← Chapter 12
Professional Writing · Chapter 12

The Channel Dial

Four questions pick your channel more reliably than habit does: how fast, how many, how permanent, how heavy — plus a fifth nobody names, who owns it. Pick a real situation, set the five dials the way you read it, and watch seven channels re-rank themselves. Then check your reading against what the situation actually needs.
1 · The situation
Choose a message you have to send. The dials do not change the words yet — they change where the words go.
2 · Your five dials
Answer as the sender. Every click re-scores all seven channels instantly.
3 · What your dials pick
Fit is scored on all five axes at once. A channel can be perfect on speed and still lose on permanence.
Urgency is a property of the channel, not of the word “urgent.” Typing URGENT into a medium that scrolls is a way of feeling responsible without being effective.