The Mathematics of Persuasive Communication
by: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com
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by
Philip Yaffe
At first glance mathematics and persuasive
communication – writing, and particularly public speaking - publicwould seem to have little in common. After all,
speaking
mathematics is an objective science, whilst public speaking
involves voice quality, inflection, eye contact, personality, body language,
and other subjective components.
However, under the surface they are very
similar.
Above anything else, the success of an oral
presentation depends on the precision of its structure. Mathematics is all
about precision. It is therefore not so odd to think that applying some of the
concepts of mathematics to oral presentations could make them substantially
more effective.
As they say in the film industry, three key
factors go into making a successful movie: the script, the script, and the
script. Likewise, three key factors go into making a successful speech: the
structure, the structure, and the structure.
Not convinced? Then let's start with something
less radical.
I think we can all agree that good speaking is
related to good writing. If you can write a good text, then you are well on
your way to preparing a good oral presentation. Therefore, if you improve your
writing, you will also improve your speaking.
To simplify matters, from now
on we will talk mainly about good writing, because in most cases the same ideas
apply directly to good speaking.
Know What
You Are Doing
Many commercial companies do not live up to
their potential - and sometimes even go bankrupt - because they fail to
correctly define the business they are in.
Perfume companies, for example, do not sell
fragrant liquids, but rather love, romance, seductiveness, self-esteem, etc.
Bio-food companies do not sell organic produce, but rather honesty, purity,
nature, etc. Automobile manufacturers do not sell transportation, but rather
freedom, adventure, spontaneity, prestige, etc. The fact is, each industry,
even each individual product, may have to determine what it is truly all about
- and there are thousands of them!
Writers are lucky. There are numerous variations
to what we do, but there are really only two fundamental types of writing. It
is important to recognise this, because not only are they quite different, in
some respects they are exactly opposite. So unless we clearly recognise which
type of writing we are doing - and how it differs from the other one - we will
almost certainly commit serious errors.
What are the two types? And how do they differ?
Creative
Writing
Texts such as short stories, novels, poems,
radio plays, stage plays, television scripts, film scripts, etc.
The fundamental purpose of creative writing is
to amuse and entertain.
Expository
Writing
Texts such as memos, reports, proposals, training
manuals, newsletters, research papers, etc.
The fundamental purpose of expository writing is
to instruct and inform.
Essential
Attitude towards Expository Writing
Because the objectives of creative and
expository writing are so different, before striking a key you must adopt the
appropriate attitude towards the type of writing you are doing.
Creative Writing Attitude
Everyone wants to read
want what you are going to write.
After all, who doesn't want to be amused and entertained?
Expository Writing Attitude
No one wants to read
what you are going to write.
Most people don't like to be instructed and informed. They probably would much
prefer to be doing something else.
The importance of recognising and adopting the
"expository writing attitude" cannot be over-stated, because it can
dramatically change the very nature of what you are writing. Here are a
couple of three examples.
A. Corporate image brochure
I was once commissioned to write a corporate
image brochure. Two things are certain about these expensive, glossy booklets:
- Almost all companies of any size feel
compelled to produce them. - Virtually no one ever reads them.
Starting from the
attitude that no one would want to read what I was about to write, I created a
brochure that people not only read. They actually called the company to request
additional copies to give to friends, clients and professional colleagues!
B. Stagnating product
On another occasion, I was commissioned to
develop an advertising campaign to revitalise a product with stagnating sales.
Applying the expository writing attitude, I discovered that three of the
product's key benefits were not being properly exploited. Why? The manufacturer
felt that everything about their product was important, so for
years they had been systematically burying these three key benefits under an
avalanche of other information of less interest to potential buyers. The new
campaign sharply focussed on the key benefits; virtually all other information
was moved to the background or eliminated. As a result, sales shot up some 40%
in the first year.
With some nuances, this self-same expository
writing attitude can be - and should be - applied to speaking, as well.
Essential
Approach to Expository Writing
Because creative writing and expository writing
have essentially different objectives and attitudes, they require essentially
different approaches.
Creative Writing Approach
Play with language to generate pleasure.
In other words, use your mastery of the language to amuse and entertain.
Expository Writing Approach
Organise information to generate interest.
Clever use of language will never make dull information interesting; however,
you can organise the information to make it interesting. Forget about literary
pyrotechnics. Concentrate on content.
We are now going to leave creative writing,
because most of what we write, and say, is expository.
What Do We
Mean by "Good Writing"?
