The Articulate Consultants Overview of Key Messages

“The future of the book is the blurb.” Marshall McLuhan said this in his 1965 book, The Medium Is The Massage. McLuhan foresaw how communications technology would create a global village where succinct, convenient communications would be favoured and bring people together. Now, the right key messages can make those who stand behind them stand out and prosper.

Global village or not, we live in an era when many people encounter much more information communicated to them than people did in any prior era. This is why those who intend to achieve more through their communications must strategically consider what to say, how to say it, who should receive it, and by what media.

A few words matter, particularly in business, where the right few words can differentiate a company from its competitors. Concise, meaningful, authentic key messages are more important now than ever.

what key messages are
Key messages are words that convey the essence of something with a distinct identity and purpose. It could be a company, a team, or other organization; a product line, a project, or discrete bundle of services; or a mission, a philosophy, or set of values. A key message puts a brand into a few well-chosen words.

A key message could be:
• a single-word expression.
• a phrase.
• a single-sentence declaration or exhortation.
• a statement of a few poignant sentences.

Examples:
• name.
• nickname.
• motto.
• slogan.
• mission statement.
• statement of core values.
• vision statement.
• elevator speech.

what key messages do
A key message concisely communicates identity and purpose, ideally in words that the right people accept instantly.

what makes a key message key, or how it is important
Key messages unlock awareness and understanding of identity and purpose, creating clear understanding in a few words. Key messages promote brands to target markets.

what makes a good key message good
In any context, a good key message clearly states the central idea and identifies the benefit it offers. In the context of marketing and managing a brand, a good key message meaningfully identifies the brand and concisely states what it means to the market – ideally positioning it as irreplaceable.

what makes a bad key message bad
A bad key message identifies the brand or central idea in a flatly factual way, lacking a hook. It might state the purpose or intent in a way that lacks any special or unique quality. A bad key message could even repel the people meant to be attracted.

how long key messages last
Just as a slap in the face is always memorable, so a remarkably ill-timed, improper, weak, or otherwise out-of-sync key message leaves a lasting impression – even among those who push it away.

A key message that goes unnoticed because of its irrelevance, blandness, or mediocrity has minimal impact – sometimes despite persistent promotion. When promotion stops, the key message could already be dead.

Just as a sweet melody seems precious to many listeners, so an on-target key message can gain supporters rapidly. A strong enough key message can gain self-appointed promoters who help its spread. (It “goes viral.”) In such cases, a key message can last an era and seem to have a life of its own.

what difference a good key message makes
A good key message has a way of corresponding with the values or mood of the market so that it touches people as intuitively correct and validating or compelling. Whoever stands behind a good key message could be liked by and even find loyalty among those who respond well to it.

For example, consider how “Just do it” helped a sporting-goods company harmonize with its market and increase loyalty and market share. That slogan has had significant equity value to Nike for years.

how to reduce reliance on luck
Sometimes, those who coin a key message that hits the target only succeed after a few lesser successes. Musicians, for example, can perform good music for years before playing a true hit.

Intelligent trial, testing, and monitoring are second-best only to great luck. This is how a company seeking to stand out in its market and succeed can increase its probability of success by working with an expert in marketing who specializes in key messages.

This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca

Nine Reasons to Pay A Pro Editor

Part 1: Five Ways Your Computer Fails You

The five statements that follow point out how spell-check, grammar-check, and style-check tools fail to catch some errors in spelling, grammar, and style. It is possible that the word-processing program you use catches one or more of the errors mentioned here. Even so, the five statements and examples given reveal how software developers cannot replace the expertise of a pro editor. That expertise has been crucial to innumerable writers to ensure that their writing fulfils its potential. Review these and decide whether your writing should proceed toward publication without the input of a professional editor.

1. Spell-check does not recognize the parts of speech.

Practice and advice are nouns. Practise and advise are verbs.
Center can be a noun or a verb. Centre is only a noun.

All four words are correctly spelled and pass through spell-check. Yet, spell-check cannot tell you when a word is the wrong part of speech for a particular sentence.

2. Grammar-check always discourages the passive voice, though it exists for a reason.

Passive: The papers were shipped by courier yesterday at five o’clock.
Active: I shipped the papers by courier yesterday at five o’clock.

