Building Rapport

Is it information?

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:56:00 +0000

This is a little lesson in making information accessible, beyond making language plain.

This little video called Information, from MAYnMAYA, makes the point that we need the facts when we need them and in a useful form.

http://vimeo.com/3248432

This handout from an investment company is sent out as an annual reminder of “information” resources.

Mackenzie Investments Investor update - Statement Insert
http://www.mackenziefinancial.com/eprise/main/MF/DocLib/Public/InvestorUpdate.pdf

I believe the recipients of this mailing immediately throw it in the garbage. The available material is overwhelming and descriptions not revealing.

There must be better ways to deliver information. I imagine a list of questions would be more helpful. The answers to the questions could direct a reader to the best document for the information they seek.

Here is a more academic article on the topic. [I liked the charts]

Knowledge Management—Emerging Perspectives
http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm

What is content strategy?

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:57:00 +0000

I am finding myself frustrated with the jargon arising around social media and new technologies. Some of it can be ignored; some must be learned.

Kristina Halvorson defines "content strategy" for us at her blog.

It’s a well-founded plan, fueled by your business objectives and user goals. An achievable plan, created with your current business reality, content assets, and limited resources in mind. A future plan, for what’s going to happen to your content once you send it off into the world. And, most importantly, a profitable plan, where your measures of success ultimately have impact on your organization’s bottom line.

Everybody wants plain language but the banks?

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:27:00 +0000



The Government of Canada's Code of Conduct for Credit and Debit Card Markets has been reviewed by PAC. PAC is a coalition representing 250,000 Canadian merchants, co-chaired by the Retail Council of Canada (RCC) and the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors (CCGD)

 

PAC's review and commentary is based on three key principles, one being:

-  The need to provide clarity - for consumers and merchants

Among other issues, merchants want language that can be understood:

-  Merchants are asking for plain English language contracts, with
       clearly defined terms...

-  Merchants are asking for full disclosure...

-  "Fee changes" must be defined in plain language.

Democracy requires plain language

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:22:00 +0000

At the 2009 Conference of Plain Language Association in Sydney, we learned of an Australian (Victorian Electoral Commission) and a U.S. (http://vote.nist.gov/instructiongap.pdf) project on making voting easier and more accessible.

Today I learned of the European interest in this:
http://www.eupolitix.com/no_cache/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/disengagement-threatens-eu/

“Communicating Europe to citizens is an effort which not only constitutes a responsibility of European institutions and member states, but also constitutes the right of citizens to be informed,” the EU justice chief Antonio Vitorino claimed. “Only informed citizens can fully participate in democracy and are able to exercise their citizenship.”

Irish Europe minister Dick Roche outlined a "basic" five point plan to reinvigorate a jaded EU citizenry.
“The introduction of plain language initiatives/anti-jargon measures; the simplification and improvement of forms; the establishment of a form audit agency; the simplification of legal texts; the development of a [EU]-wide code of administrative practice.”

And I was pleased to learn this month that my provincial government is working on this also.

Cheryl Stephens Interview 2009

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:41:00 +0000

MeMeMeMe

A video interview of me at the Plain Language Association International where I discuss:

1. the democratic right to [understandable] information

2. the history of and behind the Association.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2hEDd_VHk4&feature=player_embedded

NYTimes on narrow-minded judges

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:43:00 +0000

This so important, I can't let you miss it. Scalia implies that people who disagree with him are not only wrong but blindly ignorant.

Could the Supreme Court be undermining its legitimacy through its ignorance of some basic tenets of social psychology? Three law professors — Dan M. Kahan of Yale, David A. Hoffman of Temple and Donald Braman of George Washington — made that case in an article published in January in The Harvard Law Review. They charged the justices with the sin of "cognitive illiberalism."

