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EERE Communications

EERE Web Coordinators Meeting Conference line:Access Code:

7/16/2015

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Agenda

Web Coordinators Meeting• Around the Room – Drew Bittner• Writing in the Digital Age – David Hebert

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Agenda

Web Coordinators Meeting• Around the Room – Drew Bittner• Writing in the Digital Age – David Hebert

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David Hebert USGS Chief of Internal and Audiovisual Communication

Writing for the Digital Age

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Dave Hebert• Has worked at the USGS since 2003, leading internal communications since

2011 and AV communications since 2014.• Facilitates communication between USGS leadership and employees and leads

the bureau’s use of video, audio, photography, and graphic design. • Co-chaired the Federal Communicators Network and is a senior fellow in the

Partnership for Public Service's Excellence in Government program.• Earned a bachelor's in advertising from

the University of Nebraska and a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri, and he interned at National Geographic Traveler.

• He's a happily married father of twins, and enjoys books, college football, and juggling, among other things.

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What Are We Going to Talk About?

• How people consume digital content• The goals of our content• How to ruin your reputation • How to give people what they want via good writing

– How to format your content for the web– How to rewrite your sentences for brevity and clarity– How to make your work more likely to be shared

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How Do People Consume Digital Content?

Like this:

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How Do People Read Digital Content?

They don’t.• They tap, swipe, pinch,

click, scroll, and watch.

• They scan.

• They multitask.

• They read about 20 percent of what’s on your site.

Photo credit: Jenn Vargas on Flickr

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What Is the Main Goal of Our Content?

We want people to do something:• Accomplish a specific task• Follow policy• Do their job more effectively

• Use USGS science to make decisions

• Share and promote USGS science

Action!

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What Does Good Writing Accomplish on the Web?

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Users can• Find what they need.• Understand what they find.• Use what they find to meet their needs.• Easily share what they’ve learned or done.

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What Gets in the Way?

Poor spelling or grammar

Updates are too "salesy"

Posts updates too often

Trying too hard to be funny

Does not post often enough

42.5

22.9

12.8

12.5

7.2

percent of respondents

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In a 2013 survey of 1000+ consumers, when asked the one thing that is most likely to damage their opinion of a brand in social media, respondents said:

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A Sanity Check Before you Begin

• Are you “staying in your lane”?

• Are you really the best source for creating and maintaining

this resource?

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What Do Users Want From Us?

• That depends on the page, forum, topic…

Identify your target audience and prioritize what they need to know – not what you want them to know.• Who are they?• What’s their level of expertise?• What are they trying to accomplish?• What is the most urgent thing they need to know? • What else do they absolutely need to know?

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Get to the Point! Use the inverted pyramid.

• Put what people need to know or do in the link, title, headline, and subheads. (Think short and “tweet” – chances are many will not read anything other than the link title!)

• Put the information most important to your users in the first sentence. Write every sentence as if it will be the last many people will read.

• Get to the boring nitty-gritty details later … or link to them on a different page.

Image credit: Air Force Departmental Publishing Office (AFDPO)

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Think About the F-Pattern

Eye-tracking heatmap of users visiting 3 different webpages. Image credit: www.useit.com: “F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content” by Jakob Nielsen, April 17, 2006.

Users scan • from the top

down

• on the left-hand side

• looking at headings and the beginning of paragraphs

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Break It Down

• Create information tiers and levels of access• Let your users dig down for more information• Don’t bury them in information and make them dig

their way out.• Example: TED

• Break documents into separate topic pages.• Break print paragraphs into smaller paragraphs.• Use more headings with less under each heading.• Start your paragraphs with the important cue words

and information.

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Omit Information the Reader Doesn’t Want

A major category of unwanted information on Federal sites is “advertising”— when your organization began, how terrific your agency or office is at delivering wonderful services to the customer.

Action speaks louder than words.

Don’t say it… Show it!

The USGS studies a wide-variety of threatened and endangered animals to help decisionmakers better understand how to manage and protect wildlife…

Weddell seals first give birth at the age of 4 … or 14. But why the first-time mom age gap? New science says: Resources.

