Planning 101

This video about a brick layer is a good example of poor planning and how accidents can occur as a result of this. So there is no mistake like the brick layer makes, it is important to plan and logically organise information in a document (Eunson 2012). Costigan (2014) explains that planning is establishing a scheme or structure for how you are going to do something. A study by Niedwienska, Janik, & Jarczynska (2013) demonstrated that adults who had to perform detailed planning completed their intended activities better than those who did not plan for their intentions. 

Firstly, what is your message? It is important to sit down and work out what the message you are trying to convey is. Once you have that sorted, it is important to work out a structure of what you want to have in your document. When I plan something out in an essay for example, I will put a heading on each paragraph stating what the main topic will be.  Then I will have dot points on the key points in each paragraph. As a result, this makes what I have to write about much more clearer.

Another crucial aspect of planning is time. It is very easy to not manage time correctly and soon enough, time would have run out and then it is too late to do your document. The University of Kent (2015) share some advice on time planning which includes prioritising which is focusing on urgent and important tasks rather than those that are not important; list making to remind you of what you need to do when and avoiding procrastination. Locker and Kaczmarek (2011, p. 64) suggest that 'you should set aside two-thirds of your time for planning and revising when writing and this is appropriate for most communication practice'.

Time Planning
Source: Next Level Partner, 2015

Planning is a crucial part to conveying a message effectively and hopefully through these tips and tricks, it becomes much easier to do so and not have any mistakes like the brick layer.

References:

Eunson, B 2012, Communicating in the 21st century, John Wiley & Sons, Milton.

Locker, KO & Kaczmarek, SK 2011, Business communication: building critical
skills, McGraw-Hill, New York. 

Niedwienska, A, Janik, B & Jarczynska A 2013, 'Age-related differences prospective memory tasks: The role of planning and personal importance', International Journal of Psychology, vol. 48, issue 6, p. 1291.

University of Kent 2015,  How to manage your time effectively, viewed 22 April 2015, http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/time.htm

Time Planning 2015, digital image, Next Level Partner, viewed 22 April 2015, http://nextlevelpartner.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834515d1969e20148c84c27ab970c-popup

Zeffizzle 2007, Poor planning, video, 7 April, viewed 22 April 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4irivw_UlI

A picture is worth a thousand words..

When an audience is reading a book or article that only has words in it, are they completely interested or do they zone out? Is there a way to allow the audience to engage more in the reading and understand it better?

This is a different kind of meaning for eye candy..
Source: Michellis13, 2015

Eunson (2012, p. 44) describes eye candy to be 'visual material designed to reinforce the meaning of spoken or written messages'. Eye candy can come in many different forms such as pictures, videos, graphs or diagrams. Although eye candy can be very effective in trying to explain complex information, it is important not to over use it as it is easy to get carried away and create Chartjunk which is unnecessary and distracting graphics (Eunson 2012).  Costigan (2014) states that graphics should never be included in a document without explanation and should be placed as close as is practical to reference text. 

In saying that, The Oxford Learner's Dictionary (2010) claims that eye candy is attractive but not intelligent or useful. 

However, there is a lot of evidence available that supports the effectiveness of eye candy and in particular, pictures. A recent study by Fong, Hammond & Hitchman (2009) compared the impact of the introduction of pictorial warnings on tobacco packets in Australia in 2005 to that of the introduction of  text- only warnings in the United Kingdom in 2003. Behavioural indicators that are predictive of quit attempts increased to a greater extent among smokers after the Australian pictorial warnings were introduced than they did in the United Kingdom after enhanced text-only warnings were introduced. 

Pictorial warnings on cigarette packets
Source: Financial Times, 2015 

If eye candy is strategically used for all the right reasons, it can then be effective and engage an audience to be more interactive and understand material better.

References:

Costigan, L 2014, Lesson 6: Writing for understanding, course notes, COMM11003 Communication in Professional Contexts, CQUniversity e-courses, https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/pluginfile.php/116707/mod_resource/content/1/Weekly%20lesson%206.pdf 

Eunson, B 2012, Communicating in the 21st century, John Wiley & Sons, Milton.

Financial Times 2015, Australia unveils no-brand tobacco packets, digital image, viewed 21 April 2015, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/96ece836-60ed-11e0-8899-00144feab49a.html#axzz3XwQnY0Y4

Fong, GT, Hammond, D & Hitchman, SC 2009, 'The impact of pictures on the effectiveness of tobacco warnings', Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 87, issue 8, pp. 640-643.

Michellis13 2015, Eyecandy, digital image, viewed 21 April 2015, http://michellis13.deviantart.com/art/eye-candy-177489594

Oxford Learners Dictionary 2015, Eye candy definition, viewed 21 April 2015, http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/eye-candy?q=eye+candy

Why is research so critical?

Research, according to Wilcox, Cameron, Reber & Shin (2013, p. 90) is an 'integral part of the planning and development process'. Without collecting and analysing data, society are unable to make decisions and map out strategies.  Eslake (2006) supports this statement by stating that in the absence of accurate and reliable information, people and organisations will make bad decisions; they will be unable to help others to make better decisions; and no one will be able to ascertain whether the decisions made by particular individuals or organisations were the best ones that could have been. Watch the video below for some more information on why research is important.

However, in regards to looking for certain research, people must be able to decide what is safe to use and what isn't.  When researching, reliable and credible sources should be used in order to prove a fact, rather than providing a guess. The audience want to know the facts and they want to know where it came from and how it was proven. Deciding which research adheres to these standards, all comes down to ensuring research is collected and derived from credible sources. Eunson (2012) states that sources can include primary research such as surveys, and secondary data is a re-examination of primary data such as encyclopedias. However, all this data should be extracted from experienced research companies, statistic and government websites or peer reviewed journal articles, rather then an individual voicing their 'gueses' on their blog or on Wikipedia. 

Source: Quickmeme, 2015

Data needs to be proven by qualified individuals that can provide evidence, in order for it to be reliable and credible. From this, the audience will be able to have trust in what they are reading as it will be valid and genuine. 

References:

Eslake, S 2006, The importance of accurate, reliable and timely data, viewed 13 April 2015, http://www.anz.com/documents/economics/The_Importance_of_Data.pdf 

Eunson, B 2012, Communicating in the 21st century, John Wiley & Sons, Milton.

Quick meme 2015, digital image, viewed 13 April 2015, http://www.quickmeme.com/Actual-Advice-Mallard/page/1816/

Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education, New Jersey. 

Wilson 2014, Why research is so important? video, viewed 13 April 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuVGo3AJhqA