Clear communication webinar

Clear WritingSimple steps to make your communication clear

Tweet: #ClearWriting

Sharon [email protected]: sharonburton951-369-8590

We’ll be starting the webinar at 3 minutes after the hour

Clear WritingSimple steps to make your communication clear


Sharon [email protected]: sharonburton951-369-8590

DCL Company Overview

▪ 30 years of experience providing electronic document conversion services meeting the needs of technology…today & in the future

• More than 1 billion pages converted to date• Transform legacy & future documents• US Based project management team• Global capabilities• Specialize in complex projects• Employ a proven automated process

From Any Format to Any Format…

•Audio/video transcription•Composition•Consulting•Content Reuse Analysis•Digital Publishing•Document & image conversion•eBook production•Project set-up/management•Quality Assurance•Translation services•Workflow analysis

Serving a Broad Client Base…

…Spanning all Industries

▪ Publishers

▪ Government

▪ Defense

▪ Life sciences

▪ Automotive

▪ Aerospace

▪ Utilities

▪ Heavy and Industrial Equipment

▪ Financial Services

▪ Manufacturing

▪ Computing

▪ Semiconductors

▪ Telecommunications

Webinar Mechanics

How does this thing work?

Welcome!

▪ I’m Sharon Burton▪ Content Consultant▪ STC Associate Fellow▪ Other stuff

▪ Been in the Tech Comm industry for 20 years▪ Content Strategy Consultant - I help you make

your content work better▪ Also teach:

▪ Technical Communication to Engineering students at the University of California, Riverside

▪ Tech Comm certificate program at UCR Extension▪ Business Writing for University of Redlands

▪ Custom training programs for clients


How this webinar works

▪ You are muted▪ If you’re talking, hoping we’d notice, we can’t hear

you

▪ We’re recording this webinar ▪ None of your information appears in the final

webinar▪ The recording link is provided to you automatically in

a follow up email tomorrow▪ A short survey is also included

▪ Helps us make the webinars better for you

▪ We should be done by the top of the hour▪ I know you have a busy day


Supporting role today…

▪ DCL is supporting us today▪ If you have questions, they will help you in the

questions window

▪ Let’s say “Thank you” to Data Conversion Labs for hosting this webinar


Audience and communicating


Communication

▪ From Wikipedia:

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of the sender.


What does this mean?

▪ Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information.

▪ This means that what we need to convey has to be meaningful▪ To the point▪ Clear to our audience▪ No extra noise


What does it require?

Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient…

▪ We are busy people communicating with other busy people

▪ Our written communications convey the message for us

▪ Provides a record of our communication

▪ But also think about videos, podcasts, etc.


People want communication in the way they prefer

What does this mean?


Learning styles

▪ One of the most important things we can know about our readers is their learning styles▪ This tells us how to design the communication we deliver

▪ 4 adult learning styles▪ Visual▪ Auditory▪ Read/write▪ Kinesthetic (hands on)

▪ Most people have a strong preference 2 or more▪ Some people are only one▪ Some rare people are all 4

Visual Learners

▪ Pictures and line drawings

▪ Show concepts in graphics

▪ Flow charts are great

▪ Tables are also graphics

▪ A well designed page is also a graphic

▪ Color is important

Kinesthetic Learners

▪ Hands on stuff

▪ “Do” instructions

▪ Written words should be very descriptive▪ Textures, moving things, other “feel” things

▪ Drawings and photos can work but they have to show doing or texture or…

Read/Writer Learners

▪ More words are better

▪ Lots of written text, following the writing guidelines▪ More about the writing guidelines in a few moments

Auditory Learners

▪ Sound is good▪ Podcasts and webinars and other voice over

▪ Write in a conversational tone▪ As tho someone is talking

▪ Written content not the best▪ They read the instructions aloud to provide that

auditory aspect for themselves

Adult learning styles

▪ While people can learn in all 4 modes, people have preferences for learning

▪ There are no “wrong” learning styles▪ Just as there are no “wrong” eye colors

▪ People are much happier getting information in the mode they are comfortable with▪ People are busy. Why give them information

in a mode that they typically don’t like?

Learning preferences and jobs

▪ Learning preferences also attract people to specific jobs▪ Visual kinesthetics might be hair dressers, interior

designers, architects, photographers▪ Read/write auditorys might be song writers, actors,

journalists▪ Engineers are typically visual kinesthetics

A secret about learning styles

▪ Now that you know a little about learning styles, here’s a secret▪ You will always want to deliver material that

matches your specific learning style(s)▪ This may not meet the needs of your

readers but you won’t know why▪ This may also result in terrible

communication issues▪ They may have different learning styles than you

or the users

Clear Writing Guidelines

How to communicate clearly

What’s in a sentence?

