Trees, maps, and theorems Effective communication for rational minds Jean-luc Doumont Principia Structuring thoughtsAbout this book af NQUEST OF SOLID warrrEN SUPPORT for the participants |} of my training sessions, I searched bares, bookstores, Sand mail-order catalogs, but to no avail: I did not find a reference that quite matched the approach had developed, Encouraged by the feedback on my lectures and publications, I thus set to create my own book on effective communication, for my usual audiences of engineers, scientists, and managers, “The outcome of this endeavoris the book you are now reading, This hook is about first principles. It is about strategy and, especially, about structure, To borrow Hemingway's words, it is about architecture, not interior decoration. It is about constructing communication deliberately and methodically. 1s about reaching a given in virtually any professional situation—and in any language. yurpose with a given audience, This book is For professionals who want to master the basics, that is, to understand them clearly and apply them carefully when communicating on the job. It 1s for those who believe ‘that effective communication skills are an invaluable, lifelong, personal asset and who want to keep strengthening this asset, As such, it benefits students, too, notably graduate students, ‘This book, however, is no self-study course—no book can be. ‘Sharpening one’s skills requires practice on one's own material Moreover, itrequires feedback, for practice without feedback is of little use, Global feedback may come out of the situation, (Did Eget my message across?) A careful analysis, in contrast, requires an instructor or mentor ~a human being, not abook, ‘This book has been described both asa minimalist user guide, with its concise instructions, carefully selected applications, and answers to frequently asked questions, and, interestingly, asa children's book, with its precise yet straightforward tone, its exposition of one copie per double page (most of the time), ‘and its lustrations, These two descriptions are fine with me.‘on what do you base your recommendations? “The guidelines in this book re based mostly ‘on common sense and experience. They have teen putto the test, not onlin my own prec, put also by thousands of engineers, scientists. managers, and other professionals worldwide ano took part in some of my traning essi00S T hope the guidelines can be as useful t0 you as they apparently aze to these professtomals Moceover, ny approach is no doubt influence by my education as an engineer and scientist, andin ways difficult to trace orto ctuantify— ball {have read or heard on communication. ‘bo you rely on empirical research at all? Welt conducted research in any seholasiy fel istiocmally hough provoking acthe very east to research findings should not be disregarded ‘il empieical research about coramunication suffers from very many confounding factors and is ths hard to generalize toward practice, In my experience far {on many people apply ‘poor understood research outcomes lindy. ometuies fo the extent of generating myths would cater that they thought for themselves, Why such a focus on counterexamples? semarkbly there is nothing quite remarkable aout instances of effective communication thoy draw one'sattentionto theidess expressed, ‘otto themselves, so they are hard to earn from by imitation without the contrasting viewpoint provided by a counterexample, Also, learning topinpoint shortcomings in one's own practice ie a necessary step toward improving on them. How to use this book “This book was designed to propase a logis! How forthe discussion while enabling selective ceading pr individual pats, chapters, or sections, Feel fret, therefore, read the complete discussion linearly for to jap ahead to the themes of smerest £9 YOU. Topics are discussed in one double page each ne {erin a shall integer nye of them), to factitate their direct access oF outoF-sequence processing “the pages 400, are formatted for selective reading “The right page Is reserved forthe main discussion, vith Mlusirations, fmited examples, or comments placed ett ofthe text, In celation tothis discussion, fhe left page answers feequently asked questions collected atthe occasion of lectures and workshops Sevan a gray background, i the emiting S86, Teists typical shortcomings, offers practical avice ‘on specific subtopics, or broadens the discussion. Common shortcomings. practical advice, ete Frequently asked ‘questions tiystrations ac ain discussion | pt——-reste ‘Tals book is organized in five parts: first, fundamentals, ther ‘written documents, oral presentations, and graphical displays, ‘and finally application to five more specific types of document. Tends with notes and references, as well as an index of topics. Part one, Fundamentals, introduces the ideas that underpin the four subsequent parts. Probably the most arduous part of the book as it lacks the examples that appear further on, it can be skimmed or perhaps Skipped at first by the reader eager to start work on documents, presentations, or displays. Sul, tanswers many a why about further recommendations ‘and, by offering a minimal set of universal principles, equips readers for most challenges of professional communication. Part two, Effective written documents, offers a methodotogy Inve steps to proceed from scratch to a complete document, namely planning, designing, drafting, formatting, and revising ‘the document ta be created. It detalls each of these five steps. Part three, Effective oral presentations, proposes a similar yet distinet approach in five steps: planning the presentation, designing it, creating the slides, delivering the presentation, and answering questions. Though meant to stand on ts own, it does not repeat uselessly what has already been discussed in detail about written docaments, in particular planning, Part four, Eifective graphical displays, first classifies pictures ‘asa way to help readers choose the right representation, then discusses how to plan, design, and construct optimal graphs, and finally how to drafta caption that gets the message across. Part five, Applications illustrates how the general guidelines inthe previous parts apply to five common types of documents, Specifically, it examines sets of instructions, electronic mail, Web sites, meeting reports, and scientific posters, each time particularizing earlier recommendations or adding new ones.My thanks to... Genevieve Casterman for her unfailing loving support and her shrewd business advice ‘Annick Vandercammen, for her ceview ofthe manuscript and her sharp eye for consistency Philippe Vandenbroeck vith whom Fzefined my thoughts about “choosing the ryt graph? David Lougee fora first chance to help others sharpen thelr presentation skills. and many more people who have attended my Teevures ‘or workshops, have putmy i025 and recommendations tothe tt, have given me valuable insights, and have made my job rewardingContents Fundamentals ‘The name of he game 2 ‘The three laws of communication 5 A thousand words, a thousand pictures 13, ‘Chains and magical numbers 17 Trees, maps, and theorems 23 Effective written documents Planning the document 33 Designing the document 43, Drafting the document 58 Formatting the document 72 Revising the document 77 Effective oral presentations Planning the presentation 87 Designing the presentation 89 Creating the slides 97 Delivering the presentation 105 Answering questions 317 Effective graphical displays Understanding pltures 123 Planning the graph 331 Designing the graph 133, Constructing the graph Las Drafting the caption 149 Applications Effective instructions 153 Effective clectronic mall 157 fective Web sites 161, Effective meeting reports 165 ifective scientifc posters 169There is nothing so practical asa good theory. = Kurt Lewin Ajoutez quelquefois | et souvent effacez ~ Nicolas Boileauid Fundamentals UL FORMS OF EFFECTIVE CONMUNICATION-written, ‘oral, or graphical—build on the same principles, addressing fundamental concerns of purpose, content, and form, Whatare we trying to achieve by engaging tn communication? What must we then write, say, or drave, and how must we write, say, or draw it to reach our purpose? ‘These are the key questions to analyze existing documents, presentations, or displays, andl to create effective new ones. “This first parcdiscusses the fundamentals of communication, After establishing what effective communication designates, A proposes a set of three laws that forms the very Foundation of the further guidelines. As a more substantial dichotomy than the usual opposition