The sentence with the passive verb emphasizes the papers being shipped. The sentence with the active verb emphasizes the speaker’s responsibility for the shipping. One could be better than the other for your particular context. By always discouraging the passive option, grammar-check does not support an informed choice.

3. Style-check cannot help you with the logic of your sentences.

Everywhere we looked, there were happy people – even where we couldn’t see them.
This sandwich is big, and Tina is small, so we should leave now.

Style-check passes over some sentences flawed in ways that make readers stumble, including sentences with logical flaws, as in these examples.

4. Grammar-check cannot help you with some examples of subject-verb agreement.

None of those shovels is mine.
Her family has always been supportive.

None is a contraction of not and one. When none is the subject of a sentence or clause, use singular verbs, as with one. Similarly, family, like crowd and other collective nouns, is singular and goes with singular verbs.

5. Spell-check cannot tell you when you use the wrong word.

Lisa drove the car right into the post.
Lisa drove the car right into the past.

If you intend to type post, but enter past, your computer won’t notice the error. Till (turning soil) and til (from until) also slip past spell-check when misused. These are but two examples of many contextually-wrong words that could go before your readers after passing through spell-check, grammar-check and/or style-check tools.

Part 2: Four Ways Friends and Colleagues Can Lead You Astray

The four statements that follow show how editorial review by friends and colleagues generally involves risk to the success of any document. Though a friend, family member, colleague, or other person might provide immensely helpful input toward the success of a document, it also happens that such people become unhelpful meddlers despite the best intentions or qualifications. Even if you consider yourself able to avoid these pitfalls, it is suggested that you never regard the editorial input of a friend or colleague as eliminating the necessity of a professional editor.

6. Many editors edit simply to please themselves.

Friends and colleagues playing the role of editor typically differ from the writer regarding grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, style, or level of detail. This often results in their attempting to correct the document by revising it to their own standards, which might not be correct, consistent, or better than the writer’s standards.

7. Friends and colleagues are often not sure how to improve a document for its intended readers.

The value of an editor comes from improving the reader’s experience of the writer’s work. This requires the editor to know who the target readers are, what they expect, and how to fulfil those expectations. Thus, a book on photography for children, for example, might benefit from a photographer’s input on technical matters only.

8. Subject-matter experts can help you to get facts right but can obstruct your success in other ways.

Colleagues (even subordinates) may bring their own agenda to an editorial review. This can include their meddling in the facts and inserting their own voices as if co-authors. This can lead to the document becoming a distorted patchwork of facts that’s less credible to your readers. Fixing this could take a lot of time and effort, then leave you needing a good editor again.

9. Friends and colleagues often introduce distortions when intending to improve a document.

Regardless of what qualifies a friend or colleague to edit a document, it is common for the editorial role to bring out unhelpful co-authorship. For example, if he or she considers the two topics inseparably linked, the editor might consider it necessary to include discussion of topic Y because the document mentions topic X. Though there could be merit in this, it might take the document beyond the interest or beyond the comprehension of the intended readers. Otherwise, it could make the document too lengthy or out-of-focus.

What you can do.
First, focus on getting the contents of your document as correct and complete as you reasonably can. Then, pay a pro editor for thorough editing. A professional editor can make and suggest revisions more comprehensively, more constructively, and more contextually appropriate than software tools supplemented by a friend or colleague. Once you have integrated the editor’s input, then pay for professional proofing.

This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca

Notes from A Wordsmith’s Desk – Part 2

As a professional wordsmith, I understand English better than many people do. With a BA in Latin, I sometimes know English spelling and usage better than a dictionary. That is because about 75% of English derives from Latin or Greek. My degree studies focused mostly on Latin from first-century-BC Rome. It included studies in Classical Greek also. Hence, my degree work was like studying the DNA of English. This qualifies me to correct or improve word choice in others’ writing.

the practicality of knowing Latin
For example, it gives me authority to advise that circa means around or about. Do not use circa if you know the actual date when, for example, a photo was taken.

