Happy new year, Forum members! Since it's University Winter Closure, and technically we aren't here, I thought it would be fun to share a little holiday trifle.
OK, maybe President Eisenhower's farewell address is not a trifle. But this piece from the New Yorker, with a lede starring former U Relations staffer Grant Moos, is an interesting brief on the back and forth of one of the most famous presidential speeches of the 20th century.
Those of us who write speeches or columns for others will surely relate to this story of the back and forth between Eisenhower, former U president Malcolm Moos, and the rest of the team who put this speech together. But 29 drafts?! Mercy.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Alison Davis-Blake, dean of Carlson, on communication
An interesting interview in the Financial Times today with Alison Davis-Blake, the first female dean of the Carlson School of Management at the U.
Davis-Blake says some things in response to the question, "How do you deal with pressure?" that I think applies in all communication--particularly if you're feeling under pressure these days.
Davis-Blake says:
"First, I set priorities. Second, I check my assumptions and thinking with others. I find that when you're under pressure you have a tendency to become isolated and think that you have to act now--an approach that can easily lead to errors. Third, I don't ever, ever make an important decision, or especially send an email, when I'm tired, or angry, or emotional. To do so is asking to make a mistake."
Does that ring true?
See the full interview at Financial Times.
Davis-Blake says some things in response to the question, "How do you deal with pressure?" that I think applies in all communication--particularly if you're feeling under pressure these days.
Davis-Blake says:
"First, I set priorities. Second, I check my assumptions and thinking with others. I find that when you're under pressure you have a tendency to become isolated and think that you have to act now--an approach that can easily lead to errors. Third, I don't ever, ever make an important decision, or especially send an email, when I'm tired, or angry, or emotional. To do so is asking to make a mistake."
Does that ring true?
See the full interview at Financial Times.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Funny Friday courtesy 2011 conference keynote speaker John Moe
Last week we announced our 2011 conference keynote speaker: John Moe, host of Marketplace Tech Report. He's a wonderful journalist and the writer of Conservatize Me: How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith, and Beef Jerky.
Coming from San Francisco, I'm more familiar with his work with McSweeney's. For my fellow editors, I'll leave you this Friday with Moe's Pop-Song Correspondences, Notes on "Sweet Child O' Mine," as Delivered to Axl Rose by His Editor.
See more here: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/popsong/
JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG
CORRESPONDENCES,
VOLUME XIII.
BY JOHN MOE
- - - -
Notes on
"Sweet Child O' Mine,"
as Delivered to Axl Rose
by His Editor.
- - - -
Hi, Axl,
Just got your manuscript and demo for the song "Sweet Child O' (sic) Mine." I think we need to talk. As your editor, I am responsible for making your songs as cogent as possible, for helping them reach the high editorial standards your public has come to expect. With this one, I am certainly earning my keep. After several attempts to reach you by phone, I am sending along my notes. Please make appropriate fixes as soon as possible, at which point I can send them to copyediting and proofreading in time for your upcoming studio session.
She's got a smile that, it seems to me--Why equivocate? You weaken your point by framing this as a mere personal observation instead of a fact.
Reminds me of childhood memories--Redundant. You either have a memory or you're reminded of something. You're not reminded of a memory. Heavy-metal fans won't stand for such writing, my friend.
Where everything was as fresh as a bright blue sky--I asked around the office and no one is sure a blue sky is "fresh." You could have a blue sky at the end of a long, sweaty day and there would be nothing fresh about it. And she reminds you of a time when things were fresh? Fond reminiscences of freshness are no foundation for love. Fix.
Now and then when I see her face it takes me away to that special place--Again, you're weakening your own argument. Why does the sight of her face transport you only periodically? And is it just her smile or her entire face that does this to you? Because you've already said both. Consistency, Axl!
And if I stared too long, I'd probably break down and cry--Why would you do that? Because you miss the freshness you described earlier? I think the whole "fresh" thing is really tripping you up. Also, crying? Wimpy.
