ABSTRACT
This chapter considers several pragmatic techniques for conveying information more impactfully. These techniques comprise: salience, summarizing, and some basic graphic approaches for conveying complex information quickly. Salience is further linked to timing, and recency. By way of illustration, researchers have analysed how people use information that is broadly available and salient, in that its content could influence an immediate decision. Salience also relates to framing and to narrative. Summarizing, then, is about making the readers point in the fewest words, and in ways that let their decision maker or the general public understand the issues and options for responding. Summarizing then leads to another point: the importance of visual organization for impact. Planners and policy analysts benefit from understanding some basic graphic design principles, along with the use of visual summaries. A visual summary is also impactful; and the reader can provide one with very little graphic design experience.