between oral and written channels, itdiscusses the specificities of verbal and nonverbal codings. Finally, it examines the effectiveness of essential structures {n terms of the number, hierarchy, and sequence of elements.Fundamentals ‘The name of the game ‘The thee laws of communication [A thousand words, a thousand pictures (Chains and magical numbers “Trees, maps, and theorems Effective written documents Planning the document Designing the document rafting the document Formatting the decument Revising the document Effective oral presentations Panning the presentation Designing the presentation Creating the sides Delivering the presentation Answering questions Effective graphical displays Applications Understanding pictures Panning the graph Designing the graph Constructing the graate Drafting the caption fective Instructions Effective electronic mall Eifective Web sites Efetive meeting repor's ective scientific postersThe name of the game GF? FECTIVE COMMUNTEATION i geting message across. H ‘Thus implies someone else: is about an auctence, tL and iesuggests that we get this audience ro understand something, To ensure that they understand I, we must fst ether to pay attention. in tur, getting them to understand fsusually nothingbut means to amend: we may want them to remember the material communicated, be convinced off, of ltimately, act or atleast beable to atom the basis of lafermation ‘A message differs from raw information In that it presents A concentration of 175 ug per mt “intelligent added value that is, something to understand ‘as boen observed inurtan areas ‘about the information. A message interprets the information, fora specific audience and for a specific purpose. It conveys, the $0 what, whereas information merely conveys the what. ‘A message is to information what conclustons are to findings. Because it makes a statement, It requires a complete sentence, Amessage The concentration in urban areae (175 g/m is unaceepably high To communicate effectively, we must thus identify messages. Conveying information only is usually not enough, as it leaves the audience with the question, so what? We must moreover, 1A s0 what caption (a statement) recognize and seize opportunities to get the messages across, Sales dropped by 40% last year for example in the captions of figures or in the tiles of slides, ‘[Link] caption (2 noun phrase) Evolution of sales over the years Often, the messages to be conveyed are numerous or complex, and the situation carsies constraints. Among these are space (such as a four-page limit ona paper, time (a ts-mninute limit ona presentation), and audience (background, language, ete) Not every hindrance isa true constraint, though: for example, a suboptimal room can oftenbe rearranged, at least toa point. Get your audience to Effective communication is optimization under constraints: = payattention Wwe must maximize, not what we write, say, ar drav, but how = understand, much our audience gets out of our documents, presentations, 1 the able to) act upon and displays, in quantity or in quality—with a purpose in mind fra ok meesan and under certain constraints. Because of these constraints, ‘aiven constraints we cannot hope to be perfect. We can, however, be optimalFundamentals “The name ofthe game “The thre laws of communication Adapting tothe audience A thousand words, thousand pictures Maximizing the signal-to-noise rata CChains and magies! numbers Using effecive redundancy “Trees, maps, and theorers Effective written documents Plancing the document ‘Designing the document Drafting the document Formatting the document Revising the document Effective orat presentations Panning the presentation Designing the presentation Creating the sides Deering the presentation Answering questions Effective graphical displays Applications Understanding pictures Planning the graph Designing the graph Constructing the oraph Drafting the caption Effective instructons effecve electronic mail Etfecive Web sites Effective meating reports Effective scientific postersThe three laws of communication mest feedom mast consteaits Me ———+ Audience Noise = Me ———» Audience verbal ‘Audience ssenverbal Pine son er coun cts eat ened to opinize virtual any instance of communication. AL ese ene “is of communication” ean be derived ‘with aspte model ofone way communication, embodying theidenof getting messages dros optimal to our audience Firstlaw Adapt to your audience ‘To optimize under constraints, we must first identify what is and what is not under our control, and concentrate on what is. Toa point, we cannot select our audience: we must take them as they come, Still, we can decide what to tell them and how, To optimize our communication, we must thus adapt to them, Second law — Max Ze the signal-to-noise ratio The simple model above is ideal: it suggests that information or messages sent from one s Im practice, information may suffer losses, because of noise. To prevent losses, we must filter out the noise; alternatively, ‘we can enhance the signal soit can withstand the noise better. ide reach the other side intact. Thitd law Use effective redundancy ‘The second law is limited to prevention. When noise cannot be anticipated, it cannot be filtered out, so it results in losses. ‘To compensate for the lasses, we can tell things several times, bby repeating the message or by replicating it across channels, preferably indifferent ways, such as verbally and nonverbelly.Can f not select ny audience at all? arly on the audlence is not necessarily given, indeed: a scentist deciding to which journal to send a papers selecting his or her audlence. Sal, the range of options is often limited and, ‘once a journal has been chosen, the audience becomes. a given: the scientist can hardly select, within this audience, who may read the paper. Can Enot change oF influence my audlence? ‘You can most certainly influence your audience, such as increase thelr motivation or provide ‘any prerequisite knowledge they might need In doing so, you are already communicating ‘with them and, essentially, adapting to them. Im other words, the audience can be regarded fas given in that they cannot be changed prior Influencing them requties adapting to therm Why should always be the one adapting? ‘You should be the one adapting to the extent that you are the one with a purpose—that is, that you want something from your audience. Much like being customer-minded in business orbeing userfriendlyin software development, adapting to one's audience is really @ question of effectiveness more than one of selflessness. 1s the andonce never tobe blamed, then? blaming the audience may help us feel better Dut seldom gets us anywhere, unless perhaps blames can influence the audience positively ‘Armore purpose-orented approaciis toregard their shortcomings a6 constraints—and adapt. Real-world audiences know less Adapting to the audience in professional context ia all the move difficult because practice in schoo} usually develops the wrong communication reflexes. Real-world audiences and purposes difer markedly {rom those that students were long confronted with. Students formally write and speak to demonstrate their mastery of & well-efined body af knowledge and, ultimately 9 be grade. For such 2 purpose, ther only relevane auciance is the course insteuctor: 4 single, clearly identified person, who is normally ‘more knowledgeable than they are about the topic and morally obliged to read ther entire document ‘or attend their entire presentation, however boring. Accordingly, successful strategies to good grades may invlveinciuding as euch material as possible (esnecally when in doubt as to wit the instructor wil ive extra credit fo) or showing off with jargon. rofessionals, ia contrast, formally write and speak toget their audiences 0 pay attention, understand, anc (be able to) act. Such real world audiences are unpredictably muitiole (especially for documents) almost always less knowledgeable about the topic, and highly selective about what they ead or attend They have tle patience with writers and, especially, speakers attempting to demonstrate the breadth Dr depth oftheir knowledge, often at the expense ofthe clarity ofthe conciseness oftheir discourse. Unsurprisingly, the most common failure to adapt to one's audience, then, isto present information that Is to0 techaical or too litle relevant to them. According toa common myth in academic research, presentation should have one third that everyone inthe audience understands, one third that some understand, and one thir that ae one urderstancs. What can ene gain with such an