The essentials of communication for professionals educators students and entrepreneurs from
organizing your thoughts to inspiring your audience. Do you give presentations at meetings? Do
you ever have to explain a complicated subject to audiences unfamiliar with your field? Do you
make pitches for ideas or products? Do you want to interest a lecture hall of restless students
in subjects that you find fascinating? Then you need this book. Make It Clear explains how to
communicate—how to speak and write to get your ideas across. Written by an MIT professor who
taught his students these techniques for more than forty years the book starts with the
basics—finding your voice organizing your ideas making sure what you say is remembered and
receiving critiques ("do not ask for brutal honesty”)—and goes on to cover such specifics as
preparing slides writing and rewriting and even choosing a type family. The book explains why
you should start with an empowerment promise and conclude by noting you delivered on that
promise. It describes how a well-crafted explicitly identified slogan symbol salient idea
surprise and story combine to make you and your work memorable. The book lays out the VSN-C
(Vision Steps News-Contributions) framework as an organizing structure and then describes how
to create organize your ideas with a "broken-glass” outline how to write to be understood how
to inspire how to defeat writer's block—and much more. Learning how to speak and write well
will empower you and make you smarter. Effective communication can be life-changing—making use
of just one principle in this book can get you the job make the sale convince your boss
inspire a student or even start a revolution.
