Cartoons are worth at least 600 words, according to a series of studies by Richard E. Mayer, professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his team of researchers.

The researchers found that cartoons not only helped college students remember and understand complex physics lessons more than 600-word passages explaining those concepts. In most cases, the cartoons were more effective than the same cartoons with the 600-word passages.

1. Cartoons more memorable, understandable than text.

For the first study, Mayer’s team gave 56 college students:

• Cartoons with captions showing how lightning forms
• A 600-word passage describing how lightning forms
• Both the cartoons and the 600-word passage

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD These five cartoons helped college students learn better and remember longer than the same information in a 600-word passage or than the cartoon and passage combined.

Then the researchers asked the students to answer some questions about lightning. Some of the questions tested recall. Among them:

• What causes lightning?
• What does air temperature have to do with lightning?
• Suppose you see clouds in the sky, but not lightning. Why not?

Other questions tested problem solving, including:

• What could you do to decrease the intensity of a lighting storm?

Students who’d seen only the cartoons remembered 51 percent more than those who’d read the text only or looked at the cartoons and read the text:

• Cartoon alone: 5.6 units recalled
• Passage and cartoon: 3.7 units
• Passage alone: 2.8
• No instruction: .1

Students who’d seen the cartoons only were able to apply the material nearly as well as those who’d looked at the cartoons and read the text:

• Passage and cartoon: 4.9 problems solved
• Cartoon alone: 4.6
• Passage alone: 2.3
• No instruction: .3

2. Adding text to the cartoon made it harder to remember and apply.

For the third test, researchers gave students:

• The cartoon alone
• The cartoon with 50 words of text added to it
• The cartoon with 550 words of text added to it

The more text was added to the cartoon, the less students remembered. They remembered the cartoon alone 126 percent better than the cartoon including 550 words:

• Cartoon: 6.1 units recalled
• Cartoon + 50 words: 5.2
• Cartoon + 550 words: 2.7

The more text was added to the cartoon, the less effective students became at applying the information. They were half again as likely to be able to solve a problem if they saw the cartoon alone than if they saw the cartoon including 550 words:

• Cartoon: 4.5 problems solved
• Cartoon + 50 words: 3.4
• Cartoon + 550 words: 3.0

Bottom line: Adding a cartoon — or telling your story with a cartoon only — can increase recall and understanding significantly. Piling on the words, however, yields a net loss in communications.

___

Source: Richard E. Mayer, William Bove, Alexandra Bryman, Rebecca Mars, and Lene Tapangco, “When Less is More: Meaningful Learning From Visual and Verbal Summaries of Science Textbook Lessons,” Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 88, No. 1, 1996, pp. 64-73.

Make it a picture

Want to deliver copy that gets read?

• Get it off your desk: Invite Ann’s team to transform your words into a graphic story.
• Polish staff skills: Bring Ann to your organization for an Open the Creativity Toolbox workshop. Learn to develop graphic stories and more.
• Join the club: Find dozens of graphic storytelling tipsheets at RevUpReadership.com.

You don’t have to know me for long to know that the crazy cat lady inside of me is just the tiniest nudge away from getting out. And, were it not for geography, “Sundays at the Shelter” would be that nudge.

BIG PICTURE: Maggie Swanson shoots snapshots of PAWS cats with a small Canon camera, available light and "lots of weird noises." Try that on your CEO!

“Sundays at the Shelter” is my favorite e-zine. (You can also follow the blog.) I forward it, archive it, respond to its every call to action, review old issues when I’m feeling low. I’ve gone so far as to fail to board with my zone just so I could open it the instant it arrives.

And it’s not just the cats that I love about this e-zine. The format rocks, too — and it’s a format you may be able to steal for your communications.

First, meet the author

Maggie Swanson is an artist so talented that Paper Source prints pieces right out of her sketchbook. You’ll usually find her in her studio, painting her in-demand children’s book and other illustrations. When she’s not working, she might be whipping up samosas on the fly or perfecting a risotto that requires no stirring.

And on Sundays, she heads to PAWS, the local shelter in Norwalk, Conn. There, she cleans the cages, pets the cats and shoots adorable photos. A couple of times a week, she posts one of these photos, along with an amusing headline and caption.

And that’s it. That’s the formula for “Sundays at the Shelter”: headline, photo, caption.

Are you writing about something visual? Could a headline, photo and caption say more about your subject than a million paragraphs?

Low-key calls to action

Once a year, Maggie asks readers to donate to the PAW’s “Bark in the Park” event. Last year, the event earned $44,000.

The shelter doesn’t track the number of cats adopted by people who subscribe to “Sundays at the Shelter” or cats that get adopted right after showing up in the e-zine. But who are we kidding? These cuties sell themselves.