approach, though? ‘adiences have infinitely mare respect for speakers who can explain complex matters in simple ways and thus ge new insights. Stl, ane myth encresi | : / i | i i | | | Teachers who stick to wnat they had planned to do regardless of whether the students pay atention, Understand, or develop che requiced competencies are not adapting to their audience. Unsurprisingly, such teachers often blame iallon the students, to. Imagine that a foreigner asks you for directions ang thatthe only language you have in common with him is English, of which he has litle command Suppose chat he did not get your rst explanation. Adapting to him (assuming that you are motivated) might involve making gestures, sketching a map, speaking more slowly, pronouncing more clearly, Using a simpler vocabulary and a simpler syntax lor perhaps accompanying him co where he must go. Adapting to the audience FRECTIVE COMMUNICATION always requires motivation. we want our audience to pay attention to, understand, and act upon our messages, we are the ones wino should make the effort. That is, we must adapt to them, not expect them. to adapt to us. Should they be willing and able to adapt, to9, 50 much the better, but we have no cause 10 assume they will. ‘The first aw, adapt to your audience, is one of empowerment: itimplies that we are responsible for the success of our acts of communication. If our audiences fail to get the messages, itis our problem, not theirs, as we have not reached our goal. Blaming them makes tle sense: it hardly helps us optimize. From our perspective, the degrees of freedom are on our side. Adapting to our audience is normally a spontaneous attitude in our private life, For example, we do not address children the way we address adults: we recognize the need to adapt. Itis farless spontaneous an attitude in our professional life, in which we tend to regard the others as similar to ourselves, Adapting means putting ourselvesin the shoes ofthe audience, anticipating their situation, their needs, their expectations, et. It implies structuring the story along their line of reasoning, not ours, and recognizing the constraints they might bring: ‘their familiarity with the topic, their mastery of the language, ‘the time they can free for us, etc. Whenever we are not taking a certain constraint into account somehow, we fail to adapt. Finally, adapting to the audience suggests that, fone strategy does not work, we try a different one. If the audience failed to get the message, merely repeating it ts unlikely to help: ‘we must change the code or the channel As the saying goes, if we do what we already did, we will get what we already got. Still, adapting to our audience does not mean losing track ‘of our purpose. On the contrary, it means doing what it takes, toget the audience 10 (be able to) io what we want them to do.{s notse always bad? Can it nat be sed te regain the attention ofthe audience? Noise s undesirable by [Link], helps you reach the purpose you have in mind, such asby getting the attention ofthe audience, vou can best regard It as signal, not as noise. Sill, before introducing or tolerating anything ‘hat might atract attention, consider whether the device does not disteaet more thanit helps, suchas by stealing the attention away from you ‘or reflecting badly on your professional image. When they are handled with a touch of humor, sno mushaps in an orl presentation can help the speaker build rapport with the audience, vyetthe presentation would be more impressive ‘without them, sinularly, conspicuous clothes ‘or jewelry can easily overshadow the message ‘Artenuees later referring to oneof the speakers 85 you know, the one with the dark red Jacket remember the clothet more than the person. How can Increase the signal” Deyond merely speaking louder? Increasing the volume in an oral presentation or perhaps the font size na writen document seem obvious applications of the second law, a's making the datalines thicker than theaxes, tick marks, or grid lines ina graphical display ‘More broadly increasing te signal may mean conveying stronger messages. When we donot master the language, when the transmission is ‘msually poor, or when the audience is tired ‘or othernise less attentive, we may well have to be blunt and not atempt to be too subtle, as subtleties will probably not survive the nose \Whilenot idea}, it would be optimal in thiscase Identifying sources of noise Nose comes in many forts and from many sources. Inthe case af a formal presentation, for example, the naise sources that most people realy think of are the audience and the envicanment: attendees chatting among themselves er coming in and out, mobile phones going off, noisy air conditioning, Lunrelable equipment (microphone, rbjector, et, building works in progress outside the room, etc “The nolse saurce that these peaple forget at frst, 1s the speaker himself or herself, Noise procuced bya speaker is typically more distracting than that coming from other sources, because it is part of war the audience is supposed to pay atention to. Just because it comes from the speaker, however, it can more easily be controlled than ather sources, Noise araduced by speakers in oral presentations shows mere particularly in two components: slides and delivery. Busy sides compete withthe speaker for the attention ofthe audience, ad flashy sides draw attention o themselves, not to their content Delivery noise includes imperfect pronunciation, filer words, unnecessary gestures ar mannerisms, and son all the way to nappropsate cress code. Noise in documents is whatever prompts readers to stop thinking about content and stact thinking about form (or perhaps about irelevant contend Examples are an unclear structure ofthe document, Invrcate sentences, unusual or supertuous words, spelling mistakes, ard eistracting visual elements In the Aigures, the typography, or the page layout. Noise in graphical displays includes the many Forms ‘of data cstortion, as with inapprooniate araph types, and all “unnecessary ink thats, visual elements thar can be erased vathout loss of larity or accuracy decorative tird dimensions or gradionts of color ahd overabundant tick marks or grid lines in graphs, Irrelevant backgrounds or objects in photographs (to be removed ahead of time or crapped out), tci i | | i | i | Boring A frequent yet hopeless attempt salvaging uninteresting content with an “interesting” page avout il the document thus produced ‘9c the attetion ofthe audience? Yes, it will-on the page layout, wth fel transfer tothe content, any. The flashy layout is noise Audience Maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio ‘OTHING 1S NEUTRAL in communication. The audience Indeed sees and hears everything, so everyt ‘What does not help get the message across detracts from it by needlessly mobilizing the audience's tntellectual resources, evenif for ashort time. By definition, it isnoise. Noise is thus ‘more than unwanted sound: itis anything that can distract from the message (the signal) by drawing attention onto itself. Noise canibe a major impediment to effective communication. At best, it just stretches the attention span of the audience. At worst ittakes their attention entirely away from the content. ‘As an example, typographical errors in a written document or iler words in an oral presentation can be most distracting: audience members may well find themselves on the lookout for the next typo or next wm rather than for the next message In graphical communication, noise easily shifts the attention from content to technology: when readers start wondering \what software produced a graph instead of what experiment produced the data, they are most probably missing the point, ‘The second lavi, maximize the signatto-nolse ratio (or ratios), is all about contrast between what helps and what hinders anact of communication, The ratio between signal and noise ‘matters more than signal or noise alone, To a point, we can thus tolerate continuous background noise, which we notice only when it varies suddenly, for example when it goes away. (Clearly, the most satisfying approach to contrast is reducing or eliminating noise: breaking the silence in a whisper is far more effective than covering the noise ina shout. Recognizing that nothing is neutral, we should thus question the relevance of anything we plan to include: words in a written document, gestures in an oral presentation, lines in a graphical display. ‘Tooptimizea text or an image, we may do better to suppress, notadd. By removing every unneeded drop of ink, we ensure ‘that the audience pays attention to nothing