Due: Tuesday, May 5, in class.
What is a big idea?
According to presentation expert Nancy Duarte, “a big idea is that one key message you want to communicate. It contains the impetus that compels the audience to set a new course with a new compass heading. Screenwriters call this the ‘controlling idea.’ It has also been called the gist, the take-away, the thesis statement, or the single unifying message” (Duarte 2010).
Duarte explains that a big idea has three components:
- It must articulate your unique point of view. This means that a big idea is different from a topic, because it advances your group’s argument. For example, “homelessness” is a topic; “We must end homelessness by implementing a system of cash grants” is a big idea. Your big idea doesn’t need to be unique, but it should convey a point of view.
- It must convey what’s at stake. This gives your readers a compelling reason to take the action you recommend. For example: “Experts predict that without drastic intervention, homelessness in L.A. County will rise XX% by XXXX.”
- It should be a complete sentence. This means that your big idea should contain a noun and a verb, helping your readers understand both what actions need to take place and who needs to act. For example: “L.A. County needs to drastically change the way it addresses homelessness in order to prevent a XX% rise by XXXX.”
You can read more about the big idea, including a list of examples, here.
Getting to the big idea
How do you go from topic to big idea? Data storytelling expert Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic offers a series of questions designed to get you there. I’ve modeled this milestone on Knaflic’s Big Idea Worksheet (Nussbaumer Knaflic 2019).
In a document of some kind (Word or Google Docs are both fine), answer the following questions.
Project name:
- Audience
- List the primary groups or individuals to whom you’ll be communicating.
- If you had to narrow that to a single person, who would that be?
- What does your audience care about?
- What action does your audience need to take?
- Benefits and risks
- What are the benefits if your audience acts in the way that you want them to?
- What are the risks if they do not?
- Form your big idea. It should articulate your point of view, convey what’s at stake, and be a complete (and single) sentence.
(You can read more about the Big Idea Worksheet, including some examples of completed worksheets, here.)
And that’s it! Actually writing this document should be pretty trivial; the hard part will be doing the thinking required to develop your big idea.
References
Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic and Catherine Madden, Storytelling with Data: Let’s Practice!, 1st ed. (Wiley, 2019).
Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences (Wiley, 2010).