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June 2005

Welcome to the June issue of Word Power, and hello to this month's new subscribers.

You may have noticed that Word Power did not make an appearance in May. We blame clients for overloading us with work, the government for arranging too many Bank Holidays and Abergavenny CC for organising too many bike events.

With Walkgrove's Scottish Executive Mental Health Tribunal project well into the implementation phase, Jane - as lead designer and trainer - is currently a weekly commuter with bmibaby on the Cardiff - Edinburgh run. On other days of the week, May/June clients for Mind Mapping and speed reading courses have included the Institute of Education, Plymouth University, a large London law practice and an up-market traditional retailer.

Back at the ranch, Nick is writer/designer on two open learning modules for the new HM Revenue & Customs - again managed by Walkgrove Ltd. The Spring issue of WEA magazine Hysbysu is on the shelves (click here to download the online version), and layout work on foreign language product brochures and a government department training manual has provided more opportunities to explore the comparative joys of InDesign CS.

Audio book Speed Reading for Success continues to live up to its name, and is gathering more and more positive reviews: click here to read the latest from the respected Mind Tools website.

 

In this issue:

• The Abergavenny connection - this month's featured freelancer is agricultural development specialist Chris Wardle.
• Word Smart - an introduction to our new series of articles on how to improve your business communications by becoming a smart Word User.
• News of Word Smiths' publications.

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The Abergavenny connection - Chris Wardle

Chris Wardle runs a 70 acre sheep and cattle farm near Abergavenny. But his day job is in a specialised and unusual niche, delivering development consultancy to poor communities in Central Asia, Africa and the UK.

What exactly does your consultancy work involve?

I hate the word consultant - it's really about supporting community action and helping people to improve their lives. I rarely start with a definite aim in view because it's important for the people themselves to define their own needs. It could be livestock, horticulture, social infrastructure, schooling or water supply. Recently I've worked on topics as diverse as reclaiming graded land and rainwater harvesting.

I don't go in with answers - my job is to encourage community groups to reflect on their problems, to explore the causes of those problems and identify ways forward. I believe they must work out the solutions for themselves. For one thing, I don't fully understand the environment in which they are operating. More importantly, things will only change if people own the ideas themselves. People need to find their own solutions - and my role is to encourage and support them.

But this doesn't mean I'm a soft touch - in fact it's vital for me to be tough on my clients. I will always be tenacious about looking for the causes of problems. People expect and want me to come in with answers but that's the wrong approach. I just tell them not to feel threatened. I emphasise that this is a real opportunity to change things - where you've got problems is where the real learning happens.

How did you first get into this line?

When I was living in the USA during the 1960s I had a green card, so I was eligible for the draft. But as I was a conscientious objector I couldn't go to war; not just Vietnam - it was any war. So I had to do what was called 'Alternative Service' - this was two years voluntary work in Africa. My particular project was getting clean water into a village in Madagascar.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

I enjoy seeing people and communities change - it's tremendously satisfying to watch attitudes broaden and organisations developing. Interesting stuff happens when people start reflecting on what they are doing and planning how they can make improvements happen.

For example, a few years ago I was working on a project in Ethiopia which focused on food production in a drought prone area. The methodology I use has a ripple effect on project staff, villages and people in government - you have to find out what they think and work from there.

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I also enjoy having the opportunity to get a glimpse of the real country. I see inside people's real lives and houses. One day I'm looking after the cattle on my farm in Wales and the next I'm sitting in someone's hut in Africa talking about goats. It's a real privilege, something that you don't experience as an ordinary tourist.

What do you enjoy least?

Well you do get fed up with airports, planes and hotels after a while.

Also I don't like it when my efforts are thwarted by inefficiency and corruption. Money gets spent so often on white elephants - projects where the donor for some reason stipulates exactly what the money is for. I've seen huge hospitals built in the middle of nowhere - it's sometimes about promises being made in exchange for getting votes.

Do you think that cancelling the debt is going to make a big difference to poor communities in Africa and Asia?

Yes but the issue is more one of fair trade - how much money actually gets to the communities. I believe we should stop calling it aid and start to call it investment, because aid develops dependency, it's completely the wrong mentality.

I feel optimistic for the communities themselves - they work with enthusiasm and integrity on the whole. Unfortunately I still have to be convinced that bureaucratic governments will change. They must learn to serve people rather than line their own pockets. They must help people get on with their lives and help their families.