We are now ready to return to the notion of how
mathematics applies to good writing, and by extension to good speaking.
When someone reads an expository text or listens
to an expository speech, they are likely to judge it as good or not good. You
probably do this yourself. But what do you actually mean when you say a text or
a speech is "good".
After some struggling, most people will usually
settle on two criteria: clear and concise.
Mathematics depends on unambiguous definitions;
if you are not clear about the problem, you are unlikely to find the solution.
So we are going to examine these criteria in some detail in order to establish
objective definitions - and even quasi-mathematical formulae - for
testing whether a text or a presentation truly is "good".
A. Clarity
How do you know that a text is clear?
If this sounds like a silly question, try to
answer it. You will probably do something like this:
Question: What makes this text clear?
Answer: It is easy to understand.
Question: What makes it easy to understand?
Answer: It is simple.
Question: What do you mean by simple?
Answer: It is clear.
You in fact end up going around in a circle. The
text is clear because it is easy to understand . . . because it is simple . . .
because it is clear.
"Clear", "easy to
understand", and "simple" are synonyms. Whilst synonyms may have
nuances, they do not have content, so you are still left to your own subjective
appreciation. But what you think is clear may not be clear to someone else.
This is why we give "clear" an
objective definition, almost like a mathematical formula. To achieve clarity
-i.e. virtually everyone will agree that it is clear - you must do three
things.
- Emphasise what is of key importance.
- De-emphasise what is of secondary
importance. - Eliminate what is of no importance.
In short: CL
=
Like all mathematical formulae,
this one works only if you know how to apply it, which requires judgement.
In this case, you must first decide what is of key
importance, i.e. what are the key ideas you want your readers to take
away from your text? This is not always easy to do. It is far simpler to say
that everything is of key importance, so you put in everything you have. But
there is a dictum that warns: If everything is important, then nothing is.
In other words, unless you first do the work of defining what you really want
your readers to know, they won't do it for you. They will get lost in your text
and either give up or come out the other end not knowing what it is they have
read.
What about the second element of the formula,
de-emphasise what is of secondary importance?
That sounds easy enough. You don't want key
information and ideas to get lost in details. If you clearly emphasise what is
of key importance - via headlines, Italics, underlining, or simply how you
organise the information - then whatever is left over is automatically
de-emphasised.
Now the only thing left to do is eliminate what
is of no importance.
But how do you distinguish between what is of
secondary importance and what is of no importance? Once again, this requires
judgement, which is helped by the following very important test.
Secondary importance is anything that
supports and/or elaborates one or more of the key ideas. If you judge that a
piece of information in fact does support or elaborate one or more key ideas,
then you keep it. If not, you eliminate it.
B.
Conciseness
How do you know that a text is concise?
If this once again sounds like a silly question,
let's try to answer it.
Question: What makes this text concise?
Answer: It is short.
Question: What do you mean by short?
Answer: It doesn't have too many words.
Question: How do you know it doesn't have too many words?
Answer: Because it is concise.
So once again we end up going around in a
circle. The text is concise because it is short . . . because it doesn't have
too many words . . . because it is concise.
Once again, we have almost a mathematical
formula to solve the problem. To achieve conciseness, your text should meet two
criteria. It must be as:
- Long as necessary
- Short as possible
In symbols: CO = LS
If you have fulfilled the criteria of
"clarity" correctly, you already understand "as long as
necessary". It means covering all the ideas of key importance you have
identified, and all the ideas of secondary importance needed to support and/or
elaborate these key ideas.
Note that nothing is said here about the number
of words, because it is irrelevant. If it takes 500 words to be "as long
as necessary", then 500 words must be used. If it takes 1500 words, then
this is all right too. The important point is that everything that should be
in the text is fully there.
Then what is meant by "as short as
possible"?
Once again, this has nothing do to with the
number of words. It is useless to say at the beginning, "I must not write
more than 300 words on this subject", because 500 words may be the minimum
necessary.
"As short as possible" means staying
as close as you can to the minimum. But not because people prefer short texts;
in the abstract the terms "long" and "short" have no
meaning. The important point is that all words beyond the minimum tend to
reduce clarity.
We should not be rigid about this. If being
"as long as necessary" can be done in 500 words and you use 520, this
is probably a question of individual style. It does no harm. However, if you
use 650 words, it is almost certain that the text will not be completely clear-
and that the reader will become confused, bored or lost.
In sum, conciseness means saying what needs to
be said in the minimum amount of words. Conciseness:
- Aids clarity by ensuring best
structuring of information. - Holds reader interest by providing
maximum information in minimum time.