but the message{Is redundancy the same as repetition? Repetition suggests a signal a different times fon ane channel, as when a speaker previews his or her main points before developing dem. Redundancy an be just that, batt can algo be 8 signal across different channels atone time, as when a speaker illustrates the presentation with a slide show. Either way can be effective ‘Why insist on calling i “ofectve™rodundoncy? Not all redundancy is effective. For example, superfluous words asin added bonus or oval Inshapeadd nothing. What is rach worse stil. ‘multiple channels competing with one another, such as text heavy slides accompanying a talk, are more harmful than helpful each channel Is Indeed a source of noise for the other one). Isa channel the same as.a coding? ‘The term channel (or, equivalently, medlurn) refers to perception by the senses; in contrast, coding vefers more to processing by the mind, (At times, the boundary is somewhat blurred) For example, paper conveying waitten words (oF alr conveying oral words (as sound waves) are channels, and text oF pltures are cadings. What matters most for effective redundancy Js codings. In frst approximation, text is text, ‘wheter IIs seen through the eyes or heard through the ears. A different coding, such a5 «a pieture, would be a more useful redundancy than a similar coding in a different channel, such asa second stream of text. Stil channels have their importance, in particular in terms of the nature ofthe noise they are subject to Identifying possible codings ‘The three laws are in order of decreasicg prloiy To prevent iosses the fst measure is to filter out the noise ang, if deemed usetul, increase the signal (adapting its maximum intensity to ehe audience). If we could ter out al noise, we would net need redundancy, least not to compensate For losses, because there would noche ary. Alas, some noise is beyond our control attendees a a presentation ‘may be preoccupied with something else readers ‘ofa document may be ltexrupted bya phone call, etc. Using several cosingsisshus usualy desirable {Because nothing is neural, most everyting can be regarded 25 a coding, that ic, 36a potential source of noise if lee uncontroted and a potenval signal \Wased wel Whether oF not we lee it, the elethes we wear always say something about wha we are, for example. while we may decide not o worry unduly about the possible statement we thus make because it has far less impact than other codings, se may want ta scrutinize our dress cade for noise Devices we can usefully regard as distinet codings In westten documents include the text itself, the set ‘of headings in the text and in te table of cootents, the page layout (revealing the structure visually), nd ables or figures, al of which ean be optimized. In oral presentations, codings include most of ai ‘the verbal, vocal, ang visual livery all three being powerful devices toward convincing an audience), possibly supported by sides or prited handouts Just because the nonverbal anes (voeal and visual areinguiowe does not mean they cannot be manages! ‘we can thus learn to amplify our intonation, qulet body noice, or make eye contact with the audience. Graphical displays, too, can be seen 2 including -ore than one coding. They might convey meaning ‘heough relative lengths, positions along 8 scale, shapes, colors, explanatory labels, captions, etePeso Tae stop sign conveys meaning through shape, color, and label itis the only octagonal sign, one Cf only ew0 signs co be solid rea (the others the weang-vay sig, and the only one labeled ‘STOP igh a white line across the ane as yet another way te mean stop. Using effective redundancy 77 ELLUNG THINGS ONCE is often not enough: redundancy 4L helps restore messages damaged by noise. It should not, however, introduce noise itself, that, distract the audience, such as when concurrent channels compete with one another. Effective redundancy, therefore, gets a given message across ‘several times, but coded in complementary, compatible ways. fective redundancy works in two ways: one is compensation, the other, collaboration. First, each coding gives the audience a chance to understand the message. Motorists, for example, can identify a stop sign in three ways: color, label, and shape. If they cannot distinguish the color, they can read the label “stop! If this label is hidden by mud or snow (or if they see the sign from the back), they can still recognize it by shape, By giving several chances, effective redundancy helps address Inhomogeneous audiences. Second, all codings work together in synergy: here, color, label, and shape, when all identified, ‘complement one another for a faster recognition of the sign. What makes a different coding is partly a view of the mind. ‘Though they are both verbal codings on the same medium, the text and the headings within a document can be regarded as distinct codings, used for distinct purposes. When looking for a specific part of the document, we are thus likely to flip through the pages and look at the headings but not atthe text Conversely, when we have decided to read the full document linearly, we typically read the text but skip all the headings. Although redundancy is a choice, the multiplicity of codings may not be: some codings are unavoidable. When speaking Jn public, for example, we communicate through what we say (ghe verbal component), how we say it (the vocal component), ‘and everything that we let the audience see about ourselves {the visual component), Any component escaping our control ‘can carry noise or, what is worse, convey messages that work, ‘against our intent, resulting in so-called cognitive dissonance,Fundamentals The name ofthe game ‘The thre laws of communication [thousand words, a thousand pietures Chains and magical numbers ‘Treas, maps, and theorems Effective written documents Planning the document Designing the document Drafting te document Fomsstting the document Revising the document Effective oral presentations Planning the presentation Designing the presentation (Ceeatng the slides Delivering the presentation Answering questions Effective graphical displays Applications Understanding pitares Planning the graph Designing the graph ‘Constructing the graph Drafting the caption Lrfectve instructions fective electronic mail tfecrve Wed sites Effective meeting reports Effective scientific postersA thousand words, a thousand pictures Verbal restlike Rational abstract, learned Sequential slow, exclusive Although the fet sale tells us (rationally that tbe difference berween 1999 and 2000 is 1.5% the visual code prevails we keep rom the graph strong, lasting feting hat the value for 2000 was ice that for 1999) Nonverbat Intuitive Global ast, nonexclusive {A PICTURE Is WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, or so they say. LX Inreality, however, nota pictures are created equal, 3X. and the power of visual com misunderstood, not to say misused. Pictures are no panacea; inicationis toooften ‘some words convey concepts better than a thousand pictures. Intellectual processes, complex and still poorly understood, can pragmatically be modeled as either verbal or nonverbal. Verbal processes are rational, able to manipulate intangible, abstract concepts whose symbollc meaning must be learned, Nonverbal processes are intuitive almost unconscious, tuned for concrete items with nonsymbolic, quas! innate meaning. Verbal code, such asa piece of text, is sequential; as a result, it is processed relatively slowly. In contrast, nonverbal code, such as a photograph, is global and processed in an instant. Verbal and nonverbal processes are about codes, not channels: as an example, text is verbal code, whether itis heard or read. ‘Verbal and nonverbal processes are independentof each other so they can take place concurrently: for example, an audience can watch a static picture while listening to an explanation, Concurrent verbal processes, however, are mutually exclusive: or example, an audience cannot both read text on the screen and listen to spoken text, unless perhaps if tis the sane text. Nonverbal codings, being intuitive, usualy have more impact than verbal ones. To some extent, they are also more credible: ‘we beliove tone of voice and body language more than words, Dissonance between verbal and nonverbal codings can be put {0 good use in irony and in humor, when we let our audience know nonverbally that we do not mean what we say verbally, but is otherwise dangerous. Thus a pictorial representation, of what not to do is misleading, even when itis accompanied bya text explanation, unless the not is expressed visually, t00, Likewise, graphs can be intentionally or accidentally deceptive, ‘and no amount of text can fully correct the visual deception,Why are nonverbal cadings more credible? Body language is typically more spontaneous then words are: nonverbal codings are harder to contral, hence less Mkely to be manipulated (the body never les, according tothe proverb). [As audience members, we might reason this ‘and decide to believe the body. More probably, however, we do not reason about the confit: wwe absorb nonverbal codings unconsciously, ‘without the analytical ltr we apply to words. 