The evolutionary reason reading is hard †and why thats good news

The evolutionary reason reading is hard – and why thats good news This is why reading most documents feels like hard work There’s one thing about reports that people never seem to talk about. Even after 21 years, and training more than 50,000 people to write well, I really cant recall anyone bringing it up. And that secret is this: reading is hard. I don’t mean we find it difficult to read our email or text messages, or even social media. (Though there’s an awful lot more to doing that than you think.) No, I mean reading reports, official guides or any other vaguely technical document is hard. Hard reading is a feeling that’s familiar to us all. We’ve all been there. It’s Friday afternoon and you’re hunched over a dense document, trying in vain to decipher page after page of turgid text. Each sentence seems like an effort as you strain to wrap your head around just exactly what it is the author is meaning to say. More coffee hasn’t helped. You’re now on your third attempt to read the current paragraph and yet – somehow – the words just aren’t going in. And you’re still on the first page. It’s about as enjoyable and effortless as trudging around Ikea on a wet Saturday afternoon – with a hangover. And yet, those words that seem to get lost between the page and your brain are exactly the same ones that someone else thought were the best way to convey important information from their head to yours. Mind-boggling cost I’m not saying this is a new issue – far from it. But these days we have the technology to create these things in vast numbers. Just think how many times something very similar to the above scenario must play itself out in an organisation. The mind boggles at how much that must cost. Yet this is an opportunity as well as a challenge. Reports that are easy to read rise to the top and make way more impact than the rest. They stand out simply because they are different from the majority. And, rather than being a drain on mental resources, they leave us plenty of brain space to consider their implications and make quick decisions on what to do about them. Producing them is easier said than done though. If that were not the case, then everyone would write them and I would have no need to write this blog post. A report thats easy to read is the exception – simply because that’s the type that most people struggle to produce. But theres one important factor here thats easy to overlook. Reading anything is something of a miracle of biology. Understanding that is the key to getting your documents to the top and really making an impact. As you’re reading this, something incredibly complex is going on in your brain. You are looking at greyscale symbols on a screen and converting them into ideas. Abraham Lincoln called it ‘the greatest invention of the world’ – communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye. A human invention And yes, it is an invention. This is not something we evolved to do. We actually evolved to communicate vocally and face to face, over hundreds of millions of years. We’ve been communicating through symbols, what we now call reading, for less than five-and-a-half thousand years. That’s barely a heartbeat in evolutionary terms, and certainly not long enough to have evolved brain structures dedicated to the task. Instead, we take apparatus that we evolved for a whole variety of other situations and co-opt it into deciphering a seemingly endless string of squiggles and dots. We are utilising our brain’s structure for something it was never meant to do. (And on that Friday afternoon, it probably feels like it.) No artificial intelligence can match this feat, even now. You see proof of this every time you answer a website’s demand to confirm that you’re not a robot. That simple statement placed on the site as a graphics file rather than text is all it takes to differentiate you from a cyborg. Narrow focus: your eyes scan text by taking four or five narrow snapshots every second (Dahaene, 2009) Even capturing the words to process is incredible in itself. The fact that you seem to do it easily is just an illusion. In reality, as you are scanning this text, your brain is instructing your eyes to take four or five snapshots every second (known as saccades). There’s only one small area of your retina that has a high-enough resolution to take these pictures (called the fovea), which means that the snapshots themselves are small, too – occupying only about 15 per cent of your visual field. If you stop and freeze your gaze at any one point, you’ll see that you’re only actually focused on one or two words. Each word is then split into fragments, to be reassembled later. And that’s just the start of it. Next, the brain processes the words in the area that all primates – not just us but our monkey and ape cousins – use to recognise symbols and shapes. It’s no coincidence that the shapes most commonly found in nature are also the most common shapes across all written languages – T and L. These shapes (in various orientations) are the most frequent not just in those that use the Roman alphabet – such as English, French, German or Spanish – but Bengali, Thai, Chinese and even the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians. We then cross-check this information against our database of words. Those we recognise get processed down one neural pathway; those we don’t, we mentally pronounce before checking to see if we recognise the sound pattern. We then choose which words we think we’re reading and that (finally) triggers the thought process. Its incredibly complex and to complete it in a fraction of a second takes a lot of brainpower. With most documents, it probably feels like it. You can almost hear the cogs grinding round as it happens. But not all reading feels like hard work. Sometimes you simply don’t notice the cognitive effort going on behind the scenes. In fact, there are many things we read that don’t feel like reading at all. We simply get lost in the flow (even if we didn’t intend to). And that’s the stuff we return to again and again. This doesn’t mean writing that material is easy, of course. Far from it. The old saying ‘easy read, hard write’ has never been more true than when it comes to writing good documents. Make it easier The trick is to write them with the brain in mind. Use good design to make them easy on the eye. Incorporate lots of white space. Use narrow columns that are easy for the eye to scan across and move onto the next line quickly. Use short, powerful words in between the technical ones. Note that this is not the same as eliminating all jargon. Jargon is fine as long as you’re sure that your audience will understand it. But don’t make the process of reading any harder than it needs to be by trying to impress your reader with flowery language. (As Leonardo da Vinci said, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.) Instead, state things as simply as you can, so that the brain doesn’t have to waste cognitive energy on deciphering what you mean. Devise a structure that flows logically. Draw people in at the beginning with a captivating introduction and then keep your reader reading with a document that flows easily from beginning to end. And then finish as powerfully as you started, so that your interaction with the reader doesn’t stop there. You want them to continue thinking about what you’ve written long after they’ve closed the document. Your aim should be to get into their heads, to set up camp in their brains. Communicate your thoughts to their minds through their eyes in as straightforward a way as possible and you’ll really get them thinking. Take this approach consistently and your documents will be in the small minority that resonate with your readers. They may even thank you for it. But even if they don’t, they won’t forget it. And that will put you in a very strong position. References Dehaene, S (2009). Reading in the brain: the science and evolution of a human invention. London: Penguin Liversedge, SP, and Findlay, JM (2000). Saccadic eye movements and cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4(1): 6-14. Kemmerer, D (2015); The cognitive neuroscience of language. Hove: Psychology Press Rubin, GS, and Turano, K (1992). Reading without saccadic eye movements. Vision Research 32(5): 895-902. Spoehr, KT, and Smith, EE (1975). The role of orthographic and phonotactic rules in perceiving letter patterns. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception and Performance 104(1): 21-34. Image credit: LookerStudio / Shutterstock