questioning dictionaries
I draw upon my knowledge of Latin every day. It qualifies me to comment on English dictionaries that describe rather than prescribe spelling and word use.

the descriptive approach
Nearly all English dictionaries take a descriptive approach to spelling and word use. If you look up a word in one of these, you could find multiple spellings and uses. This can be helpful if you encounter an unaccustomed spelling or use of a word, then look it up and find it associated with a more accustomed spelling or usage.

what’s best
In contrast, prescriptive linguistics provides rules indicating how words should be spelled and used, regardless of what else might work. Hence, while the descriptive approach says, “Anything in this range could work,” the prescriptive approach says, “This is best.”

a lexicographer’s rules
Championed most notably by lexicographer and spelling reformer Noah Webster (1758 – 1843) the descriptive approach can be summed up thus: If a spelling or use of a word appears in a respected publication and is accepted and understood then repeated in other publications with acceptance and understanding over a sufficient time, then it is a legitimate spelling and usage that warrants dictionary listing.

reform for easier English
Webster’s approach to spelling reform focused on the simplification of American English. In this way, he was prescriptive with spelling, though descriptive with usage. His mission was to serve American schoolchildren who would find the path to literacy easier with fewer rules and fewer exceptions.

deviation back to the roots
His advocacy of spelling reform was respectful of the Latin and Greek origins of many English words. For example, the word color is Latin and appears in American English. Colour is British English used in England, Canada, and Australia among other places. Americans use color , labor, humor, and flavor courtesy of Webster and the extensive use of his schoolbooks in the 19th and 20th centuries.

distinctions lost in homogeneity
In Canada, centre refers to a place where people go for a specific purpose. Thus, people go to a gardening centre for gardening supplies. A center is a location equal distance from every edge. A circle has a center. A mall is a shopping centre. Many Canadians forget the distinction in their writing. Because neither spelling is incorrect, they cannot depend on the spell-check feature of a computer program to correct usage. As an editor, I address such matters.

precision lost
Noah Webster found that center could be accepted and understood with both meanings. Hence, dictionaries of American English include center only. Centre is considered a misspelling in the USA. Though Americans gain the advantage of such simplicity, Canadian writers who know the difference can use this knowledge to communicate more precisely in their writing.

make informed choices
Knowing the difference between center and centre is just one example of how making an informed choice about how to spell and use words – which prescriptive grammar books such as Fowler’s Modern English Usage make possible – can help people to communicate more precisely, or with more useful nuances of meaning in their writing.

serve your readers
More useful nuances of meaning might not seem particularly valuable to many – especially people who prefer a simple, pragmatic approach to things. To them, it might not be just cause to spend four years at a university studying Latin and Greek. Still, the very same people do find value when a professional wordsmith makes things easier for them to understand and minimizes the chance for their own ideas to be misunderstood in writing. Accuracy of concept and precision of spelling and usage are indeed valuable.

This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca

Notes from A Wordsmith’s Desk - Part 1

In my work as a professional wordsmith, one of the ways I add value to documents arises through correcting or improving the choice of words to express ideas, sentiments, or facts. This article provides an informative glimpse at the process of making such editorial revisions.

correcting, abbreviating
When editorial revision does not involve correction (e.g. the draft says “adverse” where it ought to say “averse” so I make the change) it often involves replacing a broad expression with briefer, more specific terms. For example, if a draft were to say “He said nice things about the speech she gave,” I might rewrite that as “He praised her speech.”

knowing the differences
Sometimes, when I make such improvements, the improvement is not recognized as such. For example, many people use “in spite of” as if it means the same as “despite” and never consider that the two expressions differ in meaning. This article draws attention to such distinctions so that its readers may better serve their readers with better word choice.

Example A
averse – disinterested, avoidant, turned away

adverse – difficult, harsh, turned against

In context: “Fearing adverse weather, they felt averse to sailing.”

Example B
in spite – in defiance, with hatred or malice, against

despite – notwithstanding, turning a blind eye to, regardless of

In context: “Some adolescents act in spite of their parents, despite their dependence on them.”