The article centered on a 2007 case, Scott v. Harris. Victor Harris was rendered quadriplegic after the police rammed his car, ending a nine-mile high-speed chase outside Atlanta. The issue was whether a suit by Harris against the officer who rammed him should be allowed to proceed to a jury trial. Lower courts were inclined to give Harris his day in court, because he had committed no crime except speeding before he fled, and while he topped 85 miles per hour during the chase, he was in theory in control of his car.

The Supreme Court disagreed and defended its position in an unprecedented way: by posting a video of the chase, taken by the police, on its Web site. "No reasonable jury," Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority, could watch the video without agreeing that the chase had to be stopped, even if it meant killing Harris. John Paul Stevens was the lone dissenter. Scalia wrote that Stevens's argument that Harris was not necessarily driving with life-threatening recklessness was so plainly false that anyone with eyes could see so. "We are happy to allow the videotape to speak for itself," Scalia wrote.

Did it? Kahan, Hoffman and Braman showed it to a diverse group of 1,350 Americans. Most of the test subjects saw things as the Supreme Court did: 75 percent concurred that deadly force was justified.

The dissenters, however, were not randomly distributed: they reflected distinct subcategories of Americans, like liberal African-American women from cities in the Northeast.

The law professors argued that the justices in the majority were in the grip of a common psychological fallacy: that other people's perceptions might be shaped by socioeconomic position or political commitment, but they themselves perceived the objective truth.

The authors recommend that, before summarily deciding a case, "a judge engage in a sort of mental double-check." If he or she can picture a discrete group of Americans who would disagree that a decision is self-evident, go with a jury. To imply that minority groups are flatly unreasonable sends a "denigrating and exclusionary message" and will diminish support for the law. by CHRISTOPHER SHEA

Colour Codes - How Colour Affects Your Message

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:49:00 +0000

The best choice for print is black. Black is the most visible on white or pale yellow backgrounds. In strong lighting, white objects or print on black are more visible. In weak light or for quick reading, black on white is best. The next best choice is green on white.

Yellow and white print or designs will seem larger than they are. Red, green and blue affect size perceptions, in that order.

Red and blue are focused at different points in the eye. If you combine red and blue in print or artwork, the reader's eye will work hard to focus and refocus for the different colours.

Some think a green tint or green paper is easy on the eyes but researchers have disproved this. Green actually increases eye fatigue and discomfort. Green type on white paper is good, but not green paper.

White paper is the ideal background for text. Some audiences may feel that black print on white paper is too formal and, in legal documents, foreboding.

If you must use a coloured paper, this is the order of preference:
orange
pale yellowish
green.

But be careful with yellowish greens, mature readers can find them annoying if too bright or fluorescent.

Since legibility of print is directly related to the degree of contrast between the print and the paper, black on white or black on ivory are the best choices. If your audience is intimidated by the content, use other features to make your document reader.

We'd like to mention that the best background for overhead projector slides is pale yellow. The usual, clear vinyl sheets allow too much light and overburden the readers' eyes.

For things like posters and road signs that are large and read quickly, yellow and black are the most visible colours if used together. Next best are green on white, red on white, blue on white and white on blue. Black on white is only the sixth best choice for large items. Bright colours cause trouble when the reader has to concentrate for long. They tire the eye and create a disturbing afterimage.

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:11:00 +0000

I came across this section of Boxes and Arrows blog post

What design researchers can learn from hostage negotiators

By Bryan McClain, Demetrius Madrigal on Learning From Others

with the same name as this blog. Let's see what we can learn from hostage negotiators:

Building Rapport

Rapport is established through trust, open communication and empathy. Negotiators know that rapport is essential in their job. They use rapport to influence the hostage taker and gather information. If you can effectively build rapport with the participant, there is a higher likelihood he or she will trust you and disclose more information.
The following techniques used by hostage negotiators can help you build rapport with research participants:

