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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.


Incomplete messages leave room for improvement
Incomplete messages lack key details that message receivers NEED and want in order to understand what is being communicated. In this...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 29, 2024


Shelter in Place; completing the message
The messages shared here are real. If you are a reader of The Warn Room, you know that this is representative of WEAS that we see...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 8, 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


What is the hazard and why should I follow your advice?
Before posting this WEA to the Warning Gallery, the editors tried to revise the message, but were stumped. Without significant effort to...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 15, 2023


Is it important to SHOUT and yell !!!!! in a Warning Message?
Wireless Emergency Alerts are designed to notify people of dangerous and imminent threats that require quick or immediate action. The...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 29, 2023


A highly localized message with limited value.
If you read The Warn Room regularly, you know that a foundational aspect of good warnings is that they deliver complete information to...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 27, 2023


Abbreviations and incomplete messages are difficult to understand and act on
An important characteristic of an effective message is it's completeness while being concise. The goal is to deliver enough content that...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 21, 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


Edits to an incomplete message about a power outage
WEA issued on 7/20/2023 Sometimes a message will be issued that lacks so much context, we have to do some digging to figure out what it's...

Jeannette Sutton
Jul 22, 2023


Law Enforcement warning and all-clear
A series of messages about law enforcement activity. The Warning Gallery has many examples of incomplete warning messages that would...

Jeannette Sutton
Jun 10, 2023


Incomplete & confusing messages cause more confusion
WEA sent 12/15/2022 Wireless Emergency Alerts frequently serve as the channel to reach populations in "the last mile," that is, those who...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 15, 2022


Two 360-character WEA's delivering 90-character content
WEAs sent 12/9/2022 In November, 2019, the FEMA-IPAWS program rolled out "WEA 2.0" which increased the message character count from 90 to...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 9, 2022
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