Writing with Results

Context for clarity. The chemical additive’s presence in livestock feed — measured in parts per trillion — reassured that toxic exposure would require the impossible: Consumers would have to eat 600 pounds of meat for every single day of a month.

Disposing of myths without repeating the charge. Solving the tactical challenge of preempting critical myths without restating the false claims, my series of four video scripts for social media illustrated each claim through exaggerated caricature. The result was entertaining and so clearly over-the-top, that audiences listened, ready to identify with the rational explanation that countered each myth.

Revealing the backstory on history. As spectators at the isolated desert runway awaited Space Shuttle Columbia’s landing, rocket scientist Ernst Steinhoff recounted for me the uncertainties that he pondered as a young member of Wernher Von Braun’s research team to launch the U.S. space program and manned moon missions.

Telling a new story. While attention focused on the dying moments of a death row prisoner, I noticed the bowed head of the Texas Attorney General among the state’s witnesses, leading to surprising insights in his recounting those moments to me for a post-execution interview.

Bridging the divide by recruiting allies. Filling a gap of trust created by activists as a wedge in competing trade interests, my talking points first established common ground among farmers against the inflammatory rhetoric. Gaining that trust, I highlighted results of common sense research in easily understandable terms: Protective rinses on food are safe and in common household use in lemon juice and toothpaste.

From the depths of tragedy, finding purpose. Hope had expired as a half-hour passed since the teenaged swimmer was last seen from the sunlit surface of the large stormwater pond.

After recovering the boy, the rescue diver described for my story the underwater eddies, hidden brambles, and murky coldness to warn youngsters more vividly than could the rusted “No Swimming” sign from the water’s gleaming edge.