What You Need to Know About Online Education

What You Need to Know About Online Education Exploring Online Education: Online education is often preferred by professionals, parents, and students who need a flexible school schedule. This article will help you understand the basics of online education, recognize its benefits and drawbacks, and choose an online education program that fits your needs. What is Online Education?: Online education is any type of learning that occurs through the internet. Online education is often called: distance learningdistance educationvirtual learningonline learninge-learningweb-based training Is Online Education Right for You?: Online education isn’t for everyone. People who are most successful with online education tend to be self-motivated, skilled with scheduling their time, and capable of meeting deadlines. Advanced reading and writing skills are often required to excel in text-heavy online education courses. See: Is Online Learning Right for You? Online Education Pros: Online education offers flexibility for people who have work or family responsibilities outside of school. Often, students enrolled in online education programs are able to work at their own pace, accelerating their studies if desired. Online education programs may also charge less than traditional programs. Online Education Cons: Students involved in online education often complain that they miss the direct, face-to-face interaction found on traditional campuses. Since coursework is generally self-directed, it is difficult for some online education students to stay engaged and complete their assignments on time. Types of Online Education Programs: When choosing an online education program, you’ll need to decide between synchronous courses and asynchronous courses. Students taking online education courses synchronously are required to log on to their courses at the same time as their professors and peers. Students taking online education courses asynchronously may log on to the course website whenever they choose and do not have to participate in discussions or lectures at the same time as their peers. Choosing an Online Education Program: After surveying your online education options, choose a school that fits your personal goals and learning style. The About.com list of Online Education Program Profiles can help you make the right decision.