C. Density
Density is a less familiar concept than clarity
and conciseness, but is equally important. In mathematical form, density
consists of:
- Precise information
- Logically linked
In other words: D = PL
Importance of Precise Information
Suppose you enter a room where there are two
other people and say, "It's very hot today." One of those people
comes from
interprets "hot" to mean about 23°C. The other one comes from
"hot" means 45°C.
You are off to a rather bad start, because each
one has a totally different idea of what you want to say. But suppose you say,
"It's very hot today; the temperature is 28° C." Now there is no room
for confusion. They both know quite clearly that it is 28° C outside and that
you consider this to be very hot.
Using as much precise information as possible in
a text gives the writer two significant advantages:
- Mind Control
Let's not be embarrassed by the term "mind control", because this is
precisely what the good expository writer wants to achieve. He needs for the
reader's mind to go only where he directs it and nowhere else.
Because they can be interpreted in unknown ways, ambiguous terms (so-called
"weasel words") such as "hot", "cold",
"big", "small", "good", "bad", etc.,
allow the reader's mind to escape from the writer's control. An occasional
lapse is not critical; however, too many weasel words in a text will inevitably
lead to reader confusion, boredom and disinterest.
- Reader Confidence
Using precise information generates confidence,
because it tells the reader that the writer really knows what he is talking
about.
Reader confidence is important in any kind of text, but it is crucial in
argumentation. If you are trying to win a point, the last thing you want is the
reader to challenge your data, but this is the first reaction imprecise writing
will provoke. Precise writing ensures that the discussion will be about the
implications of the information, i.e. what conclusions should be drawn, not
whether the whole thing needs to go back for further investigation.
Importance of Logical Linking
Precise data (facts) by themselves are
insufficient. To be meaningful, data must be organised to create information,
i.e. help the reader understand.
There are two important tests to apply when
converting data into information:
- Relevance
Is a particular piece of data really needed? As we have seen, unnecessary data
damages understanding and ultimately undermines confidence. Therefore, any data
that do not either aid understanding or promote confidence
should be eliminated.
- Misconceptions
The logical link between data must be made explicit to prevent the reader from
coming to false conclusions. For example: a specific situation may be confused
for a general one; credit for an achievement may seem to belong to only one
person when it really belongs to a group; a company policy may appear to apply
only in very specific circumstances rather than in all circumstances, etc.
To ensure that a logical link is clear, place the two pieces of data as close
to each other as possible, preferably right next to each other.
When data are widely separated, their logical relationship is masked and the
reader is unlikely to make the connection.
What do you want? What do your readers want?
I frequently ask non-professional writers what
they are thinking when they sit down at the keyboard to compose their text. The
answer is usually something like, "How do I want to present my
material?" "What tone and style should I use?" "In what
order should I put my key ideas?" And so on.
However, if you start with the correct attitude,
i.e. no one wants to read what you write, your first task is none of these.
Ahead of anything else, you must find reasons why people should spend
their time to read what you write.
In general, you cannot force people to read what
they don't want to, even if they are being paid to do so.
For example, you produce a report defining
opportunities for increased sales and profits. However, if it is not well
written, even people who must read it as part of their job are unlikely to give
it their full attention. On the other hand, if they immediately see their own self-interest
in reading what you have written, they will do so gladly and with full
attention. In fact, you probably couldn't stop them from reading it!
There are various methods to generate such a
strong desire to read, depending on the type of readers and the type of
information. Whatever the most appropriate device, the crucial thing is to
recognise the imperative need to use it. Until this need is met, nothing else
is of any importance.
Editor’s note:
a speech is a social one. Therefore, whilst the underlying principles of good
writing and good speaking are constant, the way they are applied can be
markedly different. In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking
(Almost) like a Professional, Mr. Yaffe’s recently published book,
clearly explains these differences. It also offers several appendices with
cogent examples and pertinent, effective exercises.
Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer
with The Wall Street Journal and a
marketing communication consultant; He currently teaches a course in good
writing and good speaking in
the “I” of the Storm is available either in a print version or
electronic version from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (www.storypublishers.be) and Amazon (www.amazon.com).
For further information, contact:
Philip
Yaffe
61,
avenue des Noisetiers
B-1170
Brussels, Belgium
Tel : 32 (0)2 660 0405
About the Author
Philip Yaffe is a former
writer with The Wall Street Journal and international marketing communication
consultant. He now teaches courses in persuasive communication in
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