Chapter Fifteen

The Best Trail Mix Recipe Ever

Adding Metaphors and Humor to Your Communications

This chapter is about…

  • Using metaphors to connect your new ideas with familiar concepts people already understand
  • Adding humor to your content repertoire

After hours of hard hiking, there's nothing better than throwing a handful of trail mix into your mouth and tasting the delectable combination of the sweet chocolate and salty nuts. More than a few times after reading something a nonprofit has written on its website or an in a newsletter, I've thought, “Wow, this is good, really good.” It's that awesome trail mix fix.

When I look more closely, I often find I feel that way because the writer has used one of two techniques: metaphors or humor. ...

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