Play the videos below (click each link and select "Open") to see how quickly
you can recognize what you see, then read on.
SORRY! Videos deleted due to web space required. They each showed things that took you a
second to tell what they were...
How quick were you? What made the difference?
I remember once driving through a canyon in a blizzard with my friend Jeff. At one point, the wind blew through a narrow slot between mountain walls at the same speed we were driving. Large snowflakes appeared stationary next to us outside the window. It felt like we weren’t moving at all. Nothing changed. Everything looked the same.
Have you ever been in a white out? Have you ever tried to walk in pitch blackness without running into something? It’s hard to distinguish anything when there is no contrast. Just try to read this.
After all, what makes it so hard to find a needle in a haystack, but so easy to find it in your bedroom carpet with bare feet? Contrast. Needles really stand out. Why is it easy to fall asleep driving across the Nevada desert, but hard to sleep while driving through the non-stop curves of American Fork Canyon? Yep, it's contrast again.
Yet while we’re familiar with this concept in the physical world, few people think to apply it to other areas. Like papers and ideas.
Your paper becomes a white out (or black out) when everything’s the same. And when this happens, readers’ eyes can glaze over. They will likely miss important ideas and assertions, which will pass by without even being noticed.
If you have any points in your paper that you want to be noticed (and you should!), then you can use contrast to make them stand out. Here are a few ways to do it:
An important point to understand in this section is that the contrast that I hope you’ll learn to create is not just logical contrast. It’s not just an understanding of differences. I’m talking about being able to feel the difference. To sense it.