New resource: The Two Version Announcement Test.

Seed, Sprout, Grow, Harvest, six fields, about six minutes. You finish holding a