Confusing Cartoon

All though this is a cartoon, it makes a very valid point. Overwhelming, your audience with an abundance of unexplained statistics leads to confusion. In this particular situation the result that the statistician is rambling off is supposed to represent the opinions of voters, but in order to comprehend the audience has to reread the sentence multiple times. 75.8% of the 65.2% of GPs, so to begin with you only have 65.2% GPs, and out of them only 75.8% bothered to vote. The voters were only 29.3% happy, with 14.2% of the proposals. Seeing it more thoroughly explained makes it slightly easier to understand the sentence, however there are still too many statistics and the details are still fuzzy. Though this example is from a cartoon, that is clearly meant to make you laugh, it brings about an interesting point. When writing technically we want to present the audience with all of the information, but it is important to properly explain the information without using jargon and numbers that will only confuse our audience.

Poorly Written Sign

This sign does make a point; the road is flooded during floods. However the average person would view this information as common sense. There are many ways this sign could present the information more effectively. Stating the obvious makes it seems like the sign is a joke. If the sign took on a stern tone it might convey the message more seriously. Perhaps the sign should read, “Road Prone to Flooding.” The sign might also be more visually appealing if the English script were larger and more emphasized than the Spanish. Since English is our primary language it is most likely the portion of the sign that is read the most, therefore making it more accessible to the audience would be an improvement.