techniques named.' section: Write --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of a typewriter, drafted press releases and an annotated speech transcript.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-write.jpg) The handbook # Writing persuasive political material A handbook and templates for writing your own political material: framing, story, structure and language, with the techniques named so you know what you are using. In brief A handbook and fill-in templates for making your own political case, for any cause, openly and in your own name. On this page - [Start here](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/#start-here) - [The handbook and templates](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/#the-handbook-and-templates) - [The running example](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/#the-running-example) - [Studio](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/#studio) - [Go deeper](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/#go-deeper) On this page FRAME's Archive shows how propaganda has worked. Learn explains the psychology behind it. **Write** turns that knowledge around: a handbook and fill-in templates for making your own political case, for any cause, openly and in your own name. Everything here is built on one line from the archive's doctrine: ordinary advocacy in a speaker's own name, with claims that can be checked, is not propaganda ([Doctrine (working definition)](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/working-definition/)). The handbook teaches that kind of persuasion fully and practically. The techniques that work only by hiding who is speaking or faking who agrees are covered too, in full documented detail, so you can recognise and counter them. The templates work for any side of any issue. Every worked example is written twice, for and against, and the real examples are drawn from across the political spectrum and from several countries. ## Start here [![Nachrichten für die Truppe, No. 358, 9 April 1945](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/nachrichten-fuer-die-truppe-1945-640.jpg)Start here 1Fair, grey or deception: where each archive technique sitsall 28 archive techniques sorted into fair, grey and deception, with the fair version of each.](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/the-line/) [![I.W.W. Hat Card](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iww-bread-or-revolution-1914-640.jpg)Start here 2Know your audiencewho you're persuading, and what the research says about how people change their minds.](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/audience/) ## The handbook and templates The chapters and the four fill-in templates (flyer, op-ed, speech, social) are listed below with their descriptions. Each chapter has steps, what the research says, real examples from more than one side, a worked example you can copy, and where the technique crosses the line. ### Handbook [![Careless Talk Costs Lives: "...strictly between these four walls!"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/careless-talk-four-walls-fougasse-1940-640.jpg)Before you publish: the fair-play checkRun this on every piece, whatever its cause. Each question maps to a technique in the archive. If you answer "no" to any of them, fix the piece before it goes out. It takes five minutes, and it separates advocacy you…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/before-you-publish/) [!['Gennady Rakitin,' an invented pro-war poet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/rakitin-ai-persona-2023-640.jpg)Anatomy of deception: how documented operations worked, and how to spot themThis page takes apart real, documented influence operations: who ran them, how they were staffed and funded, what they posted, how it spread and how they were caught. It draws only on published investigations, court…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/deception-anatomy/) [![The Greatest Mother in the World: Red Cross Christmas Roll Call](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/greatest-mother-in-the-world-1918-640.jpg)Emotional appealEmotion isn't the opposite of reason in politics. People act on what they care about, and caring is an emotion. Aristotle counted pathos as one of the three legitimate means of persuasion, alongside the speaker's…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/emotion/) [![Wer Kriegsanleihe zeichnet, macht mir die schönste Geburtstagsgabe! (Whoever Subscribes to the War Loan Gives Me the Finest Birthday Present!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/hindenburg-geburtstagsgabe-1917-640.jpg)Ethos, pathos and logos: the three modes of persuasionEvery persuasive piece answers three questions in the reader's head. Who is this, and why listen? How am I meant to feel? What is the proof? Aristotle named them about 2,300 years ago. This page defines each, shows real…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/ethos-pathos-logos/) [![The Balance Sheet of British Rule in India (Hindustan-Gadar broadside)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/balance-sheet-british-rule-india-1917-640.jpg)Evidence and credibilityReaders ask two questions of every political piece: is this true? and why should I believe you? Evidence answers the first. Credibility, Aristotle's ethos, answers the second. Honest persuasion earns both, and it holds…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/evidence/) [![Sind wir die Barbaren? (Are We the Barbarians?)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sind-wir-die-barbaren-1916-640.jpg)FramingA frame is the lens you ask your reader to look through: what the issue is about, whose problem it is, and what kind of fix fits. The same facts read as a tax question, a fairness question or a safety question depending…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/framing/) [![Keep Calm and Carry On](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-calm-and-carry-on-1939-640.jpg)MessagingA frame says what the issue is about. A message is the handful of words you will repeat until your audience can say them back. Good messages are short, concrete, true and repeated, and every piece you write should carry…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/messaging/) [![Gandhi spins while addressing a crowd (1930)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gandhi-spinning-1930-640.jpg)NarrativeArguments tell people what to think. Stories let them feel why it matters, and people remember stories long after they forget statistics. A campaign narrative has a character, a challenge, a choice and an outcome, and…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/narrative/) ### Templates [!["Zmaga je naša!" Carinthian plebiscite leaflet (1920)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/zmaga-je-nasa-plebiscite-leaflet-1920-640.jpg)Flyer or leafletA flyer gets a glance: often under ten seconds at a door, a noticeboard or a school gate. It has one job, which is to get one action from one audience. Everything that doesn't serve that job comes off.](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/template-flyer/) [![The Bombay Chronicle reports a foreign-cloth bonfire (1921)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bombay-chronicle-cloth-bonfire-1921.jpg)Op-ed or letter to the editorAn op-ed is read by people who chose to spend a few minutes on it, which makes it the place for your best evidence and your answer to the strongest objection. Editors look for a clear argument, a reason to run it now,…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/template-op-ed/) [![Recognize the Signs of Terrorism-Related Suspicious Activity ("If You See Something, Say Something")](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/see-something-say-something-dhs-640.jpg)Social media postsSocial posts compete with everything else in someone's feed. You get a second or two to earn a stop, and the platforms reward emotion, which is exactly where honest posts and manipulative ones start to look alike. These…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/template-social/) [![4 Minute Men: A Message from Washington](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/four-minute-men-message-from-washington-1917-640.jpg)Short speechA speech is heard once, at the speaker's pace, and can't be re-read. So it needs more repetition, shorter sentences and a clearer structure than anything written. This template is for a 3–5 minute speech: a rally, a…](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/template-speech/) ## The running example To keep the templates neutral, every worked example uses the same invented case: **Riverton's Measure 12**, a half-cent sales tax to run buses every ten minutes on six routes. It is modelled on a US-style local ballot measure; adapt the mechanics and election rules to where you publish. One side argues for it (families' time), the other against it (small shops and an alternative funding source). Both are written to the same standard. Figures in [brackets] or shown as $X are placeholders: in a real piece, replace each with a sourced fact or cut it. ## Studio [Studio](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/STUDIO/) is the spec for a workshop on top of this handbook: the writer signs the piece, the inputs are a technique id, an audience, historical examples from three sides, and a linked Learn page, and every draft is written for and against. It is a spec, not an app. Deceptive techniques stay in [Anatomy of deception: how documented operations worked, and how to spot them](https://propagandaarchive.org/write/deception-anatomy/) so a reader can recognise and counter them. ## Go deeper The Learn section explains the psychology behind each chapter. Start at [Learn](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/).