Find the Gold in Your Research

Find the Gold in Your Research

Word count: 884 Estimated read time: About 3 minutes Some of my clients ask me to “find the gold” in their research or evaluation projects. Here’s what I mean: my clients know that there is important information buried within a report but it’s hard to find and...
Three Ways to Capture Your Audience’s Attention

Three Ways to Capture Your Audience’s Attention

Word count: 997 Estimated read time: About 4 minutes Many of our clients worry that they don’t reach the people they most want to influence. The problem comes when we start thinking about an audience as a disembodied, amorphous group. We don’t picture them as...
Why Writing Longer is (Sometimes) Better

Why Writing Longer is (Sometimes) Better

Word count: 895 Estimated read time: About 3.5 minutes We often hear the admonition to write shorter. It’s a good idea. More and more, though, I see a poor execution of that good idea. Often, writers are stuffing too many complex ideas into too few sentences....
You Can Loosen Up

You Can Loosen Up

Word count: 895 Estimated read time: About 3.5 minutes I read, or tried to read, the policy brief 3 times.  It was awash in jargon, confusing long sentences and broad empty statements. The whole thing was putting me to sleep—and it was only 4 pages long! I had no idea...