Some of my most treasured possessions are pictures of my students. Each and every one packs considerably more power than the proverbial “thousand words”. They don’t help me just see my students, but also hear their voices and laughter. Sometimes I can even smell the scene from the picture, which, as anyone who has spent time at a school can tell you, isn’t an unmitigated positive. Pictures and other kinds of images can be powerful communicators. Like anything else powerful, it is wise to understand how to use them well.
Choosing the right image is important. Personal pictures have memories associated with them and evoke those memories. Pictures used in work documents don’t have that advantage, so the pictures you choose will need to do all their own work to evoke emotions or illustrate your text.
You should always make sure that any picture you use is appropriate and effective. A chart of sales data may be useless to a group of engineers, just as an intricate diagram of a gadget’s insides won’t mean much to salespeople. If you’re printing something out and you don’t have a color printer, a line drawing may work better than a photograph.
When using pictures, be careful not to overindulge – a habit many of my students had. A picture of the latest sales data for your region or the newest gadget all your employees will be using can be very useful. A picture of your cat may be amusing to a small group of your friends, but in front of your shareholders, it could be seen as unprofessional.
When you’re creating a presentation or document that you think might benefit from pictures, ask yourself a few questions:
- Will the picture help explain your text, and not detract from its message?
- Is the picture appropriate to your audience?
- Will the picture – its color, size, etc. – work in the medium you’ve chosen?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, consider using a different picture, or maybe none at all. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but please make sure they’re the ones you want to say!
Miss Gundersen