1m other words, we believe nonverbal codings because we have no process to disbelieve them, ‘We instantly sense thatthe words are uacrue. Can I never include ext on presentation slides? If your oral presentation must discus a text, {or example a novel or an article from a treaty, ‘you might be justified in including some of st ‘on your slides: this text is your very material ‘and ne longer a mere suppor for it you do, luni he text excerpts co those strictly needed to make your points. When showing the slide, read the text excerpt ou loud for the audience, sa they can read it together with you, then have ‘eis mental text processor available to handle ‘what you have to tell them abour the excerpt Text, here, implies sequential processing, a in a sequence of words whose order is dictated, bby syntax, or perhaps a sequence of sentences. ‘Words that do not forma text and can thus be read in any order, as the labels on a diagram, are less ofan Issue on slides, since they do not ‘confit as much with coneurrent spoken text Conversely, animated visual representations, while not textual, are processed sequentially: st may be hard to watch an animated diagram. and follow spoken dscourse at the same time, Removing visual noise Pictures are powerlul and wat is powerful s risky Ina verbal coding, and possible connotations aside, the convertional meanig is all that real the word apple means “epple™ In contrast, in a visual coding, evecything matters: he minutiae of the shape, the shades of coor, etc W such details hela get a relevant message across, they are welcome indeed; otherwise, they ace noise. Pictures, in other worl, cary a higher potential For ncise thas text. 1% usually easier to choose the right worl than te cone up wath the rah picture when etal are velevan or otherwise undesirable, as is usually the casein technieal communication photographs can best be replaced by oe line art, tess key to carty relevant detals. & human hand ina realistic ilussration, for example of someone inseting an extension card in an electronic device is notjust any hand! ithas acoler, gender, and age, fot to mention social status and grooming habits ‘Amore schematic rearesentation line art displays _ahand with which mare vlewers are able oder Even the moat sober lie art has its limits, however ‘The mind i so prompt to recognize visual patterns that it often interpeets images in unintended ways Far example, €35 as good! as Impossible to draw 1 person—or aver an aniaial—wathout conveying anattitude, which may or may not be well received ‘Such an attitude, so conspicuous in most clip a, Is noticeable ever in silhouettes and in stick Agures.A picture excels at representing something intuitive for example a veal object. AC th It is condemned so be canceee it cannot convey abstract ideas Gavany ‘ot unamigususty [Asan example of the ubiquitous ide of visual ambiguity, the at Ws ile Boy Is read differently by different people: is he serene, sad, interested, absentminded? what do you seein this pictsre? Visual codings, being intuitive and global, are more effective for conveying intuitive or global information. For example, ‘maps convey relative positions more rapidly than words can, drawings describe objects more clearly than words can, and facial expressions show emotions more subtly than words can, Visual codlings that mimic facial expressions such as *)-)" have thus emerged in such plain-text media as electronie mail, to convey meaning that relies on jon—typically hummer. Visual codings, by contrast, are less effective for expressing abstract concepts. A given pictorial representation thastrates only one instance of a concept s0 easily expressed in words. As an example, a photograph of an apple docs not say “apple” rather, it indicates a specimen of specific variety, maturity, ete as suggested by the apple’s visible shape, texture, and color. Nonsymbolic representations are condemned to be concrete, ‘even if schematic drawings can “abstract” irrelevant details, ‘thus broadening the drawing’s suggested meaning somewhat. ‘Visual codings, moreover, lack the accuracy that words are endowed with through conventional association of meaning, Just like Rorschach inkblots, they are intrinsically ambiguous: ‘being intuitive and concrete, they suggest a meaning instantly and may well suggest a different meaning to each viewer, often unable to imagine anyone else “seeing” anything else. Ina sense, a word is worth a thousand pictures, too. Indeed, verbal codings can express abstract concepts unambiguously. ‘and concisely, even not intuitively. As an example, the word. ‘apple designates any apple and thus transcends all pictures, which can show specimens only. Words can convey concepts that nonsymbolic codings cannot, for example interdiction: showing it visually requires a convention, such as ared clece. Inessence, verbal and nonverbal codings are complementary, ‘They are perhaps the essentiat form of effective redundancy.Fundamentals The name of the game The three laws of communication A thousand words, a thousand picwures CChaing and magica numbers Trees, maps, and theorems Effective written documents Planning the document Designing the document Deafting the dacument Formatting the document Revising the document Effective oral presentations Planning the presentation Designing the presentation Creating the slides Deering the presentation Answering questions Effective graphical displays Applications Understanding pictures Panning the graph Designing the araph Constructing the graph Drafting the caption Effective instructions effective electronic rall fective Wed sites fective meeting reports Effective scletiic posters sconsChains and magical numbers Asequence Abicrarchy ssxsomanes PaCS UR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING unstructured Items 5 of information presented together is severely limited. _# Series of items, oF lists, tax our short-term memory, key to mental processing, and become rapidly unmanageable as the number of items grows beyond just a few. Processing and short-term memory suggest random access to the items, Longer lists can of course be committed to long-term memory by rote learning, but this memory provides sequential access only: if we forget one link in the chain, we often cannot gon. AS a rule, we can process items in random fashon if we ean see ata glance how many there are, without having to count. An items whatever we can, tox point, recognize and process as aunit, To make a long list easier to process, we can group items into fewer, higher-level items, thus creating a hierarchy {a list of lists): a series of three series of three Items is easier ‘or human brain to process than a single series of nine items, For the higher-level items to be recognized as units, however, the original items must be grouped logically, not arbitrarily. This logic must be made explicit or be readily recognizable for the audience. Visual clustering helps show the groups, oo. Balanced, multidimensional structures, in other words, match ‘our mental pattems better than longer, unidimensional ones. Chains, structured along a single dimension, must be accessed. ‘in sequence. Trees, structured hierarchically, add a dimension. ‘They offer, nota sequence of tems, but a sequence of choices, in the form of recursive branching. They can thus organize a large number of items while offering few enough options in every choice to enable random processing of these items. With the cascade of choices kept short enough, they provide ‘an overview of the collection of items in a way chains cannot. ‘They are thus easier to apprehend, navigate, and remember, and constitute a more robust framework, for example to build € case: whereas a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, ‘weak argument ina tree does not invalidate the other ones.How about numbering the tems, so readers ‘can “see at a glance how many there are"? “Seeing at a glance how many stems there ae” is a reliable sign of nonsequential perception. ‘This perception Is about