In fact, if I didn’t live 1,250 miles away from Norwalk, Gigi would have a little sister named Sammi. And one named Orion. And Carina. And Hank and Hammie and Mickey and Pepper and Susie and Shadow and Izzy and Bootz and Muffin …

Rev Up Readership

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• Bring Ann to your organization for a Rev Up Readership workshop.
• Ask Ann to help revamp your publication, website or blog.
• Get ideas for improving your own publication, website or blog with a communication review.
• Get dozens of tipsheets on planning powerful publications at RevUpReadership.com.
• Read Ann’s Plan Powerful Publications learning tools.

Are you writing a face-off between your technology against the alternatives? Juxtaposing competing information and ideas? Comparing and contrasting products or services? If so, a table is probably the best format for your article.

I’ve been enjoying webifying magazine articles for EADS Key Touch magazine’s website this year. I often find myself organizing the original information into a table.

Tip: If you find yourself repeating words and phrases, it may be a clue that you need a table. In one story for EADS, for instance, each section had a list of items “for digital” and “against analogue.” If you could make those repeated items column headers, you’ve probably got yourself a table

ACROSS THE BOARD: If you find yourself repeating words and phrases like "for digital" and "against analogue," a table may be your best format.

Open the Creativity Toolbox

Want to come up with fresh ways of telling the same old story?

• Bring Ann to your organization for a workshop on Opening the Creativity Toolbox.
• Get dozens of tipsheets on developing creative story approaches at RevUpReadership.com.
• Get ideas for making your own communications more creative with a communication review.

About Ann Wylie

Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., a training, writing and consulting firm. She works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.

Copyright © 2010 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.

Need to kick-start creativity? Try a change of scenery

I think it’s time I came out of the closet: I am not an enormous nature lover. Never have enjoyed being outside. After all, there are gnats out there, and weather.

For 51 years, my idea of the great outdoors has been the space between front door and car door.

While my sister, Lynn Wylie, has entertained herself exploring caves, jumping from airplanes into kayaks and trekking through Lady Gaga only knows what kind of wilderness, I’ve enjoyed a civilized life. A life involving air conditioning and wine. A life spent studying Lorrie Moore’s sentence structure, Rick Bayless’ ginger margaritas and Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s abs.

So when I asked Lynn what I could get her for her 50th birthday, I was a little surprised that her wish list contained only one item: She wanted me to go hiking with her. And I’m not talking about my traditional use of the word “hiking” — aka exploring the Louvre. She wanted me to tromp around outside in the Utah desert.

What was she thinking?

OK, to be fair, Lynn was suggesting a spa. A very nice spa: Red Mountain Spa, just outside Zion National Park. Plus a lodge near Bryce Canyon situated just yards from the renowned restaurant Hell’s Backbone Grill.

Reader, as it turns out, I LOVE nature! I just don’t want to sleep outside or relieve myself behind a tree. And I do think five-star meals should be part of every vacation experience.

Why didn’t anyone tell me about the pleasures of trekking through postcard settings, breathing the clear desert air on a cool spring morning, seeing the world from the tops of mountains you’ve climbed all by yourself (Lynn calls these particular mountains “rocks,” but still … )? I felt like I was living the lyrics of a John Denver song.

And guess what? Turns out this sort of thing is fabulous for creativity.

Get out of your own backyard

I have long preached the gospel of getting out of your comfort zone when it comes to nurturing creative ideas.

Find inspiration outside your company, industry or geography, I’ve counseled. Otherwise you risk practicing what marketing guru Dan Kennedy calls “creative incest.” Like real incest, he says, the product of creative incest just keeps getting dumber and dumber and dumber with each generation.

Turns out, as it so often does, that the choir I was preaching to should have been me: You can also enhance creativity by trying something new — learning a new language, experiencing a different culture or letting go of the remote and heading for the hills (or rocks).

How can you get out of your office — and out of your comfort zone — to kick-start your own creativity?

Open the Creativity Toolbox

Want to kick-start your creative process?

• Bring Ann to your organization for a workshop on Opening the Creativity Toolbox.
• Get dozens of tipsheets on nurturing creativity at RevUpReadership.com.
• Get ideas for making your communications more creative with a communication review.

About Ann Wylie

Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., a training, writing and consulting firm. She works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.

Copyright © 2010 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.

It was early Sunday evening, but the tiny restaurant was packed with patrons who’d booked early to make sure they didn’t miss out on spicy tuna with green ball, Baja lobster sashimi or other fresh, silky seafood treats.

Sorry, the hostess told the group, no seats.

The leader of the pack, a tall blond tottering on murderous heels, was not pleased. She hustled her friends out the door, then turned back to menace:

“We will Yelp this!”

“We will Yelp this!” I said to Phil. “That’s a real-time review! It’s trend No. 3 on Trendwatching.com’s top trends of 2010!”

“Slurp,” said Phil, swatting my hand away from the last piece of California roll stuffed with fresh Dungeness crab.

