Hold anyone’s attention by doing this…
Easy Read
“Any Covid symptoms?” he said.
I was at the doctors office, at the front desk, checking in for my blood test.
“Uhhh, no” I said.
“Have you been outta the coun-ry recently?”
“The country? No, not recently”
“Okay, take a seat over there and we’ll call you to go in”
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‘Brilliant, thank you”
I sat behind two older men, scrolling their phones. The hospital smell filled my nose. You know the one. The sounds of coughing, typing, and turning pages filled my ears. I waited for my name.
“Ryan Heaney?”
“Yes.” I stood up and walked to the secretary.
“Down the hall, second door on the left”
He gave me a yellow post-it-note with my name and a telephone number on it. I got to the second room and knocked.
“C’mon ahead, Ryan” the nurse said.
“Could you put this mask on? It’s protocol”
“Yes, of course” I fumbled.
“Then take a wee seat over there, I’ll just be a sec”
I drew the mask string over my head and went to the blue leather seat. It had two black arm rests making it easier to draw blood.
The nurse typed on a computer to my left, then grabbed a vial with a purple lid, and another with an orange lid.
“Now…can I see your arm?” she asked.
“uh-huh” I mumbled, rolling up my sleeve.
“My name is Emi, by the way. Are you okay with all of this?”
I nodded.
She put a green, belt-like strap on my arm, stretched it to tighten, and fastened it. Her cold fingers tapped above my forearm looking for a ‘good’ vein.
I looked at her finger, at her eyes, at her tied back hair, across the room at a heart monitor, and back at her tapping finger.
“Sharp scratch” she said.
She stuck the needle in and attached the purple vial. It filled quickly.
“So what do you do?” she asked.
“Oh, I’m in marketing”
“Marketing!? That's a different field. I thought you were a doctor with your glasses”
We both laughed. She swapped to the orange vial.
The final blood drops leaked from my vein and she took the needle out, covering the site with a cotton ball.
“Hold this for me please”
I pressed my index finger on the bud.
She released the green strap and taped the cotton to my arm.
“That’s you. All good. Your doctor will be in touch if there are any issues.” she said, smiling.
“Amazing, thanks so much. Enjoy your day.” I said, heading for the door.
“Have a lovely day Ryan, buh-bye.”
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember.”
Did you know our brains actually think in images, not words.
Here’s proof.
A study led by Elinor Amit, a Harvard Scientist, pondered the thorny question of how we think. She split it into visual thinking, and verbal thinking.
When you think of your summer holidays you probably see mimosa’s at the beach, scorching sun, and sudsy shorelines. That’s visual thinking.
But when you think of that big presentation you’ve got coming up in work, you’re likely thinking of what to say, thinking of sentences, inner dialogue. That’s verbal thinking.
But are these ways of thinking inherently different?
As it turns out…no.
To better understand how humans use each mode of thought, Amit designed a series of experiments. In the first, volunteers were asked to create either images or sentences based on pairs of words. These were typically occupations - ballerina, policeman, or teacher.
After visualising an image or sentence using the words, participants were asked one of four questions: How clear were the images or sentences, or how clear were any images or sentences they unintentionally created?
The results are fascinating.
“What we found was there was no difference in the vividness of images,” Amit said. “The subjects didn’t care if we asked them to create an image or not; it was vivid regardless of what we asked them to do.”
People generate images regardless of whether they were asked to visualise something or to think verbally.
Its how our brains are wired. We visualise things all the time.
That's why, when I said earlier —
“She put a green, belt-like strap on my arm, stretched it to tighten, and fastened it. Her cold fingers tapped above my forearm looking for a good vein. “Sharp scratch” she said. She stuck the needle in and attached the purple vial. It filled quickly.”
It put a clear image in your mind. You were in that chair with me. Visual writing put you there. It made it easy for you to see what’s going on.
I could’ve said —
“She strapped my arm up and stuck the needle in. Two vials of blood were taken. She taped a cotton ball to my arm when finished and sent me on my way”
No good. You’re working to understand the scene, to visualise it. The audience must not work to understand what's going on.
🔎 Go deeper here: A scandalously simple way to write conversational copy
When you write with images…
you make it easier for the reader.
They don't have to graft to translate your words to images.
Litter your copy with as many images as you can and make your writing simple to understand, clear — more memorable.