seeing all the stems; being told how many there are does not help. 1 sequential processing necessarily a problem? Admittedly, linear taterial—for example a set ‘of step-by-step instructions —mayat est seem to require no more than sequentll processing. Sul. a hierarchical structure would give users an overview ofthe steps tobe performed, thus preparing them mentally forthe tasks ahead, [Noreover, along list often intunidates readers. ‘Troe structures typiclly Took moce accessible. Is text not processed sequentially anyway? ‘Averbal ist, even short, must indeed be read sequentially: word after Word, tem after iter. ‘Nonsequenval here refers tothe initia visual) perception of the list of items and, especially, to thelr manipulation in short-term memory, ‘where they canbe, ina sense, “seen” together, reviewed im any order, and finally passed on tw longterm memory in a structured manner. ‘ust presentations always have three points? Presentations need not have three main points: some topies ate betier structured in two, four, ‘orperhaps five pots Stil, because astructure Jn three points communicates particularly well, ‘you might want to give it a try systematically, ‘without forcingit on your topic it does not At, Chains just do not communicate well White they ae harder to process, chalns are easier te create than trees, Because they need focal effort only: they ean be conetructed one item at 8 me, ‘with te or na atention to the structure as whole As the examples below ilustate, chain structures sre frequent in vebal code (written or spoken text) and in nonverbal items (sie shows, graphs, ete) alike, each time taxing the intellectual capabiles of the audience—and, in one case, of the speaker Long series of short sentences—pechaps written in the simplistic belief that shorter sentences are ‘easier to cead—make for haré-te-read paragraphs, ‘even If each sentence individually s very readable The same holds for ong series f shor parearaphs. Chains of premadifers need not belong to create uncertainty as t0 which wards are being modified ‘They are often found on restaurant menus (Grilled Applewood Smoked Bacon Wrapped Mission Figs) and in scientific publications (Fuzzy Logie Controller Based Cost-éffective Four-Switch Three-Phase Inverter Fed IPM Synchronous Motor Drive Syste. Wing down and commiting 10 memory the text ‘of a presentation places the speaker at the mercy (ofthe slightest memory lapse: the rest of the text usually cannot be recalled past any missing words {aod a gap in the text would be noticeable anyway). Sowing many slides as par of an oral presentation easily creates a disorienting impression of linearity, especialy if al slides have the same visual design, chat unless there are contrasting sides meant to reves! che hierarchical structure ofthe materia Graphical clsplays such as pie charts vit include too many items not only face the spatial challenge ‘of labeling al segments clesly bu also fal to give an overview of the data, Asanalternative, bar chars can display hieratehical groups of data more easly.: | | ‘The question, of course, is how long a list can reasonably be, that is, how many items presented together are too many, Rather than blindly apply a single, dogmatic "magical number? letus see how small integers can usefully guide our practice of communication. As it happens, there is magic everywhere. Zero is perfection, as in zero superfluous words on a page zero useless gestures ina talk, zero unneeded ink in a graph. Aiming for zero notse means much hard work for something the audience will not notice—frustrating, yes, but effective One is focus, as in one theme per document or presentation, ‘one message per paragraph or slide, one idea per sentence. (Ono ts consistency and univocality, a prerequisite to meaning {mn verbal codings: synonyms and homonyms are suboptimal. ‘Two is abil, a binary alternative. Its thus the simplest form, ‘of classification, a in specialist versus nonspecialist or verbal, versus nonverbal. Two is @ duality, with al its appeal and all, its limitation, as in good and evil, night and day, yin and yang. Besides opposition or complementarity, two is redundancy across channels or codings—a potentially effective approach. Three is the simplest complexity: it corresponds to a triangle {the first polygon), the number of dimensions in physical space, and the number of colors required to generate all the others, ‘Three is of course a direct extension of two, one that breaks, the duality, as by introducing gray between black and white. Interestingly, three is how we group digits in large numbers: for increased readability. 1¢ is a common-sense upper Limit in many cases, for example on the number of heading levels, that can meaningfully be numbered together (Section 2.4.1), Pragmatically, three is probably the optimal number for items, that mustbe grasped rapidly and remembered easily, suchas steps in a procedure or main points in an oral presentation. ‘Thece items simply work well—for speaker and audience alike.| | | | i 1 thought seven was “the" magical number ‘and a universal upper lll. I (not so? George Miller's now famous article published ln 1956 in Psychological Review, “The magical ‘number seven, plus or minus to: Sowe mits ‘on our canacity for processing Information! is frequently misunderstood and misquoted, Ie derives seven as @ rough asymptotical limit from experiments that aren fact itl relevant to the type of communication dscussed here ‘Anyway, to reduce the sk of processing errors, ‘we shoul init rhe numberof tems presented together to fewer than the asymmptotical value Pragmatically, we could use the lower bound of Mille’s proposed 7 #2 interval, namely ive How can {group tems ina table ‘that isnot otherwise structured? ‘You can always group the rows visually by five (or fewer), as by skipping space every Bve rows ‘or. when space is a a pretium by alternating the background color for groups of ve rows. “Though noc dictated by loge, such a grouping makes the rows of the table easier to read off, ‘especially when the columns are set far apart ‘Should rating scales not have some kind ‘of neutral between postive and negative? “The middle point provided by an odd number ‘of options may be desirable, but itcan become an easy noncomynital retreat (though perhaps ‘mitigated by an outo- scale no opinion option) Stil three eptions (+/0/~) provide no degree ‘of postive or negative appreciation, while fve ate already enough to drive some respondents Into avoiding the ewo extremes systematically ‘The difficulty is combinatorial “The abrupt saturation, beyond five of our capacity for processing a set of items presented together may comeasa surprise. Going from five to six kems means adding only 20% ra the sequence, wheseas ‘gong from two to three is adding SOR—a lot more. We might thus expect processing six items instead of fve to be 2.5 times easier than processing three instead of two, yet experience suggests otherwise (ne plausible explanation is combloatorial analysis Because the key to apprehending sequences flly Is the possiblity to process them nonsequentialy we should reason, notin terms of sequance leneth, but in terms of nonseauenviat combination, A set of mteme can be combined inn! (factorial n) ways. 1 function that grows much more sharply than 1. Going from tw to three items means multiplying the possbllies by three (com 21 = 2 t0 3: = 6) oing from five to six ems, By contrast, means ‘utipiying them by six (from 3! = 12006! = 720). ‘This model would explain not only why six items are se much harder to handle than five but also ‘why key items benefit Irom being fewer than five ‘sire items being thus 20 times less demanding) ‘Tha sequential process required beyond five items apples to visual cades, 0, as soonas their detalis have 1 be processed one by one. As an example, how easly can yu identity below the differences between upper and lower drawing, besides rotation? Fest global, the comparison becomes sequential asthe number of Kem increases, unless (part of) the figure becomes meaningful to you as a whole. eu oN vv RM ~ ate vseFours a square (2*: It sa combination of two binary options. Fouris therefore a useful number of answers for rating scales (44/+/-/-~), a8 itembodies a cascade of two binary choices: first is rather positive or negative; next, Is ft alittle or a lot, Fouris also a direct extension of three: whatever works well, fn threes might also work, though not nearly as wel, in fours. While large numbers are usually set in groups of three digits, a year such as 1984 is set as a single group of all four digits, ‘with no apparent readability