From the desk of the world's leading amphibian conservation organization, SAVE THE FROGS!, are proven and instant ways to improve your communication in marketing, sales, fundraising, and journalism to increase your environmental project's impact and funding. Designed for the scientist writing for the public and popular media.

1. Communications Skills For
Environmental Professionals
Emily Moskal
Communications Director
emily@savethefrogs.com

2. Communications
Successfully conveying the desired message to
the right audience

3. Lifecycle of a message
Intent
Composition
Encoding
Transmission
Reception
Interpretation

4. Interactions are based on
communications
• Credibility
• Authority
• Every avenue of your life

5. Communications in conservation
• Education
• Outreach
• Advocacy
• Influence

6. Reduce barriers to reception
• Ambiguity
• Culture
• Big words

7. Knowing your audience
Sex – Love – Health – Happiness – Money
Fears – Hopes – Dreams

8. Fun fact: sensory exploitation
• Find preferences of audience, fine tune your song
Measure of success

9. #1 conservation priority, ranked
by the average American
• SAFETY AND HEALTH:
natural disaster,
drinking,
fitness,
recreation
You've been drinking Atrazine - now help
get it banned

10. Don't
Terms not to use:
Landscape
Ecosystem services
Global warming
Green jobs

11. Do
• Remain optimistic
• Local politicians’ positions
• Seek federal support
• Rural life
• Recreational
• Historic value

12. Stay people-oriented
• Generations
• Our, we
• Pride of place
• Responsibility

13. Connecting your audience
• Testimonials
& social proof
• Emotion
• Photos
"I really appreciate everything
you do to raise awareness and
protect our amphibian
populations!"
— Mr. Froggie, Sacramento, CA
IUCN Amphibian Specialist

14. Be a storyteller
• Problem
• Hero
• Solution

15. Stand out
• Information overload
• Short attention span
• Scanning vs. reading
• Quick decision
• Shares

16. Don't lose your reader

17. Flow
• Mix short & long sentences

18. Transitions
• So,
• First, second, third
• Then,
• Also,
• Similarly,

19. Rhetorical Questions
• So, you want to save the frogs?
Here’s how you can get started…

20. Connect paragraphs
As we begin to reshape the dry wetland we
find a nonnative bullfrog hibernating.
Finding a bullfrog is a sure sign that when
the wetland is full of water, it will support
native frogs.

21. TL;DR
• Headlines
• Subheads
• Bold
• Links
• Captions
• Photos

22. Headlines
• Bait
• The Effects of Kernel Feeding by Halyomorpha
halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) on
Commercial Hazelnuts.  Four Ways Stink
Bugs Will Shrivel Your Nuts.
https://entomologytoday.org/2014/11/25/5-ways-to-improve-your-science-writing/

23. Viral Headlines
https://blog.bufferapp.com/the-most-popular-words-in-most-viral-headlines

24. Headlines
• Thousands of
frogs are
threatened with
extinction
Better
• 8 ways to start
saving
endangered frogs
right now
BAD GOOD

25. First paragraph
• Hook
• Anticipation
• It was a dark and stormy night
• Call-to-action

26. Section headers
• History of the deadly fungus
• Infectious spread of chytrid
• Tropics in threat
• Species on the verge
of extinction

27. Photo Captions
• John shows Ted a
bullfrog
BAD
GOOD
• In Amphibian
Conservation 101 at
the Elementary of
Nepal, students John
Smith and Ted Rose
learn about a deadly
chytrid fungus killing
frogs, like this Indian
bullfrog
(Hoplobatrachus
tigerinus), found in
our area.

28. Don't be such a scientist
• Academic/technical journals ≠ writing for
popular media

29. 2 ways to make someone think
you're smart
• Confuse them with big words
• Or, teach them, and add value to their lives

30. Facts
• Don’t list
• “The bullfrog is native to the eastern U.S. The
bullfrog measures between six- to 12-inches long.
Bullfrogs mate in the spring. They lay 1,000 eggs
per clutch.”
• Every spring, a female bullfrog will hop from her
burrow and lay around 1,000 eggs at a time. Her
large size enables her to lay many eggs.