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Before

In January 2009, policy 21904 was put in place that all employees must have access to communications training by January 2010. In March, we formed a committee to address this policy. The committee met several times, researched options for communications training, contracted a vendor, and will make classes available starting next month.

The vendor chosen offers classes in Media Training, Dealing with Congress, and Web Design. We have worked with Company X to make registration available online at http://register.gov/2203/9/@$RAua/aesncg3/.

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After

Communications Training

All classes are optional and open to all employees.• Work with the Media• Work with Congress• Design better Websites

Classes begin December 1, 2009. • See the Schedule• Sign Up Now

For more information, read the new communications training policy or how we selected the trainer.

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Informative Headings

These help the reader navigate the page.

Questions are often good links and headings, especially if readers come with questions:

Agency Grant ProgramWhat grants are available?• Grant Name: Description• Grant Name: Description

Am I eligible?Criteria for eligibility.

How should I apply?Deadline, method, etc. for applying

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Show Off a Little

• The more you do to highlight the important points, the more likely your users will be to notice those points.

• Use formatting to show off your most important info:

• white space• bullet points• bold• tables• graphics• only underline links.*

Walls of text scare people!Image credit: Allie Brosch, Hyperbole and a Half

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Good Links Help Everyone Know Where They’re Going

• Make your links informative and descriptive.• Warn about links to documents, such as Word or PDF. • Remember, page readers jump to and read links aloud.• Don’t have links that read: “click here,” “more,” or

http://gobble.di.gook.gov/longstring/obscure_numbers1r82b34/randomfolder/strange - code/where_am_going?

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Good Links are Tweetable

A good link can be a good tweet – our job is to get a click. • Be succinct, action-oriented, and compelling.

Instead of this: Research by the USGS and partner agency suggests that proper beach management and use can reduce the mortality of loggerhead turtles: http://www.usgs.gov/pubs/caretta_caretta=turtles/loggerhead/1223698.php(156 characters) Do this: Can good beach behavior help loggerhead turtles live longer?(65 characters)

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How are Others Creating Links and Headlines?

News & Information• Google News• USA Today• Science Magazine

Tasks• IRS• Chipotle

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Use Vertical Lists

Vertical lists:

• Make it easy for the reader to identify all the items or steps in a process.

• Add blank space for easy reading.• Help your reader see the structure of your document.

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Before

The EPA provides various paths for the public to access information about asbestos. On this website, you may access general information about asbestos and its health effects. The EPA has also developed a list of commonly used Asbestos acronyms. You may also read about what to do if you suspect asbestos in your home or your school (en Espanol-Asbestos en las Escuelas). If you are in the automotive repair industry, you may want to read EPA's questions and answers about asbestos in brakes.

If you wish to obtain more information on asbestos, the EPA maintains a listing of asbestos resources available to the public. If you would like to locate an asbestos contact, EPA maintains a listing of federal asbestos contacts. If you would like to learn more about the laws and regulations that govern asbestos, the EPA maintains a listing of the laws and regulations applicable to asbestos. You may read more about the EPA's attempt to ban many asbestos-containing products on the Asbestos Ban and Phase Out page.

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After

Information about asbestos:• health effects• commonly used abbreviations• asbestos in your home or your school (en Espanol

-Asbestos en las Escuelas)• asbestos in brakes — especially for the auto repair industry• other resources and contacts• laws and regulations• asbestos ban and phase out — EPA’s program to get rid of

asbestos

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Create Tables

Tables• Make it easy to take in complex material at a glance.• Make it easy to locate specific provisions.• Save words.• Make your logic and structure clear.

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Before

We must receive your completed application form on or before the 15th day of the second month following the month you are reporting if you do not submit your application electronically or the 25th day of the second month following the month you are reporting if you submit your application electronically.

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After

We must receive your form on or before the following dates:

electronically 2 months of the month you are reporting

25th day of the month

other than electronically

2 months of the month you are reporting

15th day of the month

Submission FormatIf you submit your form…

Month DueWe must receive your form within…

Date DueOn or before the…

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Keep Sentences Short

Through our Internet Web site, we want to present information about the employment and independent living services VR&E provides to service-connected disabled veterans, vocational counseling to service-members and veterans who have recently separated from active duty vocational-educational counseling, and vocational counseling or special rehabilitation services to dependents of veterans who meet certain program eligibility requirements.(57 words)

How to ruin a good sentence:Before: More night jobs would keep youths off the streets.

