SING LIKE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU, DANCE LIKE NO ONE CAN SEE YOU BUT WRITE LIKE EVERYONE WILL READ YOU

THE sugarcane industry is a prolific publisher but all too often struggles to foster change among growers. How can we prepare publications that are more likely to increase adoption of better farming practices? By reviewing industry documents and addressing Kumpf’s 10 categories of visual metadiscourse, the acceptance (in particular the credibility) of industry documents was increased. The categories of convention, external skeleton, chunking, and interpretation were the main areas of improvement. A subsequent survey confirmed that a new format of document was more likely to challenge grower’s current thinking on farm practices.