How do you learn to communicate and persuade? By writing, creating images, shooting video and standing in front of an audience.

All serious artists know that mastering a medium requires nurturing the creative process; honing technique and having the courage to show your finished product to an audience for critique.  All of this is hard work.

At Acton Academy, our budding artists learn four simple questions, similar to learning and repeating four dance steps, to decide where to invest their time, talent and energy:

1.     Why do I care?

You need a reason to communicate, and we believe you shouldn’t ask for someone’s time unless you plan to:

• Issue a “call to action” that will change the world;
• Share a story that changes the participant;
• Stretch yourself, honing skills in a way that requires effort, perseverance and courage.

2.     Where am I in the process?

Each communication genre has a process. For writing it is:    Pre-writing to rough draft to revision to critique (repeating revision and critique as many times as necessary) to edit to performance or publication.

At each step you ask yourself:

• Where can I hone my skills and broaden my perspective?; and
• Do I need to back up, move to the next step or start over?

3.    Which trait needs my attention?

The 6+1 Traits Framework offers ways to improve one element of your work: Idea Generation; Organization; Sentence (or Image) Fluency; Word Choice; Voice; Convention (grammar) and Performance

For each element you ask:

• What frameworks, tools and advice might hone this part of my craft? and
• Where can I find examples that inspire me to improve?

4.     Where should I get my next critique?

The final step requires asking for advice.  Does the next critique need to be your own review; advice from a close friend or expert; feedback from a small or large group or comparison to a world class example?

Four dance steps, repeated over and over again, applying new tools and frameworks to different genres, each time with purpose and dedication. That’s how young heroes become world class communicators.