Building Rapport

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

The power of common memory

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:38:00 +0000

The language of music

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Top Language Blogs 2009

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:54:00 +0000

Well, fans, thanks for your votes but I did not make it to the top ten language professionals blogs or into the top 100 language blogs. But it was an honour to be nominated for an Oscar...

You should find some very interesting reading on any of the winning blogs. Check them out:

The Top 100 Language Blogs: http://en.bab.la/news/top-100-language-blogs-2009.html

The Top 10 Language Professionals Blogs: http://en.bab.la/news/top-10-language-professionals-blogs-2009.html

Victorian simplicity

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:08:00 +0000

In 1840 Queen Victoria appointed Captain Hobson as the first governor of New Zealand. His commission directed him to see that all laws written by the Legislative Council were:
"in a simple and compendious form, avoiding as far as may be all prolexity and tautology."

compendious: Containing or stating briefly and concisely all the essentials; succinct. American Heritage Dictionary
prolixity: long-windedness, prolixness, wordiness Visual Thesaurus
tautology: Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy. American Heritage Dictionary

So, even Queen Victoria advocated laws that were simple and concise.

Working the right brain hemishphere, Sunday's Creativity Post: My Facebook

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:13:00 +0000

A Quote, first in a series

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:23:00 +0000

"If I take refuge in ambiguity, I assure you that it is quite conscious."

Kingman Brewster, former president of Yale University and ambassador to Britain

More Testimony on Voter Access through Plain Language

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:58:00 +0000

AAPD Testimony for the Election Assistance Commission Hearing on
Disability Access and Voting Technologies, July 14, 2009

Kelly Buckland
Executive Director
National Council on Independent Living

Simplified Language: People with learning and comprehension difficulties find themselves at a disadvantage at the poll when the language used on a machine is difficult to understand. NCIL recommends that the machines utilize simple, easy-to-understand language for the instructions and any information on the ballot.

Testimony on voting access

email@cherylstephens.com (Stephens) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:02:00 +0000

AAPD Testimony for the Election Assistance Commission Hearing on
Disability Access and Voting Technologies
Submitted by Sarah Peterson
July 14, 2009

Regarding voter education, website and other materials provided to voters by elections boards must be accessible for all forms of disability. Usually this is interpreted to mean accessible for those who are blind or have limited vision, but accessibility also includes those who have learning, cognitive and intellectual disabilities. Plain language in voting materials, including referenda and initiatives, will assist not only those with disabilities, but all voters. There is a sizeable body of knowledge that has been accumulated over recent decades that clearly makes reading easier for large numbers of citizens. Part of this research agenda should look at this knowledge and develop materials that will assist election officials as they develop ballots, websites and public education materials.

American Association of People with Disabilities
1629 K Street NW, Suite 950 • Washington, DC 20006
phone 202-457-0046 (V/TTY) • 800-840-8844 (V/TTY) • fax 202-457-0473 • www.aapd.com