chapter 9 (BUS111)

(Descriptive Title) Relationship Between Petroleum Demand and Refinery Capacity in the United States

(Informative Title) Refinery Capacity Declines as Petroleum Demand Continues to Grow

(Presenting Data) To compare two or more sets of data

Bar chart, line chart

To emphasize

Call attention to particularly important points by illustrating them with line, bar, and pie charts.

You can work to avoid ethical lapses in your visuals by following these guidelines:

CONSIDER ALL POSSIBLE INTERPRETATIONS—AND MISINTERPRETATIONS. Try to view your visuals from your audience members' perspective. Will their biases, beliefs, or backgrounds lead them to different conclusions than you've intended? For instance, assume you want to show how easy your product is to use, and the photograph you've chosen just happens to show an older person operating the product. Will anyone conclude that what you really mean to say is that your product is so simple that "even an old person can use it"? You can take many steps to emphasize or deemphasize specific elements in your visuals, but make sure you don't inadvertently commit an ethical lapse while doing so. PROVIDE CONTEXT. Even when they are completely accurate, visuals can show only a partial view of reality. Part of your responsibility as a communicator is to provide not only accurate visuals but enough background information to help audiences interpret the visual correctly. Visuals can't always speak for themselves; make sure your audience has enough context to interpret your visuals correctly. DON'T HIDE OR MINIMIZE NEGATIVE INFORMATION THAT RUNS COUNTER TO YOUR ARGUMENT. Obscuring information prevents your audiences from making fully informed decisions regarding your content. DON'T EXAGGERATE INFORMATION THAT SUPPORTS YOUR ARGUMENT. Similarly, you have a responsibility not to oversell information in support of your argument. You should also resist the temptation to alter or enhance photographs and other images to support your arguments. DON'T OVERSIMPLIFY COMPLEX SITUATIONS. By their very nature, visuals tend to present simplified views of reality. This is usually a benefit and one of the key reasons for using visuals. However, take care not to mislead an audience by hiding complications that are important to the audience's understanding of the situation. DON'T IMPLY CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RELATIONSHIPS WITHOUT PROVIDING PROOF THAT THEY EXIST. For example, if you create a line chart that shows how increasing sales seem to track with increasing advertising expenditures, you can claim a correlation but not necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship between the two. You can claim a causal relationship (meaning that the increase in advertising spending caused the increase in sales) only if you can isolate advertising spending as the only factor that can account for the increase in sales. AVOID EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION OR OTHER FORMS OF COERCION. For instance, a photograph of an unhappy child being treated as a social outcast because he or she doesn't own a popular toy could be considered an unethical way to persuade parents to buy that product for their children. BE CAREFUL WITH THE WAY YOU AGGREGATE DATA. Preparing charts, graphs, and tables that present data often involves decisions about aggregating, or grouping, data. Such decisions can have a profound effect on the message your audience receives. For example, if you aggregate daily production levels to show only a single data point for each week, you might be obscuring important variations that happen from day to day. The ways in which you aggregate data for display can affect the messages and meanings that your audience extracts from your visuals.

(Presenting Data) To show massive data sets, complex quantities, or dynamic data

Data visualization

To unify

Depict the relationships among various elements of a whole.

To simplify

Divide complicated descriptions into components that can be depicted with conceptual models, flowcharts, organization charts, or diagrams.

Checklist ✓ Creating Effective Visuals

Emphasize visual consistency to connect parts of a whole and minimize audience confusion. Avoid arbitrary changes of color, texture, typeface, position, or scale. Highlight contrasting points through color, position, and other design choices. Decide whether you want to achieve formal or informal balance. Emphasize dominant elements and deemphasize less important pieces in a design. Understand and follow (at least most of the time) the visual conventions your audience expects. Strive for simplicity and clarity; don't clutter your visuals with meaningless decoration. Follow the guidelines for avoiding ethical lapses. Carefully consider your message, the nature of your information, and your audience to choose which points to illustrate. Select the proper types of graphics for the information at hand and for the objective of the message. Be sure the visual contributes to an overall understanding of the subject. Understand how to use your software tools to maximize effectiveness and efficiency. Integrate visuals and text by maintaining a balance between illustrations and words, clearly referring to visuals within the text, and placing visuals carefully. Use titles, captions, and legends to help readers understand the meaning and importance of your visuals. Verify the quality of your visuals by checking for accuracy, proper documentation, and honesty.