Hoping that you’re more interested than Phil, I give you three of Trendwatching.com’s top 10 list for 2010:

• Urbany. Trendwatching.com says: “Urban culture is the culture. Extreme urbanization, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and far beyond will lead to more sophisticated and demanding consumers around the world.” Subtrend: Urban pride. You’ll know it when: You mix your signature cocktail using New Orleans, Absolut vodka’s mango-black pepper blend inspired by the city.
• Mass mingling. Trendwatching.com says: “Online lifestyles are fueling and encouraging ‘real world’ meet-ups like there’s no tomorrow, shattering all clichés and predictions about a desk-bound, virtual, isolated future.” You’ll know it when: You use Loopt to stalk your favorite professional dancer from “Dancing With the Stars.”
• Tracking and alerting. Trendwatching.com says: “Tracking and alerting are the new search, and 2010 will see countless new INFOLUST services that will help consumers expand their web of control.” You’ll know it when: You open a Specialty Café and Bakery “Warm Cookie Radar” email message, alerting you that a batch of fresh cookies has just come out of the oven.

Use these trends to develop new story angles, update your communication strategy and fascinate friends and strangers.

Download full descriptions of Trendwatching.com’s top 10 trends for 2010.

Open the Creativity Toolbox

Want to come up with fresh ways of telling the same old story?

• Bring Ann to your organization for a workshop on Opening the Creativity Toolbox.
• Get dozens of tipsheets on developing creative story approaches at RevUpReadership.com.
• Get ideas for making your own communications more creative with a communication review.

About Ann Wylie

Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., a training, writing and consulting firm. She works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.

Copyright © 2009 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.

by Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.

a

I recently sent one of my pals a plea for reading recommendations.

“Read The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron,” he replied. “Read everything by William Styron. Then write like him.”

Not bad advice. After all, as communicators, we can learn a lot from the masters of our crafts — the William Styrons, the P.J. O’Rourkes, the folks who have earned Silver Anvils and other awards.

Consider this your invitation to model the masters, to learn new techniques by studying your favorite communicators’ work. It’s the best way I know to improve your skills.

Here’s a six-step process to get you started:

1. Browse the best.

If you’re going to model the masters, you need to look at the masters — the best communications being produced in any field. For me, “the best stuff” includes:

• The leads, kickers and classic feature structure of The Wall Street Journal

• Men’s Health’s tricks for packaging basic how-to information into compelling articles and departments

• Warren Buffett’s methods for bringing the driest financial formulas to life through humor, anecdote and metaphor

• Southwest Airline’s ability to make how-to-fasten-your-seatbelt information amusing enough to pay attention to

• Approaches used by other award-winning writers, editors and webmasters

So ask yourself, “What communications do I most admire?” Then add those to your regular reading and review list.

2. Forage more widely.

The next step is to forage more widely, or to make sure you’re looking at great pieces of communication — not just the ones you need to gather information and conduct transactions in your daily life.

One way I forage more widely is to look at winners of major communication competitions. For instance, I follow the winners of the National Magazine Awards — which explains why I subscribe to New York even though I live in Missouri and to Parenting even though I have no children.

3. Read like a writer.

As you study the masters, make sure you’re reading as a writer, not just as a reader. Readers read for information and entertainment. Writers read for information and entertainment, too. But they also read for something else: technique.

Another writer might introduce you to a new way of crafting a headline, constructing a metaphor or structuring a story.

As William Faulkner said, “Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it.”

4. Clip it.

Next, start a clip file of the pieces you admire most.

• Rip out articles that do a stellar job of demonstrating the WIIFM to the reader.

• Bookmark websites that allow visitors to experience a new process, service or product instead of just reading about it.

• Copy magazine articles that offer good examples of “telling and selling” the story in the headlines, subheads, callouts and captions.

One guideline to follow: Whenever you hear yourself saying, “I wish I’d created that,” “that” goes into the clip file.

5. Study it.

Now that you have a file bulging with great communication samples, go through it again. This time, take each piece apart and put it back together until you understand why you like it and what the communicator did to make it that way.

6. Steal the techniques (not the words).

Now it’s time to model the masters, or pattern your pieces after the best talent in the field.

Note: We’re not talking about plagiarism here. I once outlined this approach to a group of communicators in a seminar. At the break, one of the participants pulled me aside and proudly explained how she collected The Wall Street Journal headlines — then used them verbatim in her own newsletter.

Yikes! That’s not modeling. That’s plagiarizing.

The key to modeling the masters is to steal the techniques, not the words. Modeling the masters means getting inspiration from the very best communicators out there, then adapting their approaches — not adopting them, but adapting them — to your own work.

Try it yourself. Feel free to borrow and improve on other communicators’ methods. It’s a widely practiced form of flattery. Take whatever you can, and keep T.S. Eliot’s advice close to heart.

“Amateurs plagiarize,” he said. “Real writers steal.”

Open the Creativity Toolbox

Want to come up with fresh ways of telling the same old story?

• Bring Ann to your organization for a workshop on Opening the Creativity Toolbox.
• Get dozens of tipsheets on developing creative story approaches at RevUpReadership.com.
• Get ideas for making your own communications more creative with a communication review.

About Ann Wylie

Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., a training, writing and consulting firm. She works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.

Copyright © 2003 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.