Mighty Messages Make Memorable Presentations

JON KOHL

more easily into a person’s understanding. If information comes at us from all sides without sufficient context or a central point, our reaction simply may be to ignore it. Overflowing and disconnected information can lead to exhibits with too many details, and guides whose many, many words stretch far beyond an audience’s attention span.

Message, thesis, theme, topic sentence, hypothesis, main idea, theorem, slogan—different fields dress it in different colors, but that one sentence by whatever costume it wears, can be the toughest of any show. Our field in particular, heritage interpretation, has a small literature dedicated to the writing of that one sentence. Interpretive writers, nature guides, museum docents, zoo educators, and park planners rely heavily on messages to guide their interpretative presentations. Capturing the attention of visitors in zoos, monuments, parks, and museums and quickly delivering an important message in an entertaining fashion to them is the challenge of interpreters the world over. Visitors constantly move and often dedicate precious few minutes to interpretive encounters with guides, signs, and exhibits. Thus, the interpretive message has become the interpreter’s central axis for organizing visitors’ understanding, focusing their appreciation, and provoking their interest. Messages draw on human learning psychology. When an interpreter uses a central message or the plot of a story, information can be tied much

The challenge of heritage interpreters is to bring to life an object, person, or place for people who might not really care at first. It could be George Washington (person), Yosemite (place), or the original American flag (thing). But these things are merely nouns, neutral, inactive, and devoid of a big idea that drapes them in meaning. Interpreters know that people look for meaning, not just facts, to build appreciation. The more a resource (person, place, or thing) can connect to a big idea, the more interest and meaning the resource has for visitors. Consider this scene of a resource becoming a message. “Birds!” yells the young guide. The master interpreter observes that “birds” is a mere thing flying free of ideas. “Beautiful singing birds in the dark jungles of the Amazon,” she tries again. The master notes that she still has no idea, despite the string of descriptors. The master encourages her to connect a big idea to the resource to get a message. At last she says, “Beautiful bird songs in the dark jungles of the Amazon show us that there are still parts of the world

Mighty Messages Make Memorable Presentations

42

J A N UA R Y. F E B R UA R Y 2004

untouched by modern civilization.” The master applauds the young guide’s use of the resource (bird songs) to comment on untouched locations left in the world. Thus, he concludes, a M E S S AG E

=

RESOURCE

+

IDEA

Here are three different approaches to help one write a good, not just grammatically correct, message:

1. Message = Resource + Idea 2. Grammatical Approach

In Sam Ham’s Environmental Interpretation, he outlines the grammatical approach to message writing: · Select a person, place, or object, and fill in “Generally, my presentation (talk, exhibition, etc.) is about…” · Write the thing in more specific terms and complete the following sentence: “Specifically, I want to talk to my audience about...” · Now express the theme completing the following sentence: “After having heard my presentation (read my exhibition, etc.), I want my audience to understand that...” 3. Big Deal Approach

Ham also offers the Big Deal Approach. Finish the following sentence to create your interpretive message: “After the tourists have spent the entire day in our park, walked our trails, read our information, viewed our signs, talked with our staff, and are now just leaving, possibly never to return, if they remember and

the inter preter understand just one message or idea about the park, after everything they have done and seen here, this message that they absolutely have to understand is that...” For both approaches, if you try to insert something at the end, no matter how many descriptors it might be carrying, it won’t work on even the most inept of grammatically attuned ears: “This message that they absolutely have to understand is that beautiful birds in the Amazon.” My grammar checker just underlined the fragment. It doesn’t work. Now: “This message that they absolutely have to understand is that “beautiful bird songs in the Amazon tell us that there are still parts of the world untouched by modern civilization.” 4. Deep Meaning Approach

There are other ways of converting resources into messages. While any one of the readers can write a complete sentence, crafting the right theme for something, like a remote control on my desk, for example, might not come easily. The following steps describe what I call the Deep Meaning Approach.

controls don’t just control channels any more; now you can manage the stereo, lights, and garage door too, all from the comfort of the sofa. 5. Choose the best idea. What else does not getting up from the sofa mean to American society? (Now we are talking bigger than the remote itself.) Maybe remote controls are the early precursors to the computerization of houses. Remote controls are symbols of our society’s high value for convenience at any cost, whether it be money, activity, or even health. 6. Write the message. “The remote control represents the transformation of the American living room by the couch-centered leisure industry into middle-class society’s final resting place.” To most people, remote controls— ancient forests, George Washington’s house, or anti-ballistic missile systems—have little meaning. But it’s not a problem of intelligence. A well-

1. Describe the object. The remote control is black and has blue and purple number buttons, is made by the RCA company, and measures 30 centimeters. 2. Ask why and what. Why is it black? Why did RCA elect to make a remote control at all? What kind of plastic is it? 3. Answer the more interesting questions, and throw away the others. (Since I have not done research, the following are invented answers.) The black color is part of a recent fad in electronics. It is short so that it can be held along with a Coke can in the same hand. RCA made the remote so that we would not have to get up to change the TV channel. 4. Identify the important or meaningful idea. Certainly by not having to get up, the average viewer gains weight. Some legacy

43

ADVERTISER INDEX The Acorn Group 45 Acorn Naturalists 33 Aldrich/Pears Associates 9 Amazing Recycled Products 27 Budd Wentz Productions 45 Best-Ex, Inc. 25 Color-Ad Exhibits and Signage 24 Condit Exhibits 23 Corvus Art 40 Dahn Design 45 Deneen Powell Atelier 1 Dorfman Museum Figures 43 Eastern National 10 Edquist Davis Exhibits 33 Elden Slide Storage 32 Exhibit Design Associates 1 Folia 4 Fossil Graphics INSIDE FRONT COVER General Graphics 43 Grand Visuals 29 GS Images 37 Hopewell Manufacturing 30 InterpPress 22 Interpretive Graphics 42 iZone BACK COVER Jones and Jones Architects 9 KLB Exhibits 40 KVO Industries 25 Legacy Magazine 1 L.W. Milby 37 M. Kaser and Associates 27 Morgan Reptile Replicas 45 Pannier INSIDE BACK COVER Pellets, Inc. 40 Platypus 23 The Portico Group 19 Rauda Scale Models 40 Royal Roads University 26 Sea Reach 29 Second Nature 45 SeeCoast Manufacturing 37 The Sibbett Group 24 Skulls Unlimited 12 Spectralite 32, 41 Split Rock Studios 10 Taylor Studios 26 Tour-mate 30 Vermont Law School 45 Wilderness Graphics 28 Wildware 43 Winsor Fireform 19 Wyss Associates 2–3 Appearance of paid advertising in Legacy magazine does not constitute endorsement of advertisers’ products or services by the National Association for Interpretation.

44

J A N UA R Y. F E B R UA R Y 2004

interpreted and well-presented message can make almost any topic interesting to almost anyone. Whichever method you use, Ham offers five basic characteristics of a good message: · Consists of short, simple, and complete sentences · Contains just one idea · Reveals the global purpose of a presentation · Is specific · Is interesting and motivating if possible Consider a few examples: · Despite the facty that on Honduras’s Caribbean coast ecotourism is young and park infrastructure hardly developed, Lancetilla has earned the reputation as a world-class botanical garden and tourist attraction. · Powerful private interests and a non-profit organization battle to determine the future of Punta Izopo National Park. · Behind the artistic beauty of the colonial architecture of Antigua, Guatemala, can be found the hidden intention of the conquistadors to dominate the artistic expression and customs of the indigenous peoples. · The praying mantis’s stillness belies its sudden and deadly hunting efficiency. · Remote controls in no way save T.V. viewers effort, when it comes time to visit the bathroom during commercials. 5. Making Messages More Lively

Once you have written messages, there are a number of tips that make them even better. Avoid subjective adjectives (important, big, special, rich) that can mean many different things to many different people. “Show, don’t tell,” as they say in beginning creative writing classes.

The orchids are a very important part of the Wilson Botanical Garden’s collection. Okay, why is it important? And what does important mean to you? Interpret, don’t describe. The orchids require particular amounts of light, water, and nutrients to grow. This sentence describes what an orchid needs to grow, but does not interpret those needs. Avoid small ideas. Disease and theft by some tourists threaten the orchid collection. Surely the writer could think of a bigger idea than the obvious. Avoid clichés. The orchids are the greatest treasure in the garden. The cliché “treasure” is so common with biological resources that the word has lost most meaning, and the sentence has also used a subjective adjective. Don’t confuse messages with poetry. The orchids’ deceitful shapes, flowing forms, and vibrant colors entice all sorts of ignorant pollinators to render the plant the vital service of carrying their pollen to the next generation of orchids. The objective of a message is to focus on one clear idea about a resource. The public may never see the actual message; its purpose is to guide the design of your presentation. Save the poetry for the presentation title, exhibit labels, and interpretive talks. Do not confuse messages with marketing. The museum offers more tourist attractions than any other in Boston. Unless you intend to talk about attractions or are writing a slogan, focus on the resource-idea, not its marketability. Marketing comes later. Do good research. People often consider the orchid’s fourth petal the flower’s lower lip. It’s actually the third! Mighty messages make memorable presentations, and that’s the most important theme there is. ■