Why Persuasion Matters Throughout Dana Gioia’s article “Why Literature Matters,” she sheds light on the importance of reading in American society and why the lack thereof is a growing problem. To demonstrate this, a number of persuasion devices are employed in the article and go unrecognized to the inattentive reader. Gioia emphasizes word choice to inflict the reader with emotions, whilst simultaneously utilizing facts and statistics to provide a logical explanation as to why reading is crucial for a functioning society. One such persuasive technique used to convince the reader can be found in the third paragraph of the article. Gioia argues that young readers ignoring literature exhibits a “troubling trend” for the future - signifying a