Clear Communication Starts with Poetry

VOICES

Alyssa Story ʼ19 is a senior at Loyola Marymount University, studying film, media and television studies. She is the former editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Loyolan and a current reporting fellow for CalMatters’ College Beat.

I love social media, but it can be the most frustrating way to communicate. Ideas can get misconstrued and an innocuous interaction can quickly turn vicious. We’ve become accustomed to using fewer words to say more. Headlines supplement the news, tweets can be official government statements, and text messages have replaced phone calls. The world we live in values quick communication and fast phrases, but that doesn’t ensure clear messages. In an increasingly polarized world, words matter. But are we taking the time to consider the intention and impact of every word we choose when left with 240 characters? A solution may lie in poetry.

Full disclosure: I used to despise poetry. I found it useless. As an aspiring journalist, I’ve always favored clear, accurate and concise writing. Poetry felt antithetical to those values. Why encode meaning through metaphors and allusions when you can easily direct a reader to a destination? However, after taking a poetry course for my degree requirements, I’ve realized the world of poetry runs parallel to my own philosophy of communication.

Few practices force us to deeply consider the language we use, and poetry is the most refined of those practices. When analyzing a poem, definitions, connotations, historical context and more come into play to glean the full meaning of the text. That same consideration can be used when interacting online. An errant phrase can hold major significance to a group, or a quick slogan can be a coded dog whistle, and thoughtfulness can fight ignorance. Writing with more intention can help us avoid missteps in a social media landscape riddled with landmines. While a large part of me still wants to require everyone to use more words when trying to get their point across, the compromise may lie in poetry.