Week 4 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Week 4 - Assignment Example 7), are increasingly becoming aware of code of ethics, ethical practices and their relation to the community as a whole that it works in. This piece of research work presents a brief explanation of moral and ethical issues faced by managers in relation to the termination of employees from their jobs. This paper outlines the relation between ethical managerial practices and social issues related to termination with case analysis ethical dilemma that an organization and management faced due to termination. When a person’s job is involuntarily terminated for any reason, the loss of job causes significant distress, regret, bitterness and financial loss as well. All employees are rightful not to be unfairly or unjustifiably dismissed from his job (Davenpor, Crotty and Torres, 2000, p. 7). When an employee is terminated from his job for no apparent reason, or for a reason which cannot be justified, it is more likely to cause ethical and moral issues. A manager’s most important duty and responsibility is that he should bring good people to the organization in such a way that those good people will stay long and satisfy with their jobs (Trevino and Nelson, 2007, p. 155). The social set up and legal systems, though it can be different from country to country, have specific views regarding what is right and what is wrong both morally and ethically. For instance, Kleinig and Smith (2001) described that the United States and many other countries are founded on a strong belief in and commitment to the individual rights and their freedom and therefore these rights are moral acclaims as well as forces of law (p. 205). As there are specific views regarding ethical and moral practices, it is more likely that an employer’s act of terminating an employee can cause moral and ethical dilemma if employer’s act cannot be justified according to the general social and legal perspectives. Workers are right to be treated fairly in the

Evaluating the human resource development in public and private sector Dissertation

Evaluating the human resource development in public and private sector IN Oman - Dissertation Example The overall aim of evaluating the human resource development in public and private sector in Oman cannot be achieved in the absence of a benefiting research design. The researcher shall therefore use the case study research design to conduct the present study. With the case study research design, the researcher shall be offered the opportunity to select specific scenarios and cases for both the private and public sectors in Oman to investigate in. The case study shall also offer the opportunity of meeting and interacting with the most suitable and appropriate respondents whose inputs would affect the research positively. In the course of the case study, the researcher shall select specific institutions, companies and organizations that fall under both the private and public sectors. These institutions, companies and organizations shall also have different industrial background so that a well balanced and comprehensive view of human resource development as it cuts across different qua rters of Oman shall be seen. This is to say that the case study shall not be limited to specific industries or service providers. The researcher shall build a sample size that shall be made up of two hundred (200) respondents. These two hundred (200) respondents shall be solicited from as many as forty (40) different organizations and institutions. This means that there shall be five (5) respondents from each company. Among the companies, there shall be twenty (20) from the private sector and twenty (20) from the public sector.

New Sports Stadiums and Taxpayer Abuse :: Argumentative Persuasive Essay Examples

There seems to be a domino effect through out the U.S., new stadiums are being built, teams are demanding that their city build them a new stadium to play in but it is not necessary to build these stadiums. The most obvious change in new stadiums is coming from baseball. In the last 10-15 years many new baseball stadiums have been built, but who is paying for these stadiums? The teams and the owners that are demanding the stadiums, or the taxpayers? The answer is that taxpayers are picking up a huge amount of the cost to build a new stadium. Before the Depression stadiums were built by using private funds, some of these stadiums include: Wrigley Field, Tiger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park ("Sports Pork", 3). All of these parks are very memorable for lots of reasons, mostly the players that played and or play there. Why when these stadiums were built were they a fraction of the cost that it is to build a stadium today? In the 1980's America was spending about 1.5 billion on new stadiums; in the 1990's it spent 11 billion ("Walls Come", 2). Furthermore, in 1967 the cost to build the Kingdome was 67 million, in 1999 the cost to build Safeco Field was 517.6 million. On top of the cost difference, not only was the Kingdome multi purpose but also it held more people. The capacity of the Kingdome for baseball seating was 59,166; the seating at the new Safeco Field is 46,621. Although the Kingdome was starting to fall apart, it was decades away from its useful life ("Walls Come", 2). In fact, in 1994 tiles fell from th e ceiling and the cost to fix was 70 million, which was done. It is possible that one could argue that Seattle was in need of a new stadium. To build a stadium and have an estimated price is one thing, but having tons of extras added on that are going to have the cost overrun by 100 million dollars is a little ridiculous. Many other cities are also either building new stadiums or contemplating it, 46 major league stadiums and arenas have been built or renovated for teams and 49 more are under construction or in the planning stages ("Debating", 1). Of the 10 highest valued Major League Baseball teams, 6 moved into new stadiums in the 1990's.

