{"id":1586,"date":"2020-11-10T17:04:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T17:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1586"},"modified":"2020-11-24T18:23:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T18:23:11","slug":"public-communication-tips-and-tricks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1586","title":{"rendered":"Public Communication &#8211; Tips and Tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-columns ab-layout-service-2 ab-layout-columns-1 one-column has-white-background-color ab-columns-center alignfull\" style=\"padding-right:5%;padding-left:5%\"><div class=\"ab-layout-column-wrap ab-block-layout-column-gap-2 ab-is-responsive-column\" style=\"max-width:1200px\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-column ab-block-layout-column\"><div class=\"ab-block-layout-column-inner\">\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:5%\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-container ab-block-container\"><div class=\"ab-container-inside\"><div class=\"ab-container-content\" style=\"max-width:700px\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-columns ab-layout-columns-4 ab-4-col-equal\" style=\"margin-bottom:3%\"><div class=\"ab-layout-column-wrap ab-block-layout-column-gap-2 ab-is-responsive-column\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-column ab-block-layout-column\"><div class=\"ab-block-layout-column-inner\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1580(opens in a new tab)\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1580(opens in a new tab)\">Overview<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1588\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1588\">terminology<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-column ab-block-layout-column\"><div class=\"ab-block-layout-column-inner\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1582\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1582\">getting started<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1590(opens in a new tab)\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1590(opens in a new tab)\">PROFESSOR TIPS<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-column ab-block-layout-column\"><div class=\"ab-block-layout-column-inner\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1584\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1584\">types of writing<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-column ab-block-layout-column\"><div class=\"ab-block-layout-column-inner\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">tips and tricks<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"color:#ddd\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-spacer ab-block-spacer ab-divider-solid ab-divider-size-1\"><hr style=\"height:30px\" \/><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">General Pointers for Writing Your Paper<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Public Communication writing is incredibly diverse, but here you can find a few general tips to help you get started. The following pointers have been generated from my own personal experiences, courses I have taken here at UVM, and the textbook&nbsp;<em>Strategic Writing<\/em>&nbsp;written by Charles Marsh, David W. Guth, and Bonnie Poovey Short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Get to the point as quickly as possible.<\/strong>&nbsp;The reader should know what&#8217;s up within the first few sentences. If they don&#8217;t, you&#8217;ve already lost their attention.<\/li><li><strong>Know your message.<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Start with Who, What, When, Where, and Why.<\/strong>&nbsp;The sooner you communicate this, the better. Follow immediately with the most important details, and finally the least important background information.<\/li><li><strong>Omit needless words and repetition.<\/strong>&nbsp;People don&#8217;t have the time or patience to read more words than absolutely necessary!<\/li><li><strong>Always use active voice.<\/strong>&nbsp;(&#8220;A sales slump affected our profits&#8221; rather than &#8220;Our profits were affected by a sales slump.&#8221;) You will sound more direct and in control.<\/li><li><strong>Remember your audience.<\/strong>&nbsp;Be sure that your writing is audience appropriate.<\/li><li><strong>Make it easy to read.<\/strong>&nbsp;You don&#8217;t need to overcomplicate things. Keep it simple!<\/li><li><strong>Challenge &#8220;to be&#8221; verbs.<\/strong>&nbsp;These are verbs like &#8220;be,&#8221; &#8220;will,&#8221; &#8220;were,&#8221; and &#8220;was.&#8221; These verbs convey no action, and so can make your writing seem indirect and lifeless. Be direct! Say &#8220;He&nbsp;<em>will communicate<\/em>&nbsp;well,&#8221; rather than &#8220;He&nbsp;<em>will be<\/em>&nbsp;a good communicator.&#8221;<\/li><li><strong>Challenge modifiers. Modifiers, or adjectives, are descriptive words.<\/strong>&nbsp;Avoid using boring common words, and be more expressive with your language. (She was &#8220;ecstatic&#8221; rather than &#8220;happy&#8221;)<\/li><li><strong>Challenge long sentences.<\/strong>&nbsp;Your sentences should be long enough to make your point clearly and gracefully, and no longer!<\/li><li><strong>Edit, edit, edit.<\/strong>&nbsp;Wording is everything when you have limited space and limited attention span of your audience. Make sure the wording and sentence structure is absolutely perfect-this requires many drafts.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>General Pointers for Writing Your Paper Public Communication writing is incredibly diverse, but here you can find a few general tips to help you get started. The following pointers have been generated from my own personal experiences, courses I have taken here at UVM, and the textbook&nbsp;Strategic Writing&nbsp;written by Charles Marsh, David W. Guth, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/?page_id=1586\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Public Communication &#8211; Tips and Tricks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6113,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1586","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","no-featured-image"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2627,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1586\/revisions\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/tutortips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}