▪ Sentences include: ▪ Subject▪ Verb▪ Other stuff

▪ Subject▪ Actor of the sentence

▪ Bob

▪ Verb▪ Action of the sentence, performed by the subject

▪ Runs

▪ Predicate and other stuff▪ Tells what the actor did or where the action happened or many

other things▪ To the car

Active voice

▪ Active voice is critical to engaging writing

▪ Active voice depends on the subject, the actor▪ The actor comes first

▪ Passive voice: ▪ The award was won by the writers.

▪ Active voice▪ The writers won the award.

▪ Always write active voice▪ Practice with sentences that start “You can…”

Present tense

▪ English has 7 or 8 tenses▪ Other languages

have more or less

▪ We care most about present tense▪ It puts the action

in the sentence in the now, making is relevant and immediate

▪ Only use (simple) past or (simple) future tense when it really happens then

▪ Past tense▪ Bob ran to the car.

▪ Future tense▪ Bob will run to the

car.

▪ Present tense▪ Bob runs to the

car.

Second person

▪ He, she, it, they, we, I, you▪ You is second person▪ You’re writing to a specific person

▪ Don’t use “the user” ▪ Unless there is really a different group of users,

separate from your reader

▪ Second person is also easier to read in English▪ More familiar and trusted

Reader focused, reader centric

▪ Because we write to people, we need to keep the focus on the reader▪ Readers need to care why they need to know this

information▪ They want to know what they can do or why this is

important to them

▪ For example: ▪ WidgetBlue uses tags to talk to other products. ▪ You can use tags to let WidgetBlue talk to other

products.

Short is good

▪ Short sentences are easier to understand▪ Fewer ideas in a short sentence▪ No more than 25 words per sentence

▪ Short paragraphs▪ Paragraphs are groups of related sentences▪ No more than 3 to 5 sentences per paragraph

▪ Short sections▪ Sections are groups of related paragraphs▪ No more than 3 to 5 paragraphs before a section

heading

Headings

▪ Use headings to break the narrative text into chunks

▪ Headings visually break up the page▪ Makes it easier for the reader to find the information

s/he is looking for. ▪ It also makes the information look easy to understand. ▪ Things that look easy to understand are easier to

understand.

▪ Headings show the relationships between ideas or the parts of ideas▪ Critical in overview sections where you are introducing

the user to new concepts

Building sentences and paragraphs

▪ Paragraphs start with a topic sentence

▪ Topic sentences explain the point of the paragraph. ▪ The reader can read just the topic sentence and get

the idea of the entire paragraph

▪ Other sentences in the paragraph amplify and support the topic sentence

▪ The paragraph can include ▪ an example that illustrates the concept ▪ with a limitation or special case the reader should

know now that they know about the general class

Example

▪ Another challenge is that business writing follows very specific formulas in structure. Think about your resume, for example. Your writing style, the points you highlight about your career or education, and the look and feel play an important role. A company uses all of these to decide whether to offer you a job.

Parsing the paragraph example

Another challenge is that business writing follows very specific formulas in structure.

▪ This is the topic sentence▪ Contains the point to the paragraph

▪ It’s a short sentence▪ 12 words

▪ Easy to understand▪ Short words

Parsing example, cont

Think about your resume, for example.

▪ This is an example

▪ Using you helps you picture your resume▪ Not some generic resume

▪ Notice how you have a picture in your head right away

▪ You can relate


Your writing style, the points you highlight about your career or education, and the look and feel play an important role.

▪ Now that we have an example, we pull out important features to think about▪ We created a picture in our readers head▪ It’s 21 words. ▪ Look how long that looks.


A company uses all of these to decide whether to offer you a job.

▪ We bring all the ideas to a conclusion▪ In this case, it’s the point of the resume: to get hired

▪ No sentence is longer than 25 words.

▪ We have four sentences total

In sum

Think about these concepts for video scripts, and other communication

To sum up

▪ Cover all 4 learning styles▪ To learn more and find out your learning styles▪ www.vark-learn.com▪ Easy and fast. No wrong answers and select all that

apply

▪ Tight writing▪ 25 words or less per sentence, 3 to 5 sentences per

paragraph, headings every 3 to 5 paragraphs▪ Active voice, present tense, second person▪ Reader focused – Why does your reader care about

this information?

Questions?

[email protected]: sharonburton951-369-8590www.sharonburton.com

You will get a link to the recording tomorrow

I’ll upload the slides to SlideShare later today.