Go slow – Engage in small talk at first. If you dive right into business, the situation can become uncomfortable.
Communicate openly – While you can’t disclose everything, it’s important to encourage an atmosphere of open communication. Tell the participant that there are certain aspects of the study that you can’t reveal, but he or she shouldn’t feel that you’re hiding something.
Actively listen – When you are listening to a participant’s story, listen for the emotions behind the words. Ask open-ended questions that dig for the source of those emotions.
Discuss personal topics – In a hostage situation, some of the most valuable topics that lead to a peaceful resolution are personal ones. The more a person feels that you accept them, the more comfortable they will feel with you.
Share your experiences – Building rapport is as much about sharing your experiences as it is about listening to the other person’s. Negotiators know that the more you reveal about yourself, the more the participant feels like he or she knows you and therefore trusts you.
Show you care – Hostage negotiators build rapport through empathy. Empathy is extremely important because it shows that you care about the other person and that you have their best interests in mind. As a researcher, you should do this also. If you show that you care, the participant will appreciate it and respond with more openness.

ClearMark Awards Launched in US

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:54:00 +0000

The US Center for Plain Language has released a set of criteria for plain language. To date this represents the most authoritative guideline for producing plain language.

This set of criteria supports the Center's launch of annual awards for documents and websites using plain language. Awards will be given separately for government and the private sector.

Here is your chance to nominate worthy plain language or to bring attention to obscure, murky language. Because there will also be "unclear awards" to the worst examples.

Halloween Weekend Creativity Post

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:27:00 +0000

Masks.

This is one of a set of three masks I prepared to commemorate Galliano Island. This is "Night Sky".

I got stuck because I can't find commercial shadow boxes deep enough to accommodate their depth.

Martin Cutts' presentation to PLAIN2009 Conference

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:53:00 +0000

‘Instructions for consumer products: as easy as 1–2–3?’

presented to
Plain Language Association InterNational conference
Sydney, Australia, October 2009
Martin Cutts, research director, Plain Language Commission, UK
available free from http://www.clearest.co.uk/files/InstructionsForConsumerProducts.pdf

Here is an excerpt:

The Oxford Guide [The Oxford Guide to Plain English (2009) Cutts M, Oxford;] suggests, for example, that companies hire a usability firm to test their instructions with real people.David A McMurrey also gives good advice at http://www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook/instrux.html.
Here are some of the principles in the Oxford Guide:

1 Remember the readers. Usually readers haven’t used the product before; that’s why they’re reading the instructions. Say a little at a time.

2 Favour a basic style of language. This often means using the command form of the verb, the imperative, which helps you state the action early and keep the message simple.

3 Split the information into chunks and use separate headed sections. A common sequence of sections is:
• introductory explanation, overview or summary
• tools or materials needed
• definitions
• warnings
• main text, split into headed sections.

4 Use clear illustrations of adequate size with good labels and captions. Relevant illustrations should be visible while the user is reading the text.

5 Test with typical users.

Free Plain Language Consult, Training, Resources from Webcontent.gov

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:17:00 +0000

This information is from the blog of Leslie O'Flahavan:

Webcontent.gov will celebrate World Usability Day November 12, 2009 with a great offer for web managers and usability analysts:

Build your Plain Language skills and celebrate the sustaining power of Usability + Plain Language on Thursday, November 12, 2009 at this year’s World Usability Day!
Sign up for a FREE “mini-consultation” by phone with a usability or plain language expert to improve your government webpage or document
Register to attend a FREE in-person plain language training on Nov. 12 in Washington, DC near Union Station
Use our Plain Language + Usability Resource Kit to conduct a World Usability Day activity at your agency
Register and find more information at World Usability Day 2009 on Webcontent.gov

Contact Nicole Burton, Usability Specialist at nicole.burton@gsa.gov

A Summary Report on the Florida Plain Language Initiative

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:48:00 +0000

In the latest issue of Plain Language at Work, William DuBay discusses the hard work and resources involved in plain language communication. This is his report:

Planning Plain-Language Projects: Connecting with Resources

ONCE you have been given the go-ahead for a plain-language project, the first thing you should do is evaluate and plan resources. .