After: There is no escaping the fact that it is considered very important to note that a number of various available applicable studies ipso facto have generally identified the fact that additional appropriate nocturnal employment could usually keep juvenile adolescents off thoroughfares during the night hours, including but not limited to the time prior to midnight on weeknights and/or 2 a.m. on weekends.

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Make it Personal (with pronouns, that is)

• Pronouns (such as I, you, and we) pull readers into your material and make it relevant to them.

• Readers need less “translation.”• You get to eliminate words.

How do you use pronouns?• Refer to your organization as “we.”• Refer to the reader as “you” in the text and as “I” in

questions.• Make sure you define “we” and “you.

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Before (without pronouns)To establish eligibility for a voucher, an applicant must show that the applicant has a low income and that the present housing of the applicant is substandard and inadequate. (28 words)

After (with pronouns)To establish your eligibility for a voucher, you must show you have a low income and your present housing is substandard and inadequate. (22 words)

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Get Active! (Reduce/Eliminate Passive Voice)

What is passive voice?1. The person doing the action follows the verb.2. A form of the verb “to be” is combined with the past

participle of another verb.The frog was swallowed by Fred.

Passive voice can disguise who does what: A frog was swallowed.Active voice makes it clear who does what: Fred swallowed a frog.

When might you want passive voice?

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Passive Voice is Often Longer

Before: The application must be completed by the applicant and received by the grants office by June 1, 2015. (17 words)

Active voice cuts the number of words

After: We must receive your completed application by June 1. (9 words)

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Don’t Make Alphabet Soup

What’s the number 1 most hated feature of bureaucratic writing?— Abbreviations and Acronyms (A&A)

Using abbreviations• slows reading down,• reduces comprehension, and• turns your material into a research

project for users.“Alphabet miso.” Photo credit: Beanbag Amerika

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Consider This Example

The DOE-HUD Interagency Agreement (IAA) agreement, executed in September 2003, supports the HUD Energy Action Plan initiative to promote the use of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) in housing and community development. Activities include: preparing case studies of use of CHP in housing developments and in CDBG and Brownfield redevelopment, market analysis, updating a "cogeneration manual" for apartment buildings, working with DOE's Regional CHP Application Centers (RACs), and promoting peer exchange of developments with CHP. For a list of RACs see the following: DOE Combined Heat And Power Regional Application Centers (RACs), and promoting peer exchange of developments with CHP.

For a list of RACs see the following: DOE Combined Heat And Power Regional Application Centers.

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Use Short, Common Words

Don’t say: Say:

Utilize Use

Facilitate Help

Methodology Method

Necessitates Needs/Requires

Parameters Limits

Promulgate Issue

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Avoid Unnecessary Words — Challenge Every One

Don’t say: Say:

In order to To

We are currently planning

We are planning

The project is really critical

The project is critical

In the case that If

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Eliminate Hidden Verbs

Hidden verbs are verbs disguised as nouns. They are generally longer than their true verb forms.

Don’t say: Say:

Conduct an analysis Analyze

Present a report Report

Do an assessment Assess

Provide assistance Help

Assist in the characterization of

Help characterize

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Use Plain Language (It’s a law, by the way)

From the Veterans Benefits Administration’s Reader-Focused Writing initiative• Poor readers understood more than 80% of a RFW letter vs. less than 40% of a

traditional version.• It took 8 minutes to read a traditional manual passage vs. 6 minutes for the same

passage in RFW.• Fifty-six percent of readers failed to understand the traditional passage vs. 11% for the

RFW version. • Zero percent of readers found the traditional passage easy to read vs. 89% for the RFW

version.• The VBA figured its Jackson, Miss., office got 1,128 phone calls after sending out 750

traditional letters vs. 192 calls for 710 RFW versions—this change could save about $40,000 a year at this office alone.

