15 steps to more effective writing note: we didn’t put it in all caps!!!! karen burbach and bill...

15 steps to more effective writingNOTE: WE DIDN’T PUT IT IN ALL CAPS!!!!

Karen Burbach and Bill O’Neill,Public Relations

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Step 1

What are you trying to do?

1. Determine what you want to achieve

• Persuade

• Inform/educate

• Entertain

• Engage

2. Sum up communication goal in 1-2 sentences


Step 2

Who are you trying to reach?

1. Internal audience

• Ex: grounds crews, office staff, students, faculty,

deans

2. External audience

1. Ex: Policy-makers, donors, students, prospective

faculty, general public


Step 3

What’s the best way to get there

1. Select the most appropriate channel

• Print (brochure, flyer, newsletter)

• Online (website)

• In person

• Video/Podcast

• Social media (Facebook, Twitter)


Step 4

Why should anyone care?

1. Must be able to explain this ‘why’

2. Organize communication around the answer


Step 5

What are the ‘executional mandatories’?

1. ‘Must haves’ within the article

• Required quote or source; key message; fact, etc.


Executional mandatory - example

Growing clinical research - National push, campus priority

by Chuck Brown, UNMC public relations

National emphasis on clinical and translational research has

increased and reverberations of this fact are being felt at UNMC.

Clinical and translational research is research that applies basic

science findings to clinical and community settings.

• First mandatory: Run through Chancellor’s office• Second mandatory: Run through IRB


Step 6

What is the single most important thing we

want readers to take out of the

communication?


Step 7

Gather info that covers the five W’s and one H

1. Who, what, where, when, why and how

• Sprinkle with details


Five W’s and one H

Forum set for today

Employee benefits, the capital campaign and the Nebraska

budget process will be among the topics discussed at an

employee forum today at noon in the Wittson Hall

Amphitheater.

Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D.; Bob Bartee, vice

chancellor for external affairs; and Jo Watkins, HR benefits

specialist; will provide information and answer audience

questions.


Step 8

Reduce the number of ideas you cover

1. Attention spans are short

2. It’s easier, but less effective, to write long


Step 9Incorporate brand messaging

Our Brand Values

• Leadership: Writing must reflect a position of strength, quality and

confidence—but not arrogance.

• Commitment to excellence: Excellence, as Nebraskans define it,

involves disciplined hard work, tough challenges, compassion and a

better quality of life—without approaching extravagance.

• Working together: We view collaboration as an energizing,

productive opportunity—not a chore.

• A trusted resource: We are trusted by Nebraskans, and we are a

resource for Nebraska first and foremost.


"A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."

-- William Strunk Jr.


Step 10

Decide technique

1. Print

• Feature lead, straight news lead, varied sentence lengths

2. Web

• Direct, short sentences, palm test, use bullets

3. Social media

• Short. Immediate. Encourage interaction.

4. Think tone: Formal/informal


Step 11

Eliminate passive voice

1. Passive: The ball is hit by the boy

2. Active: The boy hit the ball

• Passive voice = flabby writing

• Active voice is more direct/action oriented & less

verbose

I loved Fido. (Three words)

Fido was loved by me. (Five words)


Step 12

Tell the stories behind the facts

1. People remember facts better if they’re

contained in a story

• Seeing and feeling trumps thinking

• Wylie – take the ‘numb’ out of numbers

• Make size and scale visual – how small is small?

"A radiologist scrutinizing film for gall stones can't help noticing if an aorta, typically

the diameter of a garden hose, measures as large as a soda can.” Battling the Bulge: Aneurysm Tests Could Save a Lot of Lives, if Performed," The Wall Street Journal, Jan.

13, 2003


Step 13

Use a positive tone

1. Say something IS rather than what it ISN’T

2. Avoid negative words: no, not, can’t, don’t,

never, nothing, none

Which sounds better?• If research funding does not drop, we will not cut

staff. • We will cut staff if, and when, research funding

drops.


Step 14

Be concise

1. Short, simple

2. Use shortest, most familiar words

• Don’t ‘endeavor’ when you can ‘try’

• Don’t ‘finalize’ when you can ‘finish’

• Don’t ‘utilize an instrument for manual excavation’

when you can ‘dig with a shovel’

Gettysburg Address = 275 words (196 of them = one syllable)


Step 15

Edit, edit, edit

1. Don’t use jargon, limit acronyms, read aloud

2. Make every word count - eliminate:

• Adverbs that intensify rather than modify: just,

certainly, entirely, extremely, completely, exactly

• Redundancies: advanced notice, final outcome

• Abstract nouns that hide active verbs: utilization

becomes used, observation becomes observe,

consideration becomes consider


“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately, so they will be guided by its light."

-- Joseph Pulitzer

University of Nebraska Medical CenterUniversity of Nebraska Medical Center


Writing Exercise

Assumptions:

-- Internal newsletter

-- Goal is to get people to attend event; inform them

of partnership with museum

15 steps to more effective writing note: we didn’t put it in all caps!!!! karen burbach and bill...

Documents