Reading response on education and communication Essay

                 In education settings, communication is an important role in affecting the fates of students, especially in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural setting. Analyzing and improving these communications in schools that comprise of an ethnically diverse student body as well as improving the communications is in the best interest of shaping the academic future and sealing the academic fate for these students. This is because these communications, as in negative perceptions and stereotypes, may negatively affect the performance. Therefore, designing a communication system that supports equity as well as enhancing the full human talent development of all students and all groups of students, is important. Discussion                     In matters of diversity and equity, communication is face real-time dilemmas. These issues are such as direct quotes made by people, which in essence are mere stereotypes. In most cases, people make direct assumptions and claims about a certain culture and its orientation on education (Pollock, 37). Some people will claim that Asian parents take education seriously, and cheer on their children, and that is the reason Asian students are likely to perform excellently. In the same cultural stereotype, it is argued that black and Latino parents are not so concerned with matters of education, hence their children do not do well in school.                  Getting to analyze these claims is an important factor to changing communications into positive communication that supports equity. The key strategy is analyzing the nouns, which are the subjects of the stereotypes and overstatements. An understanding of the groups under criticism is important (Darder, 250). This is through asking the critics to analyze the subjects. This encourages attacking the script and not the speakers. Since these claims often misstate average patterns, it is important, to for example look at the struggling lives of Asian in America as a factor before judging their perception on education. Conclusion                        Most importantly, a critical analysis on the cultures is key to understanding their behaviors, and this will assist even teachers and student equally in adopting communications modes that promote unity, as well as enhance an equal opportunity for the nurturing and development of human talent. References Darder, Antonia. Culture and Difference: Critical Perspectives on the Bicultural Experience in the United States. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey, 1995. Print. Pollock, Mica. Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School. New York: New Press, 2008. Internet resource. Source document

Philosophy Free Will Essay - 1687 Words

Goodridge  ­ 1 Henry Goodridge 11/10/2014 Phil 1 ­A Professor Teuber Some may think that a belief in determinism eliminates the possibility of free will, and even destroys the credibility of being held accountable for one’s actions. Within the context of the pizza and yogurt problem, this means that not only was eating pizza unavoidable, but that the repercussions of the event should not be placed on the shoulders of the diner. On the flip side, a libertarianist might argue that a vast pool of options exists whenever a problem is encountered, therefore meaning that any consequences of a chosen action are the fault of the decision maker. Going back to the pizza and yogurt example, the libertarianist could argue that the choice to†¦show more content†¦Not only this, but the thought processes that lead me to that decision, every argument for and against eating pizza that went through my mind would enter my head in an identical way once again. If I then accidentally knocked a glass of water off the table where I sat down with my pizza, then I would make the same mistake again when going through the same scenario. As long as nothing has changed, the exact same set of events would happen each time. This is because when faced with the decision to eat the pizza or the yogurt, my experiences, my natural inclinations, my environment, and practically everything else that lead me to the moment where I am about to pick my food causes me to end up eating pizza. My brain has been hardwired by the world around me to select one specific option in each and every decision that I have to make, and the psychological factors that go into that decision didnt just spring out of nowhere. Now this raises two issues which seemingly put determinism at the opposite end of the spectrum from free will. The first conflicts with free will and libertarianism on the large scale by seeming to prohibit it’s very existence. 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