Informational Content: Keep it Short and Simple (KISS)
During the coronavirus pandemic, we talk a lot about social distancing. Before now, has anyone – ever – used this term? What exactly does it mean?
Let’s break it down. According to Merriam dictionary:
Social (adjective)
- relating to society or its organization.
- needing companionship and therefore best suited to living in communities.
- (noun) an informal social gathering, especially one organized by the members of a particular club or group.
Distancing (verb)
- make (someone or something) far off or remote in position or nature.
If we use the terms together that means, to get far away from society? Or far away from companionship? Or far away from social gathering?
Ah, maybe the last one is what they meant. But what constitutes a social gathering? One, two, three people? It’s not very clear.
Even if we look at the definition of the two words, it doesn’t actually explain what it means – and more importantly – why I should do it.
Which is why the CDC is starting to use the term physical distancing.
Why the Change?
Because 52% of all Americans have basic or below-basic reading skills.
Because we have 23 million Americans who have not graduated high school.
Because we have 44.7 million immigrants that are likely English as Second Language (ESL).
Because we are not all specialist and jargon makes it harder to understand.
Informing and Educating
When trying to teach someone something, whether a class, infographic or directions, we have to think about why we are doing it.
If the purpose is to sound smart, then do that in your boardrooms and conferences. If the purpose is to help someone understand something, then Keep It Short and Simple (KISS).
Before I get a ton of comments saying KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid, please note:
a) calling people names is not helpful
b) the focus is on making things easier for people
Keeping it Simple
Simple is really simple to do.
Essentially you must explain-it-like-I’m-five (ELI5). If you want everyone to understand, you take it down to basic level and use terms that everyone can easily understand – even five-year-old children.
Take the information apart to the most basic building blocks, then share what they need to know first for a basic foundation. From there, build on the knowledge you’ve given them (assuming they know nothing else).
Just like when we explain concepts and actions to small children, use language based on the fact they have never done it before. Children don’t have context to draw from or years of experience to know what you are talking about (so no business jargon).
While you may be the expert on what you do, everyone else is like a five-year-old. So don’t be patronizing, but be a parent (or aunt).
Keeping it Short
While you are keeping it simple, break it down to bite size pieces. Here’s some tips on how to write informational and educational content (especially if doing it for online materials).
Paragraphs:
Make it about four sentences. Provide relevant and related information. A new idea/concept is a new paragraph.
Sentences:
Keep at 12 words or less. Use active voice and direct language.
Bullet points/lists:
Super easy to scan. Be consistent with capitalizations, punctuations, and verbs.
Text Alignment:
Because people read left-to-right, left-aligned is easier for people to scan. Center text should be used sparingly, and right aligned should almost never happen.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, one of the most effective speeches of all time, was only 701 words; 505 words were one syllable and 122 had two syllables. Lincoln was able to communicate the essence of a complex agenda without a big vocabulary or word count.
We know you can too.