When I ask audiences to select their top challenge in creating effective messages, what do you think they pick? Being more audience-centered? More balanced? More descriptive? It is none of these. Overwhelming, out of the 10 characteristics of “words that work” I describe in my talk, they select being more concise. To read about all of the characteristics, check out this blog: https://www.nutritioncommunicator.com/single-post/2019/04/12/How-do-you-craft-words-that-work It’s t

Communicating effectively is a challenge. Miscommunication is rampant – we misunderstand, misinterpret, misspell, mispronounce, and more. You can meet the 10 “faces” of miscommunication in this blog post. Can the formidable foe of miscommunication be conquered? Yes. We can beat miscommunication when we craft “words that work.” I propose “words that work” have these 10 characteristics: Audience-centered Speak your audience’s language. Address their needs. Meet them where they

Similar to creating a baby, books have a long gestation period before they “arrive.” In fact, this book will have taken longer than three pregnancies to make its appearance. Interestingly, among the 57 authors, 7 have given birth during the writing of this book. That’s a productive group! Similar to babies, books also need a name – something to help us identify and locate them. The Academy staff suggested two title options: Nutrition Communication or Communicating Nutrition,

This week I received an email with the subject line “book title” from the manager of acquisitions and development for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics publications department. Finally, after nearly two years of conceiving, writing, reviewing, and editing our nutrition communication text, it’s time to settle on a title. The design team is ready to begin work on the cover and layout of the text. It’s time to give the book a name. We’ve been using the working title, The Ac

Writing is functional and educational as well as artistic and expressive. Writing well requires both quality content and creativity to make the words worth reading. Do you have a message to share with the world? Write! Humans have been sharing their knowledge and ideas with one another since they began drawing on caves. Language allowed those drawings to become words. Writing allowed those words to live forever, inscribed on tablets and scrolls and now in digital files. Wheth

This is my 52nd blog post since launching NutritionCommunicator.com last July. Yay! I met my goal of creating and posting a weekly blog. It’s time to celebrate! This is also a good time to reflect on lessons learned and look ahead to new goals. What have I learned from a year of blogging? Consistency is Key Making a commitment to write a weekly blog and post each Friday definitely kept me on track. My goal was challenging enough to stretch me but realistic enough to meet. I

Follow these tips describing 5 key characteristics of quality writing. In summary: Quality writing resonates with the reader. It conveys meaning with a clear purpose. It is concise yet descriptive. It is logical and persuasive because it is well supported and it follows the rules of grammar. Writing is communication that provides a permanent record that can be referred to forever – so, write words that are worth reading and remembering. For a downloadable copy of this tip ser

You’ve heard that networking leads to landing a coveted job. What else leads to landing a job? Or getting asked to complete a project? Or having your work supported? Answer: Doing your work well. Nothing beats a good reputation supported by excellence in what you do. Do good work. When I was introduced last week before a presentation for the Ohio Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics it struck me that I was standing there because the person introducing me, Sharon Doughten, RDN,

Simplest answer: 1. write, 2. write, 3. write. We become better writers by writing. But there is more to it than writing. If we don’t assess our writing habits, learn ways to improve, and assess our progress, it is likely we will not improve. To assess your skills you can find free assessments online, as well as tutorials to help build your knowledge and skills. Here are two to try: http://www.niu.edu/writingtutorial http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quiz_list.htm Take a