OK, on to the second verse.
She's got eyes of the bluest skies--See, this is just getting worse. Now her eyes are made of sky? Nice imagery, but you just got done saying her smile reminded you of memories of sky. Is this verse actually supposed to be a second draft of the first verse? Am I just confused on formatting? Help!
As if they thought of rain--Axl, eyes can't think of rain. And even if they could, which they can't, why would bluest skies think of rain? Perhaps less imagery of thinking eyes made of sky and more direct exploration of your feelings?
I hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain--Well, hell. I guess in your special Axl World anything is possible. Eyes can be made of sky, ponder the weather, and exhibit pain in amounts that can be weighed.
Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place where as a child I'd hide--Delete. Fix. Do something. You'd hide in a place that reminded you of hair? Never show me such phrases again.
And pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by--Whew. OK, listen to me now: Thunder can't quietly do anything. It's thunder. And, more importantly, do you really want to come across as a wuss who's constantly on the verge of weeping and skittering into hair caves to escape from rain? Is this a song about love or climatic anxiety? You need to work these things out.
Finally, Axl, I think we might have had a misunderstanding regarding my previous notes. When I wrote in colored pencil "Where do we go now?" I wasn't offering that as a lyric. I was simply observing that, in narrative terms, the song needed to progress in some way. You love the girl, she's helping you work through some issues, whatever. So where do we go now? But instead of providing a satisfactory conclusion, you simply took my note and repeated it over and over again before ultimately just stating the title of the song. This is unacceptable. Don't ask us, the listeners, where we go. That's up to you as the writer! Tell us where we go now!
Again, let's try to fix these things soon and get "Sweet Child of Mine" ("My Sweet Child"?) into your fans' hands as quickly as possible. Because, frankly, if it should ever hit the street in its current form, the song would be a colossal failure.
Talk soon!
Your Editor
Coming from San Francisco, I'm more familiar with his work with McSweeney's. For my fellow editors, I'll leave you this Friday with Moe's Pop-Song Correspondences, Notes on "Sweet Child O' Mine," as Delivered to Axl Rose by His Editor.
See more here: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/popsong/
JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG
CORRESPONDENCES,
VOLUME XIII.
BY JOHN MOE
- - - -
Notes on
"Sweet Child O' Mine,"
as Delivered to Axl Rose
by His Editor.
- - - -
Hi, Axl,
Just got your manuscript and demo for the song "Sweet Child O' (sic) Mine." I think we need to talk. As your editor, I am responsible for making your songs as cogent as possible, for helping them reach the high editorial standards your public has come to expect. With this one, I am certainly earning my keep. After several attempts to reach you by phone, I am sending along my notes. Please make appropriate fixes as soon as possible, at which point I can send them to copyediting and proofreading in time for your upcoming studio session.
She's got a smile that, it seems to me--Why equivocate? You weaken your point by framing this as a mere personal observation instead of a fact.
Reminds me of childhood memories--Redundant. You either have a memory or you're reminded of something. You're not reminded of a memory. Heavy-metal fans won't stand for such writing, my friend.
Where everything was as fresh as a bright blue sky--I asked around the office and no one is sure a blue sky is "fresh." You could have a blue sky at the end of a long, sweaty day and there would be nothing fresh about it. And she reminds you of a time when things were fresh? Fond reminiscences of freshness are no foundation for love. Fix.
Now and then when I see her face it takes me away to that special place--Again, you're weakening your own argument. Why does the sight of her face transport you only periodically? And is it just her smile or her entire face that does this to you? Because you've already said both. Consistency, Axl!
And if I stared too long, I'd probably break down and cry--Why would you do that? Because you miss the freshness you described earlier? I think the whole "fresh" thing is really tripping you up. Also, crying? Wimpy.
OK, on to the second verse.
She's got eyes of the bluest skies--See, this is just getting worse. Now her eyes are made of sky? Nice imagery, but you just got done saying her smile reminded you of memories of sky. Is this verse actually supposed to be a second draft of the first verse? Am I just confused on formatting? Help!