31. No jargon
• Jargon: words used inside social or work
circles, not known outside
• Clutch: mass of eggs laid at once

32. Too many words
• Mechanism of reproductive behavior
reproduction
• Rates of speed  speed
• “Brain injury incidence shows two peak
periods in almost all reports: rates are the
highest in young people and the elderly.”
More punch “Brain injury incidence peaks in
the young and the elderly.”

33. Reputation
• “This is academic writing at its finest: boring,
unreadable, written to obscure rather than to
inform!” –Stanford Writing Course
• Be inclusive, don’t isolate

34. What makes a good writer?
• Having a new perspective
• Logical and clear thinking
• A few simple, learnable rules of style
Stanford University’s Science Writing

35. Advocacy
• "In science, the credit
goes to the man who
convinces the world, not
to the man to whom the
idea first occurs."
--Sir William Osler

36. Must-have resources
• Strunk & White • AP Stylebook

37. Fun fact: punctuation helps sp. ID
via Purgatory Project

38. Common Mistakes

39. Species names
• Common names: American bullfrog
• Kingdom down to family: Ranidae
• Latin names: Lithobates catesbeianus,
or L. catesbeianus
• AmphibiaWeb

40. Organization names
• SAVE THE FROGS!
not Save the Frogs
or Save The Frogs
But, Save The Frogs Day
not SAVE THE FROGS! Day

41. Quotes
• Outside punctuation
BAD
“Frogs are cool. I hope they don’t go extinct”,
said Margot.
• GOOD
“Frogs are cool,” Margot said, “I hope they don’t
go extinct.”

42. Numbers
• Spell out units
• Zero through nine,
number 10 +
• among vs. between
• less vs. fewer
• more than vs. over
• 1980s not 1980’s

43. Capitalization
• Places:
West Texas vs.
western United States
• Diseases:
Zika vs. malaria

44. How to read better
• Underline
• Notes
• Unknown words
• Creative use of word
• Punctuation:
semicolon (;),
colon (:),
dash (-)

45. Communication Styles
• Fundraising
• Copywriting
• Journalism

46. Fundraising
• Conversational
• YOU
• Donor is a super
hero
• Numbers
• Personal story
• Fund you or
another’s project

47. Copywriting
• Marketing, sales
• Business, nonprofit, community

48. Journalism
• Objective, balanced
• Op-ed, feature,
news
• Professor, lobbyist,
activist

49. Use an editor
• Friends, Family
• I am always happy to give advice
emily@savethefrogs.com

50. Become a SAVE THE FROGS!
Contributor
• Receive personal edits of your work
• Reach a lot of environmentalists
• Receive a writing guide
• If you’re interested,
send me an email!
emily@savethefrogs

51. Additional Resources
• The Best American Science and Nature Writing
• A Field Guide for Science Writers
• Join National Association of Science Writers or follow email forums
• Tips for writing an Op/Ed by David Jarmul for Duke’s Office of News
and Communications
• Using Social Media to Promote Environmental Action
• For a good example of science writing, read Ed Yong’s blog
• Stanford’s Science Writing course slides
• Gail Perry e-newsletter for fundraising tips
• Copyblogger e-newsletter for copywriting tips
• National Geographic Style Guide
• Pitch story to helpareporter.com

52. EDIT IN ACTION
• https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/bir
aj/154fd1ce7cea8181?projector=1

53. Homework
• Spend 15 minutes looking through Nature Conservancy’s Language
of Conservation memo. Results of survey of average U.S.
conservation priorities.
• Spend 15 minutes reading Ghana Expedition summary as example
of environmental communication
• Spend 30 minutes looking these SAVE THE FROGS! magazine issues
and find three articles that catch your eye. For 30 minutes, a brief
report (<1 page) about 3 things: 1) Why you picked that article, 2)
what effectively communicated the SAVE THE FROGS! mission to a
particular audience, and 3) what didn’t.
• Keep in mind: audience, mission, reader motivation, headlines,
layout. Bonus points if you find typos! Every publication has them!
• Watch this effective advocacy and tabling video and come to next
week’s meeting with any comments or questions

54. Next Week
Week 3: How To Organize, Promote & Hold
Successful Events