Photos (from top):
Chris wearing a traditional Winter coat, given to him while working in Kyrgyzstan.
A group of Kirgiz villagers.
Chris with a Kirgiz family outside their yurt.
Grain distribution in Ethiopia.

Chris Wardle: T (0)1873 858091, ChrisWardle@compuserve.com

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Word Smart

In the last five issues, we've looked at some of the basic issues of language and punctuation that many people find difficult in their business writing. The level of interest and comment that these columns have generated shouldn't really come as a surprise. The success of books like Eats Shoots & Leaves and heated media debates about grammar and usage show that this is an area about which people care passionately. But now it's time to move on to another aspect of modern business life which can also be a source of grief and stress.

For those of us who spend much of our time working in front of a computer, the software we use is an unavoidable and important part of our working environment. Most of us keyboard bashers spend the bulk of our time working with words, and this usually means - whether we like it or not - that we are tied to Microsoft Office. The articles in this and future issues of Word Power are designed to help you become a smarter user of Word, the most widely used component of this brilliant, but often frustrating, suite of programs.

The importance of styles and structure

As an editor and layout designer, I often work with Word documents produced by other people. Some of these are logically structured: they have a consistent layout, a nested hierarchy of headings and a visual clarity which all combine to involve and guide the reader. But many others are a mish-mash of different font sizes and styles, with boxes positioned willy-nilly wherever the writer thought it might be nice to have a bit of text with a border round it. And wherever you click, the style is always Normal.

It doesn't have to be like this. The benefits of moving to a more organised style of working go way beyond stopping the moans of style & structure pedants like me.

If you follow the tips in the forthcoming issues of Word Power, you will learn how to:

• Use Word's style sheets to create logical, consistent documents that are effective in communicating your message to your readers
• Add elegance by modifying the built-in Word styles (No more Times New Roman! No more Heading 3 in underlined italics!)
• Add versatility and impact by creating your own styles for specific purposes
• Apply frequently used styles with a single keystroke combination
• Save your own templates, so that you can instantly create new documents based on your new and modified styles
• Use tables (or frames) as an alternative to text boxes (I'll explain why later)
• Use Word's Field functions to insert tables of contents, bookmarks, cross references and even (if you're feeling really adventurous) conditional statements.

Word's strengths & weaknesses

Of course, Word's never going to be the choice for serious layout. But if you don't need items that bleed off the edge of the page, don't need to create colour separations and aren't too worried about the finer points of typography, its many other features make it a great workhorse. The worst thing about Word is the fact that it tries to do everything for you - and you'll learn how to turn off many of these annoying features. The best things are its implementation of style sheets, its use of fields and its powerful integration with the other programs in the Office suite.

In the next issue of Word Power I'll start by looking at style sheets in detail, and why they should be the foundation on which all your Word documents are built.

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Word Smiths publications

Unlock the secrets of successful reading

Would you like to be able to read faster and retain more of what you read? Jane Smith – one of the UK’s leading Speed Reading trainers – shares her secrets in Speed Reading for Success. This information-packed audio CD – rather than a book – is the ideal way of learning them. In the car, at the gym, or wherever suits you best, you can be absorbing tips and techniques that will revolutionise your life.

"All of the tracks are short and to the point, easy to understand and provide practical and invaluable information, making this a product you don’t want to be without."

Kellie Fowler, Mind Tools website

"An excellent product. The methods taught work extremely well, and you should be able to see enormous improvements to your reading and comprehension ... an ideal way to learn how to cope with the torrent of information we have access to these days."

Gerry Keegan Psychology (UK web magazine)

"A little bit of genius that will help you learn speed reading with ease ... an excellent idea and I wish we had thought of it first."

New Archaeology (USA)

"I would recommend this resource to anyone who needs to get through lots of material quickly and efficiently."

Training Journal (UK)

Speed Reading for Success is relaxed, fun to follow and clear. Everything is explained as you go along in clear language suitable for WEA learners at all levels. This reviewer recommends the course highly to anyone who wants to read faster and better.

Robin Cain (Hysbysu magazine, Spring 2005)

Speed Reading for Success is fantastic value: order it from Amazon for only £10.39.

Decision Making for Success

This e-book's obviously filling a need, because it's proving a very popular download.

It's currently available free. Just click here.

 

In the pipeline

• Coaching & Mentoring for Success
  This audio book - 2 CDs) with accompanying book - is linked to NVQ standards and will be launched in the Autumn. Watch this space!
• Memory Skills for Success
  This sister publication for Speed Reading for Success is still in gestation, and will be published early in 2006.

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