March 26: Lunchtime Lecture – Communicating Ideas to a Broader Audience

Lecturer: Christian Caryl, Muse Magazine Critic-in-Residence, at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU.

“A lot of us have ideas that we’d like to communicate to a broader audience. In most cases that is usually much easier said than done.

“In my career I’ve met some very smart, well-informed people who just couldn’t get the hang of writing commentary for readers outside of their own professional circles.

“Jargon, abstraction, and formality are characteristic features of a lot of the prose that appears in academic journals or business reports – but these same traits can fatally cripple your writing if you’re trying to reach the readers of newspapers or websites. It’s amazing, for example, how often would-be contributors to the opinion pages don’t have a clear idea of what they’re trying to communicate before they start writing.

“As one of my colleagues put it: Have a point. Another tip: Be sure to get to the point with dispatch. Don’t waste the reader’s precious time building up suspense; it’s much better to get on with it. A good op-ed piece should have zip.”

Christian Caryl

Caryl is in Hong Kong as a critic sponsored by the leading Arts and Culture Magazine, Muse. He also teaches a course in criticism to Master of Journalism students at the JMSC.

A Contributing Editor at Foreign Policy, he writes the column, Reality Check. He also writes regular articles for Newsweek and The New York Review of Books. Christian Caryl was Bureau Chief of Newsweek’s Northeast Asia Bureau in Tokyo, and its Russia Bureau in Moscow.

Christian will talk for an hour on how to communicate your ideas to as broad an audience as possible. The ever increasing internet reflects an increasing demand for relevant, accurate and informative content that is well written. However, writing for the public at large can be tricky and requires a knack. Caryl will share some tricks of the trade.

Lecture:: Communicating Ideas to a Broader Audience
Date: Friday, March 26, 2010
Time: 12.45pm – 2 pm
Venue: Foundation Chamber, Eliot Hall, HKU, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

All are welcome.