Whether the project is large or small, whether it involves a few documents or many, having adquate resources will make the difference between success or failure.

Many executives and public officials somehow think that by merely waving a magic wand, documents that are currently obtuse and unreadable can be changed into crystal-clear language. They assume that plain language is easy and that everyone should know how to do it.

Well, as Cicero told us, while, "at first thought, the plain style looks simple, nothing is more difficult." It takes method, training, and practice. For an organization, it also takes leadership and resources. Not supplying managers with adequate resources guarantees failure.

In January, 2007, Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced his "state's committment to provide open and transparent government by changing the way government interacts with its customers."

One year later, 21,000 employees had received training in plain language. A handbook and Web site were developed. Each of the state's 25 agencies had developed an plan for implementation and appointed a person to coordinate plain-language efforts with the governor's office. Some 12,500 documents were reviewed and evaluated for plain language. All that takes time, money, and effort.

As officials in Florida and elsewhere have found, the style of writing is deeply ingrained in the culture of an organization. It takes thoughful planning, determination, and persistence to change the way people communicate.

Attitude adjustment software for the mind

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:37:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtL8gTEuwvU

Conference presentation

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:20:00 +0000

from the brochure at http://www.insightforums.com/scs09agenda.php#2_breakout_b1
SEC Requirements for Compensation Disclosure Analysis: How Transparency is Good for Corporations and Shareholders

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that public corporations explain to shareholders (and the public) how their executives are compensated: salaries, benefits, stock options, etc.

A section of the company’s proxy statement, the Compensation and Disclosure Analysis, must be written in plain language and include justifications and explanations for corporate compensations. Following the public demand for more oversight and transparency for executive compensation, corporate Compensation and Disclosure Analysis will receive more scrutiny from the SEC as U.S. corporations have become even more concerned about fulfilling the requirements for transparency.

Many of these Compensation and Disclosure Analysis are written by internal communications specialists, attorneys, and accountants. This session focuses on the analysis and redesign of a Compensation and Disclosure Analysis by illustrating the legal requirements for Compensation and Disclosure Analysis showing an example of “before and after,” and discussing the role that plain language and information design played in meeting transparency requirements. The presenter will reference specific projects to illustrate the importance of plain language in shareholder communications. Case examples include the analysis and partial redesign of the 2007 Compensation and Disclosure Analysis from Bank of America and the 2008 Compensation and Disclosure Analysis of a major energy company.

Participants will learn
1) a methodology for analyzing existing
2) a methodology for using plain language in complex financial information.

Speaker: Deborah S. Bosley, Ph.D. Principal, The Plain Language Group

On the evolution of linguistics

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:15:00 +0000

Christine Kenneally's 2007 book The First Word is the subject of a series of columns in Lex Talk! by Norbert Cunningham. These are just highlights.

Meaningful study of language just beginning
September 21, 2009
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/search/article/790935

...Kenneally's book shows modern linguistics is a rapidly burgeoning field going off in several directions at once, and explains the significance of what's being learned or just being probed with no definitive answers yet. There is no shortage of work or questions to investigate, but the science is now, at last, clearly on a better footing. The new linguistics revolution dates only to 1990 and the really phenomenal growth in the field has only been in the last nine years...

Thinking carefully about language reveals insights
September 21st, 2009
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/search/article/798059

...What is language? The increasingly prevailing view is that it is not a 'thing' at all and to think of it that way is misleading. Rather than being a big thing that we have or possess, researchers think of it as a 'thing that we do.' In other words, language is an activity, not a thing...

Things that are essential to having language
September 28th, 2009
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/805780
...Language isn't just words, it represents a whole 'suite' of physical traits and abilities coming together. Language doesn't exist without gestures (some suspect it started with gesture). You also need speech (and hearing) for language to arise. And structure: language puts words together in specific ways (innate things like alarm cries, which most animals have, aren't language). Language includes complex, abstract thought; thoughts within thoughts; thoughts dependent on shared knowledge etc. It also entails creating entirely new thoughts. ...