problem (yet itis tead in English as nineteen eighty-four, or 2x 2 digits). As another example, whereas Section 2.4.1 is reasonably easy to situate mi (oF to remember, Section 24.1.3 is immediately much harder. ally Five isa handful: itis the number of fingerson a human hand but also the limit above which we must count items to know ‘their number—unless they are organized visually in groups of five orless, as can usefully be dane with rows in long tables. {tis dus a useful upper limit on the number of items in alist. ‘Sbcis...justafter five, the same way that four is just after three. Consequently, if five isa useful maximum murmher fora group of tems not otherwise structured, then sixis just past the limit, Inother words, six might work for some people, in some cases. Seven is many: itis usually too many for the communication tobeeffective. Ina sense, seven is the smallest numerousness, inthe same way three isthe simplest complexity: seven items presented together are just too numerous to be manageable. Apart perhaps for overwhelming the audience economically, seven is nota particularly useful number for communication. From the eight numbers above, and beyond the obvious zero and one, you might remember the first three prime numbers: {wo for effective redundancy, as with verbal versus nonverbal; three as an optimal number—fast to grasp, easy to remember; five as the maximum number that ensures global processing.Fundamentals ‘The name af the game ‘The thee laws of communication A thousand words, 2 thousand pictures Chains and magical numbers “Trees, maps, and theorems ——————)—satancing the structure Allowing easy navigation Stating messages frst Effective written documents Pee | Praning the document Designing the document Drafting the document Formatting the document Revising the documneat Effective oral presentations Panning the presentation Designing the presentation Creating the slides Delivering the presentation Answering questlons Effective graphica! displays Understanding pictures Planning the graph Designing the grant Consteucting the graph Drafting the caption Applications fective istwuctions Ftfectve electronic mail Effetive Web sites Etfectve meeting reports Effective scientific postersTrees, maps, and theorems | \ {C-Vimocrons 1 a vw oF THE nemo. Wile one scheme | “iq, may well seem more logical than alternative ones, none | isiteoraty preset by eater oe pete i ‘Organizing material involves choice, so it allows optimization, | ‘The optimal structure is the one that makes the most sense | forthe audience. th ther words. tenor We mde / to recognize and retember, canbe navigated effortesiy i even if ot memorized, andi init the ned for navigation. | | Organizing knowledge effectively requiresa hierarchy: a ree, | not achain, Atthe same time, any instance of communication | is trapped in time and forms a sequence: a chain, ota tre. : ‘words, sentences ete, are read or heard one after the othe, and their order largely determines the meaning of the text. Ata igher level, even reasonably self-sufficient components such as independent chapters, slides, or graphical displays | are presented in a certain sequence. In an oral presentation, this sequence i imposed by the speaker; ina document, itis Proposed by the writer but uleimately chosen by each reader, | Who elects both what to read and in what order to read it | Still, sequence there is: even highly selective readers cannot / read two diferent chapters ofa document at the eae time. toa single sentence, which embodies the structure of an idea,How should I number the sections? [Asarule, use the so-called decimal numbering, 4 in 2-4. to indicate Subsection 1 of Section 4 ‘of Chapter 2:1 makes the hierarchy apparent. In contrast, selecting single sumer or letter forthe subsection, a n IV or D fails to reveal its lace within the overall structure: readers may not remember what itis the fourth partof, ‘especially Uf they must interrupt their reading ‘or when they are browsing through a document. ‘Toremain readable, decimal numbering s best limited to theee levels, Fourth-evel headings, it any, can be set without a number. Similarly, ‘when @ book inchudes parts, the part number can probably be omitted from the numbering ‘ofthe part's chapters, sections, and subsections Wy a different muraber of levels and of items for writen documents and oral presentations? Listeners are ina far Fess favorable situation than readers to process the materia presented: for example, they cannot choose their rhythm, cannot reread a part they did not understand, and have fewer visualcines about the structure (as offered to readers by a document's layout) “They therefore cannot assimilate as complex a strucare as renders can and should thus be presented, when possible, with simpler ones. ‘Also, presentations and documents normally Aifesin their purpose. Oral presentations are for convincing an audience ofthe key messages, hile written documents more often attempt to convey a large or complex body of material. Presentations can thus typically accommodate simpler structure, whereas long) documents often require a somewhat mare elaborate one. Common ineffective structures Long documents (reports, theses, procedures, etc.) tend to include too many levels in thelr hierarchy, ‘perhaps with few items at each level—a stucture that extends indepth, often with heading numbers such a¢ [Link],2 that no longer allow readers to visualize the Nesarchy. Here, "too many levels” mean mare than three or just more than necessary, as when there ae almast more headings than text. ‘the same time, tere is of course nothing wrong with deeply structure thinking. Whats suboptial is tuining each term of mental re into a heading eraps each lowest level iter in one's mental tee can be writen a2 one paragraph or one sentence, wit Fewer (levels of headings inthe tree structure Deep structure chapters Sections subsections Subsubsections sections Shorter documents for less specialized audiences, such as magazines and newsletters, often simplify the hierarchy to anexteeme, keeping erly one level fof heading. In the process, however, tey end up wth many headings at this level-—a Mat structure, by no means easier to assimilate than a deep one. Fora well-balanced structure, generate for yourself a complete table of contents. Are there many levels? Many headings on Few pages? Single subbranches?Wellbalanced structure Wich up to tree levels inthe tree (chapters, sections, subsections) ancl up 10 five items at each level balanced document could thus nave up 10 5 lich is plenty for most materia {Exceptions to this mit of 5? are ofcourse possible wien justified 25 subsections, Balancing the structure [N EFFECTIVE STRUCTURE IS HIERARCHICAL, not sequential. E-\ rurthermore, it consists of a limited number of levels and a limited number of items at every level. Each such item must form a meaningful entity—one comparable in scope to other entities at the same level, within and across branches. ems within a branch should be preceded by a component that gives a motivation for the branch, previews its structure implicitly or explicitly, and perhaps states its main messages. ‘The guidelines betow apply to the levels of the tree revealed, through headings and perhaps numbering, such as chapters and sections, not to levels such as paragraphs and sentences.) As a rule, use fewer hierarchical levels than items per level for we handle recursion with even more difficulty than lists. Inwritien documents, endeavor to limit the number of levels to three—for example, chapters, sections, and subsections. I you must group paragraphs within a subsection, consider unnumbered headings, which would not appear in the table of contents. In oral presentations, limit yourself to one level for a short presentation, perhaps two levels for a longer one. Limit the number of items per level, too, like you do for lists. In writen documents, alm for no more than five subbranches for each branch, to afford readers a global view of the branch. Should you seem to need more, group closely related ones and substructure the entity thus obtained with paragraphs. Ifyou have too many chapters, try grouping them Into parts. {n oral presentations, consider a body in exactly three polnts. Before dividing a branch in subbranches, provide a global view. In written documents, include a paragraph (or more) between the heading of, say, a section and that of the first subsection. ‘Among other things, this paragraph must let readers know what the subsections are, as a form of effective redundancy with the set of headings inthe text and in the table of