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Read. Understand. Apply.
The Warn Room blogs apply 70 years of research to the practice of alerts and warnings. We show how evidence-based changes to message content, style, and structure can create more effective warnings.


When a warning has ended, what do you say?
When a warning has ended, do you send a message or do you let silence speak for you? Do you let the public figure out that the coast is...

Jeannette Sutton
Aug 18


A Model Plain Language Wildfire Message
Once in a while, a message will pop into the warn.pbs.org feed that is exceptional. This is one of those times. ** A complete, plain...

Jeannette Sutton
Feb 13


Why Jargon Is So Bad in a Warning Message
By most assessments, this would be considered a complete message. It includes the source, the hazard, the location, the guidance, and the...

Jeannette Sutton
Aug 14, 2024


Punctuation and Abbreviation - suggestions to improve readability
WEA 2.0 made it possible to devlier messages with 360 characters, yet we frequently find that message writers don't make use of all that...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 18, 2023


WEA is one of many ways to alert. What's your backup plan?
2023 has included a number if significant chemical releases associated with train derailments. While the East Palenstine, OH event...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 11, 2023


The Importance of Training and Exercises
About once a week we find a message on warn.pbs.org that is clearly incomplete in both the 90 and 360 character WEA fields. But if you...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 7, 2023


Message content order makes a difference for readability
WEA issued 9/5/2023 When we stumbled across this WEA on pbs.warn, the thing that popped out was the idea of an "over wall moving...

Jeannette Sutton
Sep 6, 2023


**Evacuation Warning** but for flash flood
(click image to enlarge) WEA issued in advance of #Hilary for the CA desert The folks at the Editor's Desk have written a LOT about the...

Jeannette Sutton
Aug 27, 2023


Brushfire
To the left (click image to enlarge), we include the original 90-character WEA and a revised 272-character WEA. The first message on the...

Jeannette Sutton
Feb 19, 2023


Warning has been lifted...but what does that mean?
WEA sent 10/16/2022 at 11:47am Back in January 2018, following the ICBM WEA that will go down in infamy, it became pretty clear that...

Jeannette Sutton
Oct 15, 2022
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