Executive Summary “Improving Health Begins with Understanding” A CIGNA Foundation Thought Leadership Forum

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:35:00 +0000

In 2007 CIGNA Foundation's Thought Leadership Forum hosted Improving Health Begins with Understanding, which reached these conclusions about literacy and health.

People avoid what they don’t understand. Fear, shame, anxiety and confusion often drive personal health care decisions.
Poor health literacy knows no demographic limits. Age, education, ethnicity, income, and gender are not reliable predictors.
Demography does drive content. Different groups understand information in different ways.
Reading literacy isn’t health literacy. Being able to read a professional journal doesn’t necessarily mean someone can understand the instructions on a prescription drug bottle.
Fluency isn’t communication. Being able to speak a language doesn’t mean someone can understand a doctor’s instructions delivered in that language.
Communication is multi-faceted. Printed material, audio/visual elements, electronic information and face-to-face interaction must all work together.
Success will be slow and incremental. At first, improvements depend on listening, understanding and responding to people’s needs on a case by case basis.
Failure is not an option. Poor health literacy is costing our country in terms of dollars and lost productivity, threatening not just our nation’s health, but our future.

Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate decisions.
– Parker & Ratzan, 2001

http://newsroom.cigna.com/images/56/812520_Health_Literacy_Report.pdf

How do we know what other people are thinking?

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:10:00 +0000

Clear your path

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:55:00 +0000

“Naïve realism is the conviction that one sees the world as it is and that when people don’t see it in a similar way, it is they that do not see the world for what it is.

"Lee Ross characterized naïve realism as “a dangerous but unavoidable conviction about perception and reality”. The danger of naïve realism is that while humans are good in recognizing that other people and their opinions have been shaped and influenced by their life experiences and particular dogmas, we are far less adept at recognizing the influence our own experiences and dogmas have on ourselves and opinions. We fail to recognize the bias in ourselves that we are so good in picking out in others.”

"Lee Ross's Lecture on Barriers to Conflict Resolution" (The Daily Gazette - Swarthmore):

Don't waste your breath

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:40:00 +0000

David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell confirmed:
• Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill.
• Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others.
• Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy

"Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1999, Vol. 77, No. 6. ] 121-1134. Copyright 1999 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

Week-end Creativity Post

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Home Planet

Art using melted crayons and glitter

Good advice on technical terms

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:29:00 +0000

The right advice, from a recent accounting training assignment:

If accounting terms are to be used, you must explain what those terms mean in plain English. Avoid accounting jargon, but use accounting terms correctly where appropriate, so long as it is explained clearly to the reader.

UK plain language movement

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Halifax Council to choose jargon-busting team of 20

03 August 2009
from the Evening Courier

Head of communications at the council Louise Tonkinson said that from October all council publications would have to be reviewed and approved before they were published.

The council was asked last year to join the Campaign for Plain English but that would cost up to £12,000....

The Local Government Association, which is backing the move for plain English in councils across the country, would like to ban the following words and replace them with simpler ones:

Ambassador – leader
Best practice – best way
Citizen empowerment – people power
Community engagement – getting people involved
Customers – people
Facilitate – help
Initiative – idea
Service users – people
Partnerships – working together
Slippage – delay
Stakeholders – other organisations
Strategic/overarching – planned
Sustainable communities – environmentally friendly
Third sector – charities and voluntary organisations
Transparency – clarity
Value added – extra

Weekend Creativity Post

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:28:00 +0000

This is an anonymous woman I saw in the news last week.

I finally have drawn a face that I am willing to show you. I am using techniques I learned from this video series by Sharon Tomlinson: http://allnorahsart.blogspot.com/2009/06/faces-with-crayons.html

Try it; it is addictive.

The Effect of Color on Your Web Site

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:06:00 +0000

This is interesting info about the associations people make with color. Yet the web site itself makes odd choices...

http://www.internet-copywriting-secrets.com/Website-Colors-Boost-Response.html