Example C
complimentary – flattering, lauding, praising

complementary – going with, on the house, free

In context: “She received complimentary comments on her hair after using the complementary shampoo from the hotel room.”

when differences are not recognized
Example C led to some trouble for me years ago because some people looked up the words in their dictionaries and found that the two were listed as merely different spellings of the same word with an inclusive list of meanings. This raises a problem when dictionaries describe rather than prescribe word use (discussed in my next article).

knowing the roots
Despite dictionaries overlooking it, the distinction between complimentary and complementary has an etymological basis. Complementary comes from the same Latin root as complete and plenty. Complimentary comes from French and exemplifies a Latin-derived word altered in meaning and in spelling as part of another language. English gets both words because of their differences in meaning and spelling. Yet, their treatment as merely different spellings of one word likely comes from the concept of a gratuity – when something is given freely as an expression of thanks. Serve your own readers with knowledge such as this and they might owe you thanks.

This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca

The Whole Picture: “The future of the book is the blurb.”

an inconvenient irony
If Marshall McLuhan’s famous book, The Medium is the Massage, were itself a blurb, then it would be easy to find the page where this famous statement appears: “The future of the book is the blurb.” Having no index, though, the book isn’t convenient enough for me to verify the source. A blurb, of course, does not need an index.

a witty hyperbole
McLuhan’s statement was more hyperbole than prediction. Still, it has lasted so many years because it states the obvious poignantly: As more and more information becomes available, efficient presentation becomes increasingly important. Concision and convenience really matter, but not so much that they should compromise good reading. That’s why the future of the book will always be the blurb.

a simple paradox
Few ideas fit into neat koans. And while efficient writing is not necessarily terse, modern readers tend to dislike wordy writing and extraneous content. Truly effective presentation, therefore, requires knowing the message, the audience, and how to make writing on any topic appeal to a given audience.

words to remember
As McLuhan pointed out in his own way, audience-appropriateness is crucial to the effective presentation of ideas. Often, it requires numbering lists and recasting jargon into plain English. Sometimes, it requires adding a few good pictures. Or an index.

This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca

Do Not Write As You Speak

To write as you speak can be a great way to get your thoughts down. It can also be helpful in overcoming writer’s block. Many people swear by it as the best approach to writing. Their readers are seldom as happy, though. Indeed, writing as you speak can be a communication disaster. This article makes three arguments against writing as you speak and prescribes the qualities to look for in a professional wordsmith.

1. Good writing is economical.
Generally, we use many more words to express ourselves in spoken English than we do in written English. So, if you write as you speak, you probably demand more of your readers’ time and patience than necessary - while taking up more paper or screen space than necessary. Writing as you speak can be uneconomical and tempt your readers to skim.

2. Good writing is crafted for readers.
When we speak, we generally use inflections of voice, body language, and responses to listener feedback to help us communicate effectively. Yet, when you transcribe what you would say to a listener, you preserve the words only. Thus your message suffers information loss.

This information loss can make your writing more difficult for your readers to follow - especially those who do not know you well enough to imagine your characteristic voice inflections and body language as they read. Thus writing as you speak yields incomplete communication that leaves the reader to compensate for missing interpretive support. This can cause misunderstanding.

3. Good writing serves a diverse audience.
Your individuality affects the choices you make as a writer and the needs you have as a reader. This limits effectiveness as a writer in ways that only a self-aware expert wordsmith can reliably relieve.

When we speak, we reflect our individual cognitive (thinking and learning) tendency or style. The four basic cognitive styles are:

• abstract sequential.
• abstract random.
• concrete sequential.
• concrete random.

Thus, when you write as you speak, you have only a 25% chance of communicating effectively in sync with any given reader’s cognitive tendency or style. Writing as you speak would not serve best the majority of readers who do not share your cognitive tendency or style.

Not only does every person tend to one of these four basic cognitive styles but each of us also has other tendencies for processing information. For example, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test indicates 16 different personality types.
The field of Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) identifies and ranks four ways in which we process information:

• visual.
• kinesthetic.
• auditory.
• audio-digital.

NLP testing can reveal any writer's ranking of the four information processing styles, Myers-Briggs testing can identify any writer as having one of 16 personality types, and we all tend to prefer one of the four cognitive styles above. These are but three ways to identify how we choose to present information to others and how we prefer information presented to us. In short, every writer brings individual biases to his or her own writing.

