Messaging Guide
Harness Monmouth University’s story to write your own on-personality messaging.
Step 1: Get Into Character
You’re about to communicate the story of Monmouth University by creating your own on-personality messaging. The first step is to get yourself into character. Remember, Monmouth University is a singular human being with one voice—not a fragmented personality that people can’t recognize. So, you must start by assuming the persona of the institution. You are writing and speaking on behalf of this human personality regardless of the specifics of the message.
Step 2: List Your Evidence
Motivated by the personality and character of Monmouth University, identify the tangible evidence that is important to your message. Don’t worry about creative flair, just make a list of facts, data, events, details, people, places, and other pertinent information about the message you desire to create.
Step 3: Map Evidence to a Dimension
Monmouth University’s grand narrative is defined by three storylines. Each storyline is an on-personality messaging pillar. Notice that each storyline is associated with unique dimensions. These dimensions offer more relevant connections to what you’re writing about. Your objective is to “map your evidence” and find the right dimension for your evidence. Review all of the available dimensions across the messaging platform and determine which best aligns with your message:
The Caring Guide
Inclusive
We intentionally seek out diverse perspectives by listening, hearing, valuing, and celebrating the lived experiences of all.
Supportive
We respond to individual needs with thoughtful, personalized plans that turn challenges into opportunities for growth.
Nurturing
We empower students to believe in their own abilities—and work alongside them to bring that potential to life.
Caring
We foster individual growth through collective support, investing all our resources in order to see every student thrive.
Attentive
We actively engage with every aspect of our students’ educational lives, fueling their ongoing transformation into confident scholars and compassionate leaders.
The Determined Leader
Determined
Our deep commitment and passion for intellectual advancement, progress, and student success makes a tangible difference in the world.
Confident
Through our abundance of resources, strong academic tradition, and exceptional faculty, we graduate leaders of influence and purpose.
Established
We are an iconic campus and distinguished institution marked by excellence and rooted in historical significance.
Competitive
Our belief in ourselves—and each other—fuels our drive to grow and improve without limitations.
Proud
Our legacy of academic achievement inspires our entire community to pursue their best in all things.
The Inspired Explorer
Experiential
By putting theory into practice, we equip students to learn more intentionally, understand more fully, and achieve exceptional outcomes for themselves
Journeying
We treat every experience—in the classroom and far beyond—as part of a continual trajectory of personal growth and professional development.
Passionate
We are fueled by a shared, internal zeal that pushes us forward and motivates us to learn, grow, seek, discover, and thrive.
Exploratory
We don’t settle for readymade answers—we take bold action to seek them out by putting concepts to the test.
Curious
We are driven by an insatiable desire to know more, empowered by a campus culture that offers every one of us the courage to question.
Step 4: Find Your Storyline
Next, your chosen dimension will guide you to the best storyline for the message you’re crafting. For example, a Caring Guide dimension will guide you to the corresponding Caring Guide storyline. Note that each storyline is weighted toward certain characteristics in Monmouth University’s personality, which will influence the tone and style of your writing.
Storyline 1 (The Caring Guide)
Monmouth empowers growth through access and personal investment.
At Monmouth University, our commitment to a distinctive, exceptional, and personalized education prepares students to thrive. By investing in meaningful, student-focused resources—and by going above-and-beyond to offer individual support—we equip every Monmouth student to believe in their own potential. Then we walk alongside them as they give their all to achieve it. Our invitational campus culture celebrates differences by amplifying diverse perspectives as a foundational pathway to learning, opening doors for our students to seek transformational opportunities for themselves and others. Together, we prepare the next generation of compassionate leaders who are ready and able to create a better, more just world for all.
Storyline 2 (The Determined Leader)
Monmouth inspires lives of perseverance and purpose.
Monmouth University is built on a foundation of academic strength and a legacy of unwavering dedication. Since 1933, through challenges and successes alike, we have grown our reputation as a pillar of intellectual excellence by continually advancing understanding and fueling progress across academic disciplines. Led by an adept, distinguished faculty and staff, we invest in scholars from all backgrounds with an exceptional education that instills confidence and fosters achievement. As leaders in academic, interpersonal, and career success, we graduate people of purpose, ready to impact the world for good.
Storyline 3 (The Inspired Explorer)
Monmouth cultivates transformation through exploration.
Monmouth University offers education as a formative journey without end, inviting students to explore deeply within themselves and broadly into the world beyond. From the classroom to the other side of the globe, we open doors just as we open minds, cultivating gifts and talents as we nurture a lifelong sense of wonder. The Monmouth experience is defined by boundless opportunities to ask, imagine, and find, as tomorrow’s change-makers put down roots right here and discover who they are and who they can become.
