Word selection is important when conveying your message. We have to make sure that our tone and word choice has an impact that reflects our missions. To help us, we invite Erica Mills, Senior Lecturer at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, Author of Pitchfalls: Why Bad Pitches Happen to Good People, and founder of Claxon. Erica will share important insights about words, language, and building messages that resonate with your audience. Links: Pitchfalls: Why Bad Pitches Happen to Good People: https://www.amazon.com/Pitchfalls-pitches-happen-good-people-ebook/dp/B00GSC95NM Elements of Style: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-William-Strunk-Jr/dp/194564401X Erica’s Twitter: www.twitter.com/ericamills  Claxon Online Training Course: http://www.claxonmarketing.com/?s=training+course+ Claxon Marketing, Erica’s blog, and Wordifier: www.claxonmarketing.com Univ. of Washington Website: https://evans.uw.edu/policy-impact/nancy-bell-evans-center   *****Time Stamped Highlights***** (4:00) Erica: Word Nerd? (6:00) Understanding that words are renewable resources (but make sure you do not wear them out) (7:30) Fleshckin Aid: How to use understandable but interesting words (Don’t just write sentences and paragraphs, architect them. Become a builder of your message).   (8:30) Your mission statement communicates the change you want to make in the to the world (11:42) Reading Ease: The proofing tool you need for architecting your language (16:00) Erica’s exercise of converting memos to tweets (18:00) Learning from Erica’s work at Evan’s School of Public Policy and Governance as Senior Lecturer and Co-Director   (21:53) Exploring programs, staff, services, and cohorts offered at Evan’s School of Public Policy and Governance (23:54) The benefits of an MPA (25:15) Balancing technological communication with face-to-face communication (26:30) Erica and Dolph explore “Wordifier”, a cool tool to know whether your words are overused. (33:00) Erica and Dolph discuss the  seminal book Elements of Style by Strunk and White.