Judy Gregory, Author at Judy Gregory Writer

Writing for an international audience

People who write for an international audience need to be particularly careful about who will be reading their messages and where those people are locatedI'm often frustrated by emails that promote interesting workshops and events, but fail to clearly state where those events will be held Typically, they're in a different part of the world from meI subscribe to several email lists, and all of them promote events for their members And most of the people who promote these events forget that the...

Powerful examples and stories

Have you ever noticed the way that examples and stories can add power to a message Examples and stories make abstract concepts concreteThey grab attention, encourage readers/listeners to get caught up in the content, and make messages seem real and relevant They're also highly memorableIn their short paper 'Making your presentation stick', Chip and Dan Health describe stories and examples as the building blocks of a presentation They argue that stories and examples make the big picture...

And & But as sentence starters

The other day my 9-year-old son looked up from his book and said: 'Ms M says that you're not allowed to start sentences with 'and' and 'but' So why do they start sentences with 'and' and 'but' in every book that I read'What a fabulous thing for him to notice And it started the most wonderful conversation at home About why his teacher tells the class that they shouldn't start sentences with 'and' and 'but' (my theory is that children are introduced to this 'rule' to encourage them to...

Life is like a rice pudding …

crunchy on the top and slowly moving liquid underneathI've just finished reading a wonderful book about metaphor: 'I is an other: The secret life of metaphor and how it shapes the way we see the world' by James GearyEvery chapter delighted me And every chapter (and the book itself) included the wonderful challenge of understanding its title Each title fell into place as I read - giving me a series of little 'aha' momentsThere are chapters about the role of metaphor in language,...

Connecting dots & drawing conclusions

One of the classic mistakes we make as communicators is failing to connect the dots and/or draw conclusions for our audiences It's easy to assume that, because we understand the message and our underlying intent, everyone else will understand it tooThe obvious examples occur when fundraising letters forget to specifically ask for a donation, or when a recruitment letter forgets to specifically explain how the recruitment process works Less clear are examples when audiences are left wondering...

Communicating with intent

I've just returned from a three-day masterclass in Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement, facilitated by Lyn Carson and Jan Elliott It was a 'big' experience, and it's going to take me some time to think through what I've learnedHere are some of the communication questions that emerged from the three days - questions which can be quite challenging for people who work in this field:How do we speak so that others want to listen And listen so that others want to speakHow can we...

Screen reading vs. print reading

I've been doing some research recently about reading from screens - and particularly about whether reading from screens is more difficult than reading from paperPlenty of people argue that screen reading is more difficult than paper reading, but I haven't found much evidence to support their claimsThe discussions that I'm coming across suggest that screen reading encourages:More skipping and skimming A reduced concentration spanA reduced ability to think deeply about informationA 'staccato'...

Ethical issues in commercial research

I've been doing the rounds of car yards lately One sign at a car yard took me by surprise, and got me thinking about the ethical standards relevant for commercial research The car yard displayed a copy of the customer-satisfaction survey I would receive if I purchased a new car from them And next to the displayed survey was a sign stating that the car yard didn't want customers to complete the survey if they didn't feel able to answer 'strongly agree' to every question The sign urged customers...

The power of pronouns

I've just finished a fabulous book called 'The secret life of pronouns: What our words say about us' by James Pennebaker It's a fascinating look at how the structural words in our language (pronouns, articles, prepositions, and so on) reveal a lot about the way we think and connect with others We don't even notice these words as we speak or write But Pennebaker says that they broadcast the kinds of people we are They reveal things like our perceived status and power, whether we're lying, and...