Step 5: Gather Keywords and Phrases
For your final step, gather appropriate keywords and phrases that align with your chosen storyline and dimension to help you in the creative-writing process. These can be any bits of content that you feel are inspiring and appropriate for your message
Laddering Technique
While product type and content volume dictate your final approach to message construction, Laddering is an effective technique to provide scaffolding for message development. Using this technique, you’ll build the basic framework of your message using one of the following two sequences:
Up The Ladder
1. Evidence
Start by listing your evidence, or fact…
2. Dimension
Integrate the essence of your selected dimension…
3. Storyline
Finish by connecting to the main storyline.
Down The Ladder
1. Storyline
Start by utilizing the main storyline…
2. Dimension
Integrate the essence of your selected dimension…
3. Evidence
Finish by connecting to your evidence, or fact.
Messaging Example
The following example illustrates how to use the evidence, dimensions, and storylines to craft an on-personality message.
Evidence: A multidisciplinary team of Monmouth faculty and student researchers helped the National Park Service better understand the history of a site that once served a key role in the region’s commerce, and proposed ways to safeguard the site for future generations.
Dimension(s): Experiential, Exploratory, Curious
Experiential: By putting theory into practice, we equip students to learn more intentionally, understand more fully, and achieve exceptional outcomes for themselves
Hands-on learning experience at the dig
Exploratory: We don’t settle for readymade answers—we take bold action to seek them out by putting concepts to the test, no matter where.
Site had previously been excavated, but something wasn’t right and there was more to be discovered
Curious: We are driven by an insatiable desire to know more, empowered by a campus culture that offers every one of us the courage to question.
Undergraduate students had the opportunity to do hands-on archaeological work
Storyline: Monmouth cultivates transformation through exploration.
Down the Ladder (Storyline-Dimension-Evidence)
Monmouth University students don’t settle for readymade answers; they are driven by an insatiable desire to know more, and feel empowered by a campus culture that offers them the courage to question. At Monmouth, students learn by doing. By putting theory into practice, students here learn more intentionally, understand more fully, and achieve exceptional outcomes for themselves while being a positive force for cultural development in the local community.
One example of this can be seen in a recent archaeological project undertaken by Monmouth researchers at Sandy Hook. A multidisciplinary team of Monmouth faculty and students helped the National Park Service better understand the history of a site that once served a key role in the region’s commerce, and proposed ways to safeguard the site for future generations.
The Cove House, which stood on Sandy Hook from late the 1700s until 1855, once served as a bunkhouse for the Sandy Hook Pilots, a group that helped steer ships into New York Harbor. Part of it was also used as a blockhouse for soldiers during the War of 1812.
In the 1980s, the site was excavated by NPS, and a number of artifacts were found and catalogued. Then in 2019, an NPS archaeologist and Monmouth student toured the site and noticed it was being washed away by sea level rise. Monmouth received a grant to better define the boundaries of the site, characterize it more precisely, assess the extent of the erosion and sea level rise, and propose possible ways to protect it for the future.
In spring 2021, Monmouth faculty and students commenced fieldwork at the site. They discovered that the 1980s excavation had mischaracterized the site, which turned out to be much bigger than NPS originally thought. The Monmouth team also found more than 10,000 additional artifacts.
“[Students] had an opportunity to participate in a real archaeological excavation here in our own community,” Professor Rich Veit said. “[They] weren’t just learning about this in the classroom. They were diving into the deep end of the pool and learning how to swim… and they left with a whole new set of skills.”
The team also prepared a report for NPS on how to safeguard the site in the future.
Up the Ladder (Evidence-Dimension-Storyline)
A multidisciplinary team of Monmouth faculty and student researchers helped the National Park Service (NPS) better understand the history of a site that once served a key role in the region’s commerce, and proposed ways to safeguard the site for future generations. The Cove House, which stood on Sandy Hook from late the 1700s until 1855, once served as a bunkhouse for the Sandy Hook Pilots, a group that helped steer ships into New York Harbor. Part of it was also used as a blockhouse for soldiers during the War of 1812.
In the 1980s, the site was excavated by NPS, and a number of artifacts were found and catalogued. Then in 2019, an NPS archaeologist and Monmouth student toured the site and noticed it was being washed away by sea level rise. Monmouth received a grant to better define the boundaries of the site, characterize it more precisely, assess the extent of the erosion and sea level rise, and propose possible ways to protect it for the future.
In spring 2021, Monmouth faculty and students commenced fieldwork at the site. They discovered that the 1980s excavation had mischaracterized the site, which turned out to be much bigger than NPS originally thought. The Monmouth team also found more than 10,000 additional artifacts.
“[Students] had an opportunity to participate in a real archaeological excavation here in our own community,” Professor Rich Veit said. “[They] weren’t just learning about this in the classroom. They were diving into the deep end of the pool and learning how to swim… and they left with a whole new set of skills.” The team also prepared a report for NPS on how to safeguard the site in the future.
This type of hands-on learning is a hallmark of the education that students receive at Monmouth University, where students learn by putting theory into practice. Monmouth students don’t settle for ready-made answers; they take action and put theory and concepts to the test. Monmouth students are driven by an insatiable desire to know more, and feel empowered by a campus culture that offers every one of them the courage to question.