Clarity Over Correctness
Newsletter #116
This Week:
Toddler Semantics
ICYMI: A Tug on the Heartstrings
Spotted
Before We Go…
1.What My Toddler Taught Me About Language
Last weekend, we took our two-year-old out to dinner. If you’re a parent, you know all too well that taking a toddler to a new restaurant is always a gamble. Will they have something he’ll eat, or are we relying on the emergency Goldfish stash in the diaper bag to get us through?
This time, we got lucky. Cheese pizza was on the menu. A guaranteed win.
The food arrived. He took one bite…and immediately rejected it. It became abundantly clear that what was in front of him was not, in fact, cheese pizza – at least not in his mind.
We quickly got to the root of the issue: this pizza didn’t match the version he had in his head from the place we go almost every weekend. It looked different. It was cut differently. The crust was puffier. To us, it was clearly cheese pizza. To him, it wasn’t even close.
So I tried something.
2. ICYMI: Make ‘Em Cry
Our first story focuses on language choice. This one focuses on approach. Here’s a beautiful example of why storytelling matters. It humanizes data. It brings emotion to facts. We dare you to try to watch this segment without feeling a tug on your heartstrings.
3. Spotted
We love this insight from Erin Peterson. She’s referring specifically to alumni content, but the same concept could apply to many of us and our work.
“Your alumni magazine should not make your readers feel bad about themselves! But when every story features a Nobel Prize winner, a successful CEO, or a researcher who's curing a major disease, readers often start to worry that their ordinary lives aren't enough.
A magazine that's supposed to build connection with its alumni begins to erode it. (If you've ever heard an alum jokingly — but not really jokingly — say ‘I don't think I could get into my alma mater if I applied today,’ that's exactly the disconnect I'm talking about.) Page after page of peak human achievement is a lot for a reader to sit with. That's why the best alumni magazines aren't just showcasing the biggest stars. They also make room for the funny, ridiculous-in-the-best-way people — and the only-at-college things they do together.
Take, for example, this fantastically joyful story of a lettuce-eating club (!!!) for the University of Washington Magazine. It's a bonkers concept, it's hilariously written, and it's headlined in a human, non-search-engine-optimized way.” Keep reading.
4. Before We Go…
From The New York Times: ‘Real Housewives’ changed the way we argue. Blame the memes.
The influence of The Real Housewives franchise – especially through the torrent of memes it has generated – has reshaped how people argue and communicate, spreading the show’s dramatic, quotable moments into wider culture and everyday online discourse. (One EO Reporter author may or may not own a print of the cat meme shown in the article.)
From CBS News: Why this week’s social media verdicts could finally hold tech giants to account.
A New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect young users from predators and misleading them about app safety, while a separate Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in ways that harmed a 20-year-old’s mental health, awarding $6 million in damages.
From Canva: 10 Canva tips, tricks, and hacks to save you time and smooth your workflow
Use Canva on the regular? Here are a few tricks that may improve your process and upgrade your graphics.
Forward this to the friend you debate semantics with.