Except for people who have the self-awareness that such testing provides and who pay attention to how their individuality affects their writing, these biases remain invisible to the writer. Because of these biases, the effectiveness of anybody's writing is limited - more or less limited with each reader according to how much or how little the reader shares the biases of the writer.

summary: A good writer accommodates the situation.
When you write to somebody who knows you well or who happens to be similar to you in how you process information, then writing as you speak could succeed like nothing else. However, when you need to communicate important information effectively, the odds are against you when you write as you speak.

A professional wordsmith who is not only self-aware but also knows how to write to accommodate diversity can avert the problems caused by individual bias and serve any audience. That writer ought to write economically with the awareness that words are the only means to communicate information in writing.

tip: Get a wordsmith who approaches writing as a skilled craft.
Don’t write as you speak or waste your precious time trying to write like a professional wordsmith. When you really need your audience to understand, have a professional wordsmith - an Articulate wordsmith - craft your message for you in sync with service to your whole audience.

This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca

Words Matter

Despite the high volume of e-mail and text messages circulating constantly, there is often no substitute for talking with people. Indeed, in many organizations, big decisions are made only after in-person conversations. Many career people take this seriously. Herein lies an opening for misjudgement - particularly for those mindful of the 7% rule.

present with sincere gusto
It is not uncommon to find a white-collar worker who believes that tone of voice and body language are underrated in effective speaking. Some polish their hand gestures and rehearse specific tones of voice because they believe that substance without style is weak. It's not just content, they say, but delivery. Seeking an edge, some even have the famous 7% rule memorized.

The 7% rule states:
• 55% of meaning comes from presentation.
• 38% of meaning comes from tone of voice.
• 7% of meaning comes from the words themselves.

Though practising this has brought confidence and success to some, there remain many people who pay more than 7% attention to the words others speak. Neither is a fringe group. However, only the latter has the backing of scientific research.

still misunderstood
In 1967, Dr. Albert Mehrabian and his UCLA colleagues concluded studies in communication that yielded an astonishing result: The words you use in speaking to others do not matter nearly as much as the tone of your voice or your body language. As the press picked up the story, the idea was extended: written words also take a back seat to presentation and tone.

good for shock value
According to Mehrabian and his team, the original studies were never well understood. They have always asserted that words matter very much. Perhaps they didn’t use the right presentation and tone, or perhaps the media were hunting for shock value.

single-word expressions only
The Mehrabian studies attempted to reveal the relative impact of facial expressions and tone on the understanding of spoken words. Subjects listened to recordings of a female voice saying single words (such as “maybe” and “honey”) in differing tones. They were also shown photos of female faces with differing facial expressions. The subjects were then asked to guess the emotions portrayed in each, and to link the recordings with the faces.

presentation and tone as guides
The results of the studies appeared in full in Mehrabian’s books, Silent Messages (Wadsworth, 1971) and Nonverbal Communications (Aldine Atherton, 1972). In both books, he clearly states that for inconsistent messages or incongruent communications, body language and tone are probably more reliable indicators of meaning than the words themselves.

There we have it. Presentation and tone are more reliable than words alone for interpretive guidance with single-word expressions. These are not general circumstances.

earn 93% on your first Chinese test
In a 1994 issue of Anchor Point, Dr. C.E. Johnson writes, “If these percentages were really valid, it would mean that learning foreign languages could be greatly abbreviated. After all, if the words only account for 7% of the meaning, we should all be able to go to any country in the world and simply by listening to tone and carefully observing body language, be able to accurately interpret 93% of their communications!”

tone mightier than a sword?
In a 1997 issue of The Toastmaster, J.E. Pearson asks, “Imagine if Nathan Hale had said, ‘Okay; I’m willing to die for my country,’ instead of ‘I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.’ Imagine Franklin Roosevelt saying, 'Don’t be afraid,’ instead of, ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’"

Yes; tone of voice and body language matter very much - especially with single-word expressions. When speaking within a common language and culture, do not be fooled by the myth of the 7% rule. Words matter - probably much more than 7%.

This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca