The story has been all over the news: Emcee Steve Harvey misread his cue card at the recent Miss Universe beauty pageant and announced the wrong winner. Everyone watched in shock as the Miss Universe crown and sash were transferred from the Colombian contestant who thought she’d won to the real winner, a contestant from the Philippines.
I just read an online article that argued – convincingly – that the mistake was due not to Harvey’s carelessness, but to a badly designed cue card. What does this have to do with writing? A LOT. I’ll make that connection in a moment.
You can see the card in the picture below. The top of the card identifies the second runner-up – USA. Then comes the first runner-up, Colombia. Finally, in small letters at the bottom, under “Miss Universe,” we see the winner: Philippines.
Bottom line (no pun intended!): The card failed to showcase the information that Harvey needed.
To avoid confusion, the card could have highlighted the winner’s country – Philippines – by placing it near the top, using a larger typeface, or highlighting it in color (or doing all three). Even an arrow drawn with a ballpoint pen would have helped.
If you think of that cue card as a written document – which, in a sense, it is – you’ll quickly see the connection to workplace writing. It’s human nature to start from the beginning and work our way to the end. But that causes the most important point to be delayed until the end, where it loses impact. How many letters, emails, and reports are written in the same linear way? And how many mistakes are the result?
Let’s look at a typical situation: Joanna Caffrey, Human Resources Director, is about to send a request to the department heads. Here’s her thinking process: Paul Oates is going on vacation. That means he’ll be away during the regular payroll deadline on the 15th. So…I’d better ask the department heads to send in their payroll reports early.
Here’s Joanna’s email:
To: Department Heads
From: Joanna Caffrey, Human Resources Director
As you know, every employee is entitled to two weeks of paid vacation each year. Paul Oates, our payroll director, will begin his vacation on July 15. That means he will be out of the office on July 20, the normal date for department heads to submit their payroll forms. Accordingly, we’re asking you to submit them by Monday, July 10. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
But those busy department heads don’t care when Paul takes his vacation. Some might not even bother to read the entire email. What part of the message concerns them? The early date for payroll reports. That information should come first. Often you can even omit some of the other information:
To: Department Heads
From: Joanna Caffrey, Human Resources Director
Please submit your payroll reports on July 10 this month so that Paul Oates, our payroll director, can process them before his vacation beginning July 15.
Thanks to computers, we can spotlight important information through color, a larger typeface, and features like boldface, italics, and centering. (Underlining is a bad choice – it’s ugly.)
The Miss Universe example would make a good activity for writing classes. The instructor could display the card and ask: How could the pageant have helped prevent Harvey’s mistake? And what principles can you apply to your own writing tasks?