As if they thought of rain--Axl, eyes can't think of rain. And even if they could, which they can't, why would bluest skies think of rain? Perhaps less imagery of thinking eyes made of sky and more direct exploration of your feelings?
I hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain--Well, hell. I guess in your special Axl World anything is possible. Eyes can be made of sky, ponder the weather, and exhibit pain in amounts that can be weighed.
Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place where as a child I'd hide--Delete. Fix. Do something. You'd hide in a place that reminded you of hair? Never show me such phrases again.
And pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by--Whew. OK, listen to me now: Thunder can't quietly do anything. It's thunder. And, more importantly, do you really want to come across as a wuss who's constantly on the verge of weeping and skittering into hair caves to escape from rain? Is this a song about love or climatic anxiety? You need to work these things out.
Finally, Axl, I think we might have had a misunderstanding regarding my previous notes. When I wrote in colored pencil "Where do we go now?" I wasn't offering that as a lyric. I was simply observing that, in narrative terms, the song needed to progress in some way. You love the girl, she's helping you work through some issues, whatever. So where do we go now? But instead of providing a satisfactory conclusion, you simply took my note and repeated it over and over again before ultimately just stating the title of the song. This is unacceptable. Don't ask us, the listeners, where we go. That's up to you as the writer! Tell us where we go now!
Again, let's try to fix these things soon and get "Sweet Child of Mine" ("My Sweet Child"?) into your fans' hands as quickly as possible. Because, frankly, if it should ever hit the street in its current form, the song would be a colossal failure.
Talk soon!
Your Editor
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
U of M Publications
Have you ever wanted a list of U of M publications all in one place? This list is (kind of) getting there. The list is a developing resource of publications ranging from administrative, to college, institutes, and others. Primarily, it was developed as an internal resource. It's a work-in-progress, both in content and organization, but it's handy for cruising through U news.
The suggestion for the tool came from an Internal Communications monthly story meeting, one of the Internal Communications Network's (ICN) interest groups.
Feel free to provide feedback.
The suggestion for the tool came from an Internal Communications monthly story meeting, one of the Internal Communications Network's (ICN) interest groups.
Feel free to provide feedback.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Email testing: Which call to action is best?
Email analytics are a beautiful thing. They tell us how many people opened or viewed a message, as well as how many people clicked on different links within the email. This helps inform us, as content creators, on what stories get the most the most attention, guiding future content creation.
For an upcoming email newsletter I'm considering doing some A/B testing--trying out two different versions of the email newsletter, one with a strong giving message "Donate now!" and one with a more passive giving message. I'm hoping that email analytics can advise me on which version is the most effective with my audience.
Here is an example of a similar email "call to action" test.
Has anyone else tried email testing? I'd love to hear what others have found effective.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Humorous 404 Pages
Check out this collection of funny 404 not found pages:
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Dating stories
This post will likely be nowhere near as exciting as the title suggests, although in doing a bit of research, I did come across some interesting dating stories that lead me to believe my own dating life may not be as disastrous as it could be. For example, I have yet to compare firearms on a first date. Still, I have stories. I invite readers to any of the monthly Campus Club Thursday happy hours to (potentially) hear them.
Point being, it turns out using "dating stories" as your search term when looking for information on the philosophy and guidelines of including a date when publishing a story online does not get one the information most relevant to the topic. It did however, provide about a ten minute, very entertaining detour. The Internet is full of detours.
I may be in the minority here, but whenever I see a story online without an accompanying date, I'll usually immediately backtrack and look for one with a chronological anchor--there's almost always a second source, and usually many more. Of course, the relevancy of a date varies with the content--whether it's topical, for example (news stories and releases always include a date), or in the case of academics, whether it's inclusive of the latest research.
Lately, I've noticed that, more and more, dates are being left out of stories published online. The thinking behind not including a date, presumably, is that you want to get as much life out of a story as you can before people think it's obsolete--therefore, if people aren't sure when it was published, they can't be sure when it becomes obsolete. And we all know that what you don't know won't hurt you.
