Are you convincing or persuading?

To improve patient health outcomes, health professionals often need to convince and persuade.

So what’s the difference between the two? 

You want to convince your patient of the value of meditation.
You want to convince your patient that the flu vaccination is safe.
You want to convince your patient that crash diets don’t work.

Whereas:

You want to persuade your patient to use their asthma puffer regularly.
You want to persuade your patient to do some exercise every day.
You want to persuade your patient to take a holiday.

In a nutshell, you want to convince them that counselling is helpful (idea), but you want to persuade them to go to counselling (action).

How to easily remember the difference?

The i in convince is for idea while the a in persuade is for action.

For more explanations about common confusions, see here, here and here.

And if you’re convinced that these pointers are helpful, then let me persuade you to sign up for email alerts for new Trunks.

When you do, you’ll get a free taster of how we can work together to get your professional English unstuck.

Back to The Trunk