• Through cued-protocol testing, the VBA asked veterans about RFW language used in a letter, and the veterans’ response was so positive that the letter was adopted nationally.

• According to an outside evaluator, Of 15 training points given to employees, most were using 14 of them in their writing just 1 year after RFW was implemented.

• The VBA has won at least 10 different awards for the RFW training course.

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Share and Share Alike

Top Tips for Social MediaBe visual: photos on Facebook get 53% more likes, Instagram is now bigger than Twitter, and there are more than 4 billion video views on YouTube every day.• Act out — challenge people with a question or

give them an action to take.• Have a conversation with the audience; don’t

just repost a press release.• Thoughtfully refer to world events and pop

culture trends with hashtags, etc.• Puns are good, but don’t punish the non-expert

by being confusing or get too cute with abbrevs., etc.

• Ideal post lengths for Facebook and Twitter: 100 characters. Including letters, punctuation, and spaces, the sentence you are now reading is 100 characters long.

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Last Step: Review Your Work!

USGS publications are rigorously reviewed:• 2 Peer Reviews – check the science• Supervisory Review – checks the process, reviews the reviews• Editorial Review – checks organization, grammar, spelling…• Bureau Approving Official Review – checks for policy and sensitivity

issues• Center Review – checks the package after all the reviews• Editorial QA/QC – proofreads all the changes

But the vast majority of the public will never see that report. You are the face of that science!

Have others (experts) review your work to make sure your web content upholds the same commitment to quality and accuracy.

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Bad Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling Affect Credibility

• “I give no credit to any source that doesn't bother to proofread their material, no matter how much I am interested...”

• “I have to admit I will stop reading a website if I notice grammatical errors, and I actually become much more critical about the opinions of the site.”

• “Bad grammar or bad spelling is an indication of carelessness. A second error indicates unprofessional people and problems will probably occur if I get involved with them.”

• “If a company lacks attention to detail in their promotional material, it speaks volumes to me about their attention to detail in other areas.”

(Source: Richard Knobbs, Poor grammar and business reputation: A survey, Compass Press Language Studios, 2013)

Proofread!

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Bad grammar and spelling still matter (despite cats that “can haz cheezburger”).

Remember: It’s the number one thing that is most likely to damage peoples’ opinion of a brand in social media.

Other studies have shown• About 80% notice the quality of writing; 60% won’t

purchase from a company whose website has grammar or spelling mistakes.

• Revenue on a checkout site with a typo doubled after a simple typo was fixed.

We don’t sell products, but we do sell the idea that our data, tools, and information are worth people’s time and effort.

Bad Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling Affect Credibility

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Sanity Check

Before you write, ask yourself:• Are you really the best source for creating and maintaining

this content?• Who is your audience? • What are they trying to do on your site? • Can they do those things with what you’ve written?

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Organization Check

When you write, make sure you:• Put the most urgent information in the headline/title/link.• Make those headlines/titles short and sweet (tweetable).• Start with the most important information, then get into

details (inverted pyramid, F-pattern).• Eliminate information that does not serve the user.• Write from the users’ perspective, not yours.

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Layout and Formatting Check

When planning the look of your content, make sure you:• Use informative headings.• Use subheadings to break up sections of content.• Use descriptive, informative link language that tells people

where they’re going.• Use short paragraphs.• Use formatting to show off your information (white space,

bold text, etc.).• Use vertical lists.• Use tables.• Use images, graphics, or video where they can tell the story

well.

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Sentence Check

• Use short sentences.• Use personal pronouns (We, you, etc.).• Use active voice.• Avoid acronyms and abbreviations.• Use short, common words.• Avoid unnecessary words.• Get rid of hidden verbs.• Fact check and proofread.

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Social Media Check

• Be visual.• Act out.• Have a conversation.• Use trends, memes, hashtags, etc., to engage in the

conversation.• Don’t be too cute, clever, or confusing.• Make links/headlines informative.• Boil it down to the most important point. (Facebook and

Twitter: 100 characters)

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Next meeting: August 20, 1:00-2:00 ETGolden: X300 & HQ: 5E-069