(Presenting Information, Concepts, and Ideas) To illustrate processes or procedures

Flowchart, diagram

(Presenting Information, Concepts, and Ideas) To show conceptual or spatial relationships (simplified)

Illustration

(Presenting Information, Concepts, and Ideas) To show (realistic) spatial relationships

Photograph

(Presenting Data) To show frequency or distribution of parts in a whole

Pie chart, bar chart

For any video, be sure to think through the following seven elements:

PURPOSE AND SCOPE. With every communication effort, of course, it's essential to identify the purpose of your message and define the scope of what you will address before you start. This is doubly important with video because it is a linear medium that forces people to watch it in a predefined sequence. Most viewers won't sit through rambling or repetitive videos, so figure out what your point is and determine the briefest possible way to make it. SCENE COMPOSITION. Visualize what the camera is going to see. If you're demonstrating a new product, for example, do you want people to see it in a realistic setting, or would it be better to use a "clean stage" so that nothing else will compete for the viewer's attention? For "talking head" videos, in which someone talks directly into the camera at close range, an uncluttered background is preferred unless the setting is relevant. However, you don't need to resort to a bare white wall behind the subject; this can make the video feel more like an interrogation. A tastefully decorated office can look uncluttered without feeling stark or cold. Think carefully about the overall environment as well. Trying to conduct an interview outside or at a busy tradeshow, for example, can bring all kinds of noise and visual distractions into the equation. Just as painters compose a scene, with a video camera you compose a scene by making decisions about what to show and where to place your camera. CAMERA PLACEMENT. As you visualize the scene or scenes you plan to shoot, think about where to place your camera(s). Wide, medium, and close-up positions each have their own strengths and weaknesses, depending on what you're trying to convey. For example, showing a wide shot of a crowd's reaction can emphasize the emotional impact of a speech, but a wide shot looking at the speaker from a distance will have less impact because viewers won't able to see the emotions on the speaker's face. As a technical point, position the camera as close as you can for the shot you're trying to achieve, rather than using the camera's zoom capability. Using zoom makes the recording more vulnerable to shaking and makes it more difficult for you (or the camera's autofocus function) to keep the picture in focus.15 If you need to zoom because you can't get the camera close enough, be sure to use optical zoom only, not digital zoom, which reduces the picture quality. LIGHTING. Good lighting is essential for a quality production, which is why professionals sometimes spend hours lighting a single shot. Lighting can be a complicated subject, but for most business videos, the simplest solution is to get a strong but soft light directed from behind the camera toward the subject (the person, place, or thing) being filmed. This ensures that the subject is well lit and that the camera's exposure settings aren't overwhelmed by extraneous light coming from the background. Professionals use large "softboxes," reflectors, and other special equipment to direct light onto their subjects, but you can often take advantage of windows and natural daylight.16 If you have artificial lighting that is too harsh, you can soften the light by filtering it through parchment paper.17 When filming people, be particularly careful about strong overhead lights, which can create unflattering shadows. And when shooting outside, look for locations in full shade if possible to avoid the deep shadows created by direct sunlight.18 Invest the time and money to get good lighting; it is essential to quality video production. SOUND. Even if your camera or smartphone has a built-in microphone, in most cases you should use an external microphone instead. The camera's microphone will pick up too much noise because it is too far away from the person or persons who are speaking, and these omnidirectional microphones pick up sound from every angle.19 In most cases the best solution is to pin a small lavaliere microphone on each speaker's lapel. Note that you can also record one or more audio sources separately (if you have speakers in different locations, for instance) and mix them together in postproduction. SHOT LIST. The director and professional videographer Steve Stockman advises to always think of a video in terms of discrete shots rather than as one endless recording.20 You can imagine shots as the equivalent of subsections or even the paragraphs in a report, each one leading smoothly to the next. Preparing a shot list ahead of time helps you identify all the footage you need to capture, and it serves as a checklist when you're shooting. And going beyond a shot list, whenever you're creating a video specifically (as opposed to recording a training session or some other event), consider writing a script that describes every scene and visual and contains speaking notes or even fully written dialogue. (PowerPoint and other slide programs are a great tool for planning and scripting videos.) Some people are adept at improvising, and this is often fine for informal tutorials and other purposes. However, for important videos, a script is advised. The script is also an important planning and communication tool, helping you make sure all the pieces and people are ready when it's time to shoot.21 A shot list serves as your outline and checklist while you're filming. B-ROLL MATERIAL. The "B-roll" is another legacy term from film. It refers to a collection of secondary shots that can later be edited in to add visual interest, smooth over transitions, or otherwise improve the flow of the finished product.22 For example, an interview with your company's CEO will look fairly static after a few minutes, but you can later cut in footage or images of your company's products, website, customers, manufacturing facilities, or other related scenes or images. The videographer Jefferson Graham makes it a point to show an image or clip of anything mentioned by a narrator or interview subject.23 During postproduction, you can weave together your primary footage with B-roll video clips and still images, using the audio to maintain continuity from start to finish. Audiences will still get the full spoken message, only with a more interesting visual presentation. B-roll is film terminology for extra scenes and images that can enhance your final production. In addition to these planning considerations, be sure to identify and prepare all the equipment the shoot will require, from cameras to lights to props. If you plan to use a smartphone as your video camera, check out some of the apps that give you more control than the phone's standard camera app provides.

