So, I've been talking with you about using the inverted triangle structure. Am I serious about how important using this structure is? I really am. So let me give you some examples of why this structure matters. First thing I'm going to do is, I'm going to give you some good examples. Some paragraphs that fit this inverted triangle structure really clearly. So here's one, "Influenza, commonly called the flu, can be a dangerous disease. In some cases, the flu can cause death or other serious complications such as pneumonia or bacterial infections. The flu is especially dangerous for young children and in infants, pregnant women, and the elderly, but it can cause death or serious harm for people of any age or state." Notice that I've bolded that first sentence. The core idea is the flu can be dangerous and all the other information in this paragraph supports that point. It can cause death, it can cause complications, it can harm young children, it can harm the elderly, it's all supporting this basic point of flu can be a dangerous disease. Here's another one, "C-section deliveries disrupt the exposure of newborns to their mother's vaginal bacterial community, also known as the vaginal microbiome. A microbiome is a unique community of microbes in each area of the body much like the diversity of species that exist in different climates. Naturally delivered babies adopt the beneficial bacteria present in their mother's vaginal microbiome, whereas c-section deliveries do not." Again notice the core point here is that, C-section deliveries are disrupting the exposure of newborns to the beneficial vaginal bacteria of their mother. And the two other sentences in this paragraph support the idea that this is a valuable exposure that is being disrupted because of the method of delivery. Now let me show you some paragraphs where the writer tries to do too much. They're trying to get too much across in one paragraph. So here's one about graphic health warnings, "Graphic health warnings or GHWs are messages that use exemplars- human characters or relevant graphic images to try and make health warning salient for widespread audiences. In anti-smoking campaigns, GHWs use emotionally evocative exemplars to make people remember the messages. One example that people usually remember is the "Healthy versus Smoker's Lung" graphic with the message "smoking causes lung disease" The use of human exemplars is particularly important for anti-smoking campaigns because they can affect people's perceptions and interpretations of a health warning. The goal of using exemplars in tobacco GHWs is to make health consequences of smoking visually authentic and of serious concern to people." Now, all of this is related to smoking and graphic health meant warnings, but there's actually a couple of different things going on here. This first part is really describing what graphic health warnings are whereas the second part of the paragraph is describing the fact that using human exemplars is important. So, why are we making this one paragraph? It would actually be much better if we broke it into two. Now those two highlighted sentences actually serve as the central message for each paragraph, and we're back to having more of an inverted triangle structure here. Here's another example. This one is about discussion of Angelina Jolie and her discussion of her mutations related to breast cancer. So the paragraph goes, "Pertinent risk information was left out of many articles reporting on Angelina Jolie's medical announcement of her BRCA mutation and elective mastectomy. Though many articles describe the increased risk of breast cancer due to a BRCA mutation, only a third of articles describe BRCA mutations as rare in the general population. Only some articles addressed the relative efficacy of surgery relative to other prevention against breast cancer (30%) and fewer presented risks of mastectomy( 10%). We know that selective use of information and media can influence the audience's perceptions by limiting their range of interpretations for complex topics. Exclusion of pertinent risk information may have implications for the public's future utilization of BRCA genetic testing." Did you hear as I was reading through that there was a sort of shift. The first part was all about the statistics of, what was included in the articles. The second part was, the implications of the fact that that information was not included in the articles. And you can again find that sentence in the middle of the paragraph, that's where that transition is happening. So again, if we break that apart and make it two set paragraphs rather than one, there's a natural second central message. The second one is about, "We know that the selective use of information in the media can influence audience perceptions." And by making a second paragraph about that, it actually makes the whole flow of the argument a lot clearer. Now, sometimes the problem is that the point is there, it's just at the end. That academic triangle where you only get to the point at the bottom. So let me give you an example of that. Sentence one, "Though not traditionally seen as health professionals, pastors play vital roles in facilitating health behavior change of both congregants and the surrounding communities of churches. In the African American community, pastors are viewed as highly respected authority figures and are extremely influential to their congregants and surrounding communities. Pastor endorsed health materials therefore, have a strong probability of influencing behavior change to help alleviate the health disparities that affect African Americans." Now, notice that sort of the core point here is the last sentence. The idea that pastor endorsed health materials might be particularly influential in inducing behavior change. But it's at the end I had to work my way through details about pastors to get there. So, what if we just flip this around? Move and put the pastor endorsed health materials have a strong probability of influencing behavior change first. Now actually the whole paragraph works very smoothly. You start by making the core idea that these types of materials might be particularly influential and then you support that point by noting that pastors play vital roles in facilitating behavior change, and that they're highly respected authority figures. Both of those points support the core idea. Next I'll give you a harder one. This one's a bit more complicated, it has got lot going on in it, but it's a good example of the kind of editing that you can do to make an inverted triangle paragraph that's much clearer. So here's the paragraph as it starts. "The way your community is designed can increase your child's engagement in physical activity. The design of a community might actually discouraged physical activity. However, communities can also be designed and built to promote active lifestyles through utilizing smart growth principles which include walkable streets, spaces together, diverse housing, and transportation options, and walkability through creating proximity. Motivation for physical activity can be built into the environment." Now, there's a lot going on here, and so I'm going to start by breaking apart the sentences into their separate components. So as written, there are four separate sentences. The way your community is designed, the design of a community might discourage physical activity, this big sentence number three that's got a lot of different ideas about things that can be done to promote active lifestyles, and then a sentence at the end that says motivation can be built into the environment. The first problem is that the same point basically get said three times. That there's a link between the physical environment and physical activity. And sentence two is essentially the same statement in reverse. So look at this, there's all this highlighted stuff in blue is basically all saying the same thing and number two is actually the same thing almost in reverse. There's a lot of repetition here that doesn't need to be there. So, let's get rid of that redundancy and basically start with sentence three. We get rid of that redundancy, the core idea becomes, "communities can be designed and built to promote active lifestyles." That's a nice central message. It's got a lot of potential impact and it expands into implications. Notice that sentence three had all those different kinds of ideas about how you might promote physical activity. So now that we've gotten rid of the extra stuff at the beginning, we can start to break these up and make the points clear. So if I break up sentence three, you've got smart growth principles, walkable streets, spaces to gather, diverse housing and transportation options, and walkability through proximity. So now I'm going to reorganize a little bit. Combining the two parts that have the main point which was three A and four, and creating separate sentences for each of the remaining points there's different ways of promoting physical activity. So here's the paragraph as I've restructured it. Sentence A) the core central message, Communities can be designed and built to promote active lifestyles. B) Smart growth principles can build motivation for physical activity into the environment. C) For example, close proximity, walkable streets, and spaces to gather all create a sense of walkability and encourages people to walk rather than drive. D) Diverse housing and transportation options, such as bike trails can also encourage physical activity. Notice that B, C and D are now all specific points that support the larger idea that communities can be designed and built to promote active lifestyles. Even though this is in fact shorter than the original, it has all the same points and even a little bit more detail. But that inverted triangle structure means that everything is clearly connected to that core point. Communities can be designed and build to promote active lifestyles. Whether you're writing a proposal, an external report, an internal memo, or something for the public like an op-ed piece, it doesn't matter. You need to think in paragraph chunks, one point each and whenever you can use that inverted triangle structure to make it easier for people to see the connections between your supporting evidence and your core points. Trust me, it will make you clearer and more effective as a communicator.
