The Grammar of Persuasion

A formal system for understanding what makes someone say yes.

5,581 creatives mapped · 6 generative structures

The Six Structures

Six sentence forms that generate persuasion. Each is a production rule in our grammar.

STRUCTURE 01

Personalized Hook

[firstname|Friend], [specific statement]
"Michael, I noticed you've supported veterans before..."
Tested across 47 campaigns
STRUCTURE 02

Direct Declarative

No question — immediate statement
"The bill that could cut your taxes is about to expire."
Highest conversion in healthcare sector
STRUCTURE 03

Two-Part Teaser

"Two things, [firstname]:"
"Two things, Sarah: the deadline approaches, and you still have a chance."
Effective in political advocacy
STRUCTURE 04

Specific Date Anchor

"On [exact date], we'll..."
"On March 15th, we'll announce the new scholarship recipients."
Strong for education nonprofits
STRUCTURE 05

Personal Intro + Credential

"Hi, this is [Name] from [Org]..."
"Hi, this is Dr. Chen from the Ocean Institute..."
Best for trusted institutions
STRUCTURE 06

Secret Message

"A secret message for you..."
"A secret message for you about what Congress is planning..."
High intrigue in advocacy campaigns

The Generator

Pick a structure, fill in the variables, watch the grammar produce.

Persuasion Grammar Engine

Select a structure and fill in the fields...

Why Open Source?

The grammar is the abstraction layer. Everything else is just data.

The Abstraction Principle

Knowing the 6 structures tells you nothing about which 5,581 examples exist. Grammar ≠ corpus. The map is not the territory.

Reverse-Engineering Protection

Even if someone knows the grammar, they can't reverse-engineer our clients. The specific persuasive triggers remain proprietary—locked in execution, not structure.

Academic Integrity

Persuasion science should be open. We believe in sharing foundational frameworks while protecting what makes each client's approach unique.

Composable Creativity

Open grammar means anyone can build on it. New structures emerge. New combinations appear. The system grows.

A Generative Grammar for Persuasion

"In linguistics, a generative grammar is a system of rules that generates exactly those combinations of words that form grammatical sentences in a given language."

Just as Noam Chomsky revolutionized linguistics by proposing that humans possess an innate grammatical capacity—a finite set of rules that produces infinite sentences—we've mapped the persuasion equivalent: a finite grammar that produces infinite variations of effective appeals.

Linguistic Grammar

Generates all possible grammatical sentences in a language. Constrains what can be said.

Persuasion Grammar

Generates all possible effective appeals. Constrains what works to prompt action.

Underlying Rules

Phonological, syntactic, semantic constraints innate to language acquisition.

Underlying Rules

Cognitive triggers: reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking, consensus.