To reinforce

Present information in visual form to supplement descriptions in text.

To summarize

Review major points in the narrative by providing a chart or table that sums up the data.

Infographics

are a special class of diagrams that convey both data and concepts or ideas.

An organization chart

depicts the interrelationships among the parts of a whole.

Scatter diagrams compare

entities against two variable

Instagram

has become wildly popular for personal photos, but many companies use the photo-sharing service for business communication as well.

A surface chart

is a form of line chart in which multiple lines add up to the top line total.

a legend

is a key that helps readers"decode" the visual by explaining what various colors, symbols, or other design choices mean.

A Gantt chart

is a specialized bar chart that helps project managers track progress toward goals.

Visual literacy

is the ability to create and interpret visuals successfully.

Visual symbolism

is the connotative meaning that visual elements and design can have in various cultures.

As far as the content allows

maintain a comfortable balance between text and visuals.

make sure your visuals match the

needs, expectations, and interpretation skills of your audience.

A pie chart

uses a circular "pie" to show relative sizes of the parts of a whole; pie charts are common, but they are often not as helpful to readers as bar charts and other types of visuals would be.

Use photographs for

visual appeal and to show exact appearances.

Help your readers understand

why each visual is important.

(Presenting Information, Concepts, and Ideas) To show processes, transformations, and other activities

Animation, video

(Presenting Data) To compare several entities or alternatives using multiple data variables

Bubble chart, radar diagram

To impress

Build confidence by using visual forms to convey authenticity and precision.

To use photographs successfully, consider these guidelines:

CONSIDER WHETHER A DIAGRAM WOULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN A PHOTOGRAPH. Sometimes photographs communicate too much information for the purpose at hand. For example, to show how to adjust a one part inside a complicated machine, a photo can be confusing because it shows all the parts within the camera's view. A simplified diagram can be more effective because it allows you to emphasize the specific parts that are relevant to the task. LEARN HOW TO USE BASIC IMAGE-PROCESSING FUNCTIONS. For most business reports, websites, and presentations, you won't need to worry about advanced functions and special effects. However, you do need to know the difference between such basic operations as resizing (changing the size of an image without removing any parts of it) and cropping (cutting away parts of an image). MAKE SURE THE PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE COMMUNICATION VALUE. Except for covers, title slides, and other special uses, it's usually best to avoid including photographs simply for decorative value. BE AWARE OF COPYRIGHTS AND MODEL PERMISSIONS. As with textual information you find online, you can't simply insert online photographs into your documents. Unless they are specifically offered free, you must assume that someone owns the photos and is entitled to payment or at least a photo credit. In addition, professional photographers are careful to have any person who poses in photos sign a model release form, which gives the photographer permission to use the person's image.