But in this case, it's hurting the content producer when I don't read what they'd like me to see. The plan to give it more life backfires and gives it less. Again, I could be in the minority here, so do let me know your thoughts.
Write timeless classics
The simple way around all of this is, of course, to write something that is absolutely timeless. The poem "Ozymandias" comes to mind.
The temporal truth is that certain stories require a date, and certain stories may not, but to me, as in dating, there's no sense hiding your age. If you're looking to extend the life of a story, use other means, like referencing the story in later stories, repositioning it in another publication, or ideally, by making it really interesting so that people want to read it again and again--not by leaving it floundering in the land of unsureity*, which isn't even a word so far as I know, which makes it even less sure of itself, so now I'm really not reading it.
Maybe dropping the date is just a part of web culture. Blogs, for the most part, want to be the first and the fastest, and people want what's new, right now. Online, you navigate quickly through a near infinite variety of content, and as such, maybe it's the very nature of the online world that's led to the dismissal of dates--we have so many options, after all--maybe we just don't care from whence or when it came. It's here, now, and available, so what the hell. There's plenty of blogs in the sea.
I'll tell you what though...I still like a good date. Just like I prefer a book where I can get the copyright right up front, before we (the book and I) get too involved. After all, I'm going to be taking that book to bed sooner or later, and I want to know whether or not it's obsolete. With any luck, it'll be timeless.
*The land that time forgot was taken as a metaphor, and so I created my own--the land of unsureity--soon to be a major motion picture.
Point being, it turns out using "dating stories" as your search term when looking for information on the philosophy and guidelines of including a date when publishing a story online does not get one the information most relevant to the topic. It did however, provide about a ten minute, very entertaining detour. The Internet is full of detours.
I may be in the minority here, but whenever I see a story online without an accompanying date, I'll usually immediately backtrack and look for one with a chronological anchor--there's almost always a second source, and usually many more. Of course, the relevancy of a date varies with the content--whether it's topical, for example (news stories and releases always include a date), or in the case of academics, whether it's inclusive of the latest research.
Lately, I've noticed that, more and more, dates are being left out of stories published online. The thinking behind not including a date, presumably, is that you want to get as much life out of a story as you can before people think it's obsolete--therefore, if people aren't sure when it was published, they can't be sure when it becomes obsolete. And we all know that what you don't know won't hurt you.
But in this case, it's hurting the content producer when I don't read what they'd like me to see. The plan to give it more life backfires and gives it less. Again, I could be in the minority here, so do let me know your thoughts.
Write timeless classics
The simple way around all of this is, of course, to write something that is absolutely timeless. The poem "Ozymandias" comes to mind.
The temporal truth is that certain stories require a date, and certain stories may not, but to me, as in dating, there's no sense hiding your age. If you're looking to extend the life of a story, use other means, like referencing the story in later stories, repositioning it in another publication, or ideally, by making it really interesting so that people want to read it again and again--not by leaving it floundering in the land of unsureity*, which isn't even a word so far as I know, which makes it even less sure of itself, so now I'm really not reading it.
Maybe dropping the date is just a part of web culture. Blogs, for the most part, want to be the first and the fastest, and people want what's new, right now. Online, you navigate quickly through a near infinite variety of content, and as such, maybe it's the very nature of the online world that's led to the dismissal of dates--we have so many options, after all--maybe we just don't care from whence or when it came. It's here, now, and available, so what the hell. There's plenty of blogs in the sea.
I'll tell you what though...I still like a good date. Just like I prefer a book where I can get the copyright right up front, before we (the book and I) get too involved. After all, I'm going to be taking that book to bed sooner or later, and I want to know whether or not it's obsolete. With any luck, it'll be timeless.
*The land that time forgot was taken as a metaphor, and so I created my own--the land of unsureity--soon to be a major motion picture.
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