Compost Pile
I received a text yesterday asking if I was still writing. My answer was settled, but inside my heart fired away like an RPG “FUCK YEA.” It looks a bit different at the moment, deep into my Master's Program. The class I am in right now is on how to build a campaign for social media using the basic foundations of rhetoric techniques and strategies to bring forth an issue that I feel needs to be changed.
I have picked attacking sleep deprivation in the tactical professional landscape and my idea is to help offset these issues by throwing in power naps while in a work window or off time.
Here is a conversation between a classmate and me about the development of this campaign and a little deeper story as to why I choose to attack this issue.
DQ Question:
In "Physical, Cognitive, and Affective: A Three-part Framework for Information Design," Saul Carliner proposes a framework that moves beyond a traditional single audience/single purpose approach to communication (p. 561). Carliner's purpose for the framework is to help communicators develop artifacts that work effectively not just in terms of content, but also usability (p. 570). In your website design, what might some of the physical, cognitive, and affective components be? To what extent do you think these components will help you produce an effective site?
Here is my response to the question
Class,
First off, the way I see Saul Carliner's approach is a specific flow to get information across simply and clearly to affect the user who visits the website and other forms of communication that are used to promote any information that is being shared. A flow is a rhetorical strategy that gives the technical writer or developer a set of processes that allow for the right set-up of information from creation, to introduction, to the main meats and potatoes, to the closing out and finished product. The use of physical, cognitive, and affective reminds me of a similar setup that draws the audience in to take on more information.
"Content + writing style + layout = information design (Carliner, S, 2000)." This is going to be something that I follow when I am using physical to keep information easy to find and follow, not to be congested or overwhelming. With the cognitive frameworks, there will be a clear line between what the issue is and how we as a society can fight and combat sleep deprivation in tactical professionals. Finally, using affective, the main goal will be to motivate the audience to partake in power naps, by using different kinds of research and real-life experiences with short stories from those who are living this lifestyle and how they have found ways to input these power naps into their work and lifestyle, and highlighting how it hasn't caused more stress and has helped relieve the pressure of tiredness and improving overall readiness for their profession.
GB3
References:
Carliner, S. (2000). Physical, cognitive, and affective: A three-part framework for information design. Technical Communication, 47(4), 561-576. https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/physical-cognitive-affective-three-part-framework/docview/220957738/se-2
Then came the conversation between my classmate and me. I appreciate that she asked great questions to get me to share more.
Classmate:
Thanks for sharing this, GB3.
I enjoyed reading your post. I believe you are correct and on point. It is so important to avoid information that is congestive and overwhelming to audiences. Keeping content design straightforward and informative rather than busy sends a clear message that the focus is on providing relevant and important information. Fewer distractions mean that you can engage viewers interested in learning more about the actual campaign and product, and the “good physical design lets them find information of interest easily” (Carliner, 2000). I also really like the idea of incorporating “real-life experiences” as you stated. This is something I hope to include in my campaign. The testimonies of others can be a much more powerful resource than providing endless and copious amounts of information.
Will you aim to use current and former client experiences? You mentioned in your previous posts the successes of individuals who have included power naps in their routines, when possible. I can see so much value in your proposal. Is this something that you speak regularly about in the various professions? If so, how is it received by others? Do you notice a greater response from particular sectors versus others? I am curious to know if certain professions apply it more than others.
Thank you for your service!
GB3:
Thank you very much for spending time replying to DQ response, and bringing out great points and questions for me to answer. A clear and simple approach is key and needed when trying to get such complex information across. I've seen it during my time in the military, as well as in my current profession. The most effective training program is the one that comes with the simplest approach with its complexity hidden within the overall program not just in one specific week, training block, or specific session. It goes the same for building out a great and attention-grabbing website, this is what I'll be aiming for with my overall campaign.
I believe I will pull from both the case study and reach out and see if those individuals can provide me a video or written testimony whichever they feel is better for them to get their point across. Of course, I would prefer video but baggers can't be picky. I work with all different types of humans who work in a wide range of the tactical professional landscape and they are always coming to me with their issues and battles, never are they the same as someone else who works in the same profession.
For example, the firefighter who is 34 years old with a wife and kids and has 7 years of experience than the kid who is 28 years old, not married, and just got onto the fire truck. Their capacities for the job are different, and their lifestyles are different outside of the time at the firehouse. The cross-section of sharing experiences and skillsets from other professionals is a conversation had more than most would think. I like to say that we are humans first, and professionals second.
Classmate:
Thanks for responding. There is so much truth in your response regarding the different experiences of individuals, regardless of a shared profession. My brothers are all LEO, and their journeys are not the same. As you mentioned, being in different seasons in life makes a difference. I would venture to state that this would be a universally applied factor based on life experiences, current responsibilities, and personalities.
Securing the testimonies of those who have incorporated your power naps technique is a powerful resource to encourage others about the benefits. Did this technique stem from your personal experiences while in the military or is it an area that you were familiar with before enlistment?
GB3:
Good Morning, and hope you are enjoying a nice cup of coffee this morning while doing school work. Thanks again for replying and getting me to open up more about this campaign. I took this from my time while enlisted. As a recon team once we made it to our hide site - a bush where we hid inside to collect enemy activity - we had different positions that needed to be covered. One of those positions was rest and refit, we had a 30-minute rotation while conducting our priorities of work to keep collecting information and providing security at the same time. During that rest and refit, we would throw in 20-minute cat naps after eating and getting our stuff set up for the next rotation. The reason for this tactic is due to the all-night patrol we did to get into our position. So we would take advantage of this small downtime or white space. The word white space is exactly how I approach getting others to take a power nap. We would look at their day and find empty windows and if possible a time to take a power nap if it was during their work window or even when they are off.
Fast forward to a few years after I got out of the military, and I was dealing with PTSD and TBI issues which were impacting my sleep at night and overall quality of life. As the curious George I am, I ran down the rabbit hole in how to heal and fix these most basic issues and sleep was on the list, which lead me to a book called "The Power of Naps and the Myth of 8 Hours of sleep," by Dr. Nick Littlehanes. He went into the different stages of sleep and how our REM sleep worked, he also shared how we lose our ability to access those deeper stages of sleep as we get older and when chronically under sleep deprivation. I then followed the different behavior changes that the book shared and changed how I viewed sleep, and understood it is a state of being, and it can be done any time and anywhere but needs the human needs to have a routine to disable the mind before bed and a routine to enable the after the night of sleep.
I guess I believe that what we heal within ourselves, we can heal within others.
What school has done for me is help me dig a bit deeper and find a purpose in life and why I enjoy doing what I do for a living.