Bar charts are particularly valuable when you want to

Compare the sizes of several items at one time Show changes in one item over time Indicate the composition of several items over time Show the relative sizes of components of a whole

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you probably need one or more visuals. When you're deciding which points to present visually, think of the five Cs:

Effective visuals are clear, complete, concise, connected, and compelling. CLEAR. The human mind is extremely adept at processing visual information, whether it's something as simple as the shape of a stop sign or as complicated as the floor plan for a new factory. If you're having difficultly conveying an idea in words, consider whether a visual element will do the job instead. COMPLETE. Visuals, particularly tables, often serve to provide the supporting details for a main idea or recommendation. A table or other visual can provide these details without getting in the way of your main message. CONCISE. You've probably heard the expression "A picture is worth a thousand words." If a section of your message seems to require extensive description or explanation, see if you can convey this information visually. With a picture working in conjunction with text, you may be able to reduce your word count considerably. CONNECTED. A key purpose of many business messages is showing connections—similarities or differences, correlations, cause-and-effect relationships, and so on. Whenever you want readers to see such a connection, consider a chart, diagram, or other illustration. COMPELLING. Will one or more illustrations make your message more persuasive, more interesting, or more likely to get read? You rarely want to insert visuals simply for decorative purposes, of course, but even if a point can be expressed equally well via text or visuals, consider adding the visual to make your report or presentation more inviting and persuasive.

With all your preproduction done, you're ready to shoot your video. These four tips will help you collect great footage:

FRAME EACH SHOT CAREFULLY. Framing refers to the decisions you make regarding what the camera sees and doesn't see when you aim it (see Figure 9.16). For example, if you're filming someone demonstrating a product, you'll have to decide where the camera should be aimed for each of your planned shots. If the presenter is talking at one point without using the product, you might frame the shot to emphasize the speaker's face. Then when the presenter interacts with the product, you might frame the shot to emphasize his or her hands. Just remember the obvious but sometimes overlooked point that the viewer sees everything the camera sees—but only what the camera sees. Framing decisions are particularly important if your videos will be watched on small-screen mobile devices because small screens can limit the amount of detail viewers can see clearly. The question of balance (see page 250) is important as well. Keeping a speaker's face in the center of the screen can look dull and rigid after a while, so experiment with positioning him or her just off-center to create a more dynamically balanced scene (see Figure 9.17). Also, search for interesting angles for the shots you have planned.24 In addition to filming the subject head-on, for example, you might get some footage of him or her from the side or from high or low perspectives. KEEP THE CAMERA STILL. If the camera moves around—intentionally or unintentionally—during a shot, the resulting footage puts a greater demand on your viewers. Shaky video from a handheld camera is uncomfortable to watch, so whenever possible, use a tripod or other stabilizing arrangement. And intentionally moving the camera forces viewers to process additional visual information that may or may not be relevant.25 Moving during a shot also changes the background and lighting because the camera is looking at the scene differently. Sometimes you don't have a choice and must follow a moving subject, but don't move the camera while filming unless you really need to. Resist the temptation to move around with your camera while filming unless it is absolutely necessary. TAKE B-ROLL FOOTAGE. In addition to the B-roll shots you planned in preproduction, keep an eye out for other interesting scenes and images that might enhance the finished video. It's better to shoot lots of footage you don't use than to regret not capturing something when you had the chance. DON'T USE THE SPECIAL EFFECTS IN YOUR CAMERA. Many cameras and camera apps can add special effects such as pixilation or "old-timey" sepia tones, but using these features in the camera usually permanently alters the video. Instead, export "clean" footage to your editing software and add any effects in postproduction, where you can easily undo anything you try.

Review each visual to make sure it doesn't intentionally or unintentionally distort the meaning of the underlying information. Visuals have a particularly strong impact on your readers and on their perceptions of you and your work, so pay attention to quality. Ask yourself three questions about every visual element:

