Sometimes tips and ideas for effective communications come from unlikely sources.

I got a first-rate lesson at a local elementary school science fair.

A sixth grader did a memory experiment to see what kinds of words people best remembered. First, people were shown a column of about 20 concrete nouns such as mountain, flower, desk, horse, and the like. Next they were shown a column of conceptual words – honesty, intelligence, etc. People were then asked to recall as many words as they can from each column.

Not surprisingly, people had a much easier time recalling concrete words than those in the column of concept words.

Between journalism and PR, I have been writing professionally for about 20 years, and rarely have I received advice that rang so true.

Keep it concrete. Don’t stay up in the clouds of concepts and abstractions. If you want people to remember it, give them words that they can hold on to – literally.

Have you ever received some useful advice or pearl of wisdom from an unlikely source that helped make you a better communicator?

Light bulb photo from Creative Commons. Click here for attribution info.