contents. mn oral presentations, include a preview just before the body.What is wrong with a detailed tabe of contents on several pages? Does t not enable readers to locate procsely what they are looking for? Readers may or may not know what to look for {na document for what the document cll it ‘When they do, they are best helped by an index, nota table of contents, no matter how detailed, When they do not, or more generally to fort an overview of the materia, they il normally go through the rable of contents hierarchically, ‘ot sequentially, identifying fest the chapter ‘most likely to be of interest for their purpose then the section within this chapter, and go on IF they cannot see the whole structure at once, they have to process i sequentially; they miss an overview of the major entry point (chapters. An alternative to limiting the number of levele resented is to provide two tables of contents ‘global one, lindted 0 the top level Chapters, then a fully detailed one. Ina sense, the 6st isa table of contents of the table of contents. Woy must links use the wording of the map? If links use a diferent wording from the map {o express destinations, readers nay be able to find whatever information they are seeking but not to visualize their itinerary, es the links Doin to places they cannot pat on the map. ‘Thus they cannot easily know whea and why they might have been dere before, which is a major factor in deciding whether to go there, ‘Using exactly the same wording on the map and in links is a simple issue of consistency: always calling a given thing by the same narne helps the audience recognize this thing easly and avoids ambjguty-in links and elsewhere. Navigation: more than a Web site story Hypercext, Ina sense, predates the electronic age While the term suggesss clickable links (hypertinks), the ides of finking a piece of text te anther piece oftextisnotarecentone. And although new media open new possiblities, effective paper documents have provided for centuries both the motivation and the means for readers to jump to other parts Df the page, to other pages, or to ether documents Table of contents Heading ——_—Flgure all t-14 Index >I] Running footine Cross-eference fective paper documents, n particular the longer and strongly structured ones such a5 books, carry 4 surprising amount of navigational information, both by nature and by contents. As physical sets ‘of pages, they provide clues to where readers are, such as fear the beginning. Numbered headings and running headlines oF footines can further hela readers locate their current position ina stvcture already made explicit through a table of contents. This table, perhaps together with a text overview near the end of the introduction, enables readers fo make informed decisions regazcing where tego. So does an inden, along a different log. Finally, the references to bibiographical entries, ro tables and figures, and 10 other parts of the document are a5 many “hypedinks"—just not clickable ones BiographyNo matter how many pages it appears on inthe end, 100 detailed a table of contents is hard for readers 1 process globally and, especially, ro remember Jina form that helps chem navigate the document. Two levels is probably all they can absorb at fest, leven though a document can have upto three levels. For an oral presentation, subtract one everyiere: upto 04 Lewes nthe ree, protected by copyright as Protected by copyright (see Terms of use fo information on authorized repraducton). nd one inthe preview. ‘Acetic hypertink ‘where does itiend? [A better hyperlink strefersto the map ancialows better Informed decision Allowing easy navigation /A\N BEFECTIVE STRUCTURE CAN BE NAVIGATED effortlessly EX if made visible. To this end, give the audience a map, tell them at all times where they are on the map, and tell them (when appropriate) where they can go with respect to the map. Effective maps provide an immediate overview ofthe territory they chart, They usually include a strong visual component. In writren documents, readers should see the tree structure at aglance ina table of contents before reading the first word, {In Web sites, this table of contents, often called a site map, can be a two-dimensional diagram instead of a vertical list. Im oral presentations, the preview can be shown on a slide, besides being spoken and perhaps underlined with gestures. ‘To provide an immediate overview, a map should be visible asawhole, Asa counterexample, a table of contents running ‘on several (double) pages offers partial views but no overview. Maps, however, need not display the complete depth: they can be limited to the top two levels, such as chapters and sections; each chapter can then include a local map, listing its sections and its subsections—not unlike road maps at different scales. ‘Audience members need to he reassured about where they are. Because they may wonder about tat any time, let them know at all times, for example in a running footline in a document. When itis impractical to do so at all times, as in oral discourse, let them know often, so they never have to wait long for help, should they Feel lost at any time. To tell thera where they are, use the same wording (or identifying picture) as on the map. In written documents, audience members must also be told, ‘where they can go, asin a cross-reference ina paper document or a hyperlink on a Web site. So they can orient themselves and visualize their tinerary, indicate possible destinations like locations, with the same wording or picture as on the map. Provide whatever information will allow informed decisions.Ist not beter to have the message asa climax, 50 as to maintain the interest of the audience? Professional audiences isten to presentations or read documents chiefly because they hope to find in this way the information they need. “They easily lose patience when what they read ‘or listen to does not seem relevant to them, all the more so when they are pressed by time. ence, they have little tolerance for suspense, atleast whenever (tlasts longer than an instant. Presenting last what an audience wants (0 know first or most of al is more likely fo make them lose interest, Details acquire tel fullrelevance and significance inthe lt of the conclusion. ‘Keeping the audience interested is nota purpose fn ee, really: geting the message across Is, ‘and this does not require foreing the audience to read or Hsten co everyting. If they “buy ‘arly, they nged not go on reading oF listening othe supporting decals forus tobe successful. ‘A message placed early asa practical benefit, too: if audience members must stop reading cr listening at any time, they wil more likely have read or have heard our message already: Must I not deta everything I have carried out sfonty so others can reproduce my experiment? In scientifc publications, whatever experiments help support the conclusions must indeed be described in enough detail to allow replication. ‘Sul, enough derail does not mean every deta it means every relevant detail. These details ‘need moreover not stand inthe way. Because ‘they seldom, in themselves, convey messages, ‘they can often be relegated to an appendix of, fora presentation, ro a companion docusnent Building from the top down As. rl Identify your message(s) early, not only for your audience within a given weitten document Cororal presentation but ais, st ofall, for yoursels. when designing this document or this presentation. Ir you do not quite know what you are heading for, you have no relevant way 20 Select tat tonchade nd what to leave out: you wll kay include more than wat is necessary to get your message across ‘entifying the message atthe end of the process and locating it uptront is beter than Feaving it atthe end (or, worse, including ne message at al, but it does not promote carful content section. ‘Top-down approach applied tan oral presentation Main message What you ‘want your audience to remember Main pois What suppores this messace Subpoints fe ‘Ask yourself fst, IF my audience 1s to remember ‘only ane sentence from my entire ora presentation, what must ite? The anes your main message. Repeat the question at each level, broadening out {as you go down (a few Sentences, instead of one). “The top-down stavegy works for entre documents orpcesentations an also for lvidual parearaphs or slides, Ideniy the message thatthe paragraph for the slide must convey, then—and only then— select the information and format that vil convey this message optimally instead of fist develooing the exact contents of the paragraph or side, then searching fora suitable message (0 tack on ti