IS THE VISUAL ACCURATE? Be sure to check for mistakes such as typographical errors, inconsistent color treatment, confusing or undocumented symbols, and misaligned elements. Also verify that the information in visuals and text matches. For data presentations, particularly if you're producing charts using a spreadsheet, verify any formulas used to generate the numbers and make sure you've selected the right numbers for each chart. For all visuals, make sure that each delivers your message accurately and that you have inserted the correct image files. IS THE VISUAL PROPERLY DOCUMENTED? As with the textual elements in your reports and presentations, visuals based on other people's research, information, and ideas require full citation. (Even if the graphical design is entirely yours, any underlying information taken from other sources needs to be documented.) Also, try to anticipate any questions or concerns your audience may have and address them with additional information, as needed. For instance, if you're presenting the results of survey research, many readers will want to know who participated in the survey, how many people responded, and when the questions were asked. You could answer these questions with a note in the caption along the lines of "652 accountants, surveyed the week of January 17." Similarly, if you found a visual in a secondary source, list that source on or near the graphic to help readers assess the information. Alternatively, you can list sources in an appendix. IS THE VISUAL HONEST? As a final precaution, step back and verify that your visuals communicate truthful messages. Make sure they don't hide information the audience needs, imply conclusions that your information doesn't support, or play on audience emotions in manipulative or coercive ways.

(Presenting Information, Concepts, and Ideas) To tell a data-driven story visually

Infographic

To tie visuals to text,

Introduce them in the text and place them near the points they illustrate.

(Presenting Data) To show trends in one or more variables, or the relationship between those variables, over time

Line chart, bar chart

To attract

Make material seem more interesting by decorating the cover or title page and by breaking up the text with visual aids.

(Presenting Information, Concepts, and Ideas) To show geographic relationships or comparisons

Map, geographic information system

To clarify

Support text descriptions of "graphic" topics: quantitative or numeric information, explanations of trends, descriptions.

(Presenting Data) To present individual, exact values

Table

Here is a general overview of the postproduction process:

Transfer your video footage to your computer and load it into the editing software. Evaluate your material, identifying the shots you want to keep and those you can delete. Use cut and paste to move sections of video around as needed to put the story in the desired order. Weave in B-roll images and clips. Your company might have a standard library of media elements to use in videos, including logos or introductory sequences. You can also license stock footage to include with your own footage. Add transitions (such as a blend or a quick fade to black) between video segments, if desired. Synchronize the main audio track with the video and record narration as needed. Add an intro (a brief sequence at the beginning) and an outro (a brief sequence at the end). Business videos often include company logos, website URLs, and other branding elements in intros and outros. Intros and outros often contain brief musical segments as a way to transition into and out of the spoken portion of the video. Add text titles and other features as needed. Create a distributable file. Video editors give you a variety of output options at different file sizes and screen resolutions, and some let you upload directly to YouTube

When you prepare tables, follow these guidelines to make they are easy to read:

Use common, understandable units and clearly identify which you're using, whether dollars, percentages, price per ton, or some other unit. Express all items in a column in the same unit and round off for simplicity whenever doing so won't eliminate essential details. Label column headings clearly and use a subheading if necessary. Separate columns or rows with lines or extra space to make the table easy to follow; in complex tables, consider highlighting every other row or column in a pale, contrasting color. (Word-processing and spreadsheet apps can do this for you automatically.) Provide totals or averages of columns or rows when relevant. Document the source of the data, using the same format as a text footnote

Thanks to advances in technology and changing audience expectations, business communication is

becoming more visual.

Remember that the power to communicate with visuals

comes with the responsibility to communicate ethically.

A radar diagram

compares entities against three or more variables.

bubble diagrams

compares them against three.

Place each visual as close as possible to its in-text reference to

help readers understand the illustration's relevance and to minimize the effort of reading.

informative title

helps the reader understand the conclusion to be drawn from the illustration.

Use illustrations and diagrams to show

how something works or how it is made or used; illustrations are sometimes better than photographs because they let you focus on the most important details.

A title

identifies the content and purpose of the visual

A line chart

illustrates trends over time or plots the relationship of two or more variables.

Videoshop

offers a variety of postproduction tools for enhancing mobile videos right on your phone.

A caption

offers additional discussion of a visual's content

Make sure you have the right to use

photographs you find online.

A bar chart

portrays quantities by the height or length of its rectangular bars.

The three-step writing process adapts easily to video

professionals refer to the three steps as preproduction, production, and postproduction

a descriptive title

simply identifies the topic of an illustration

Postproduction involves the

use of video editing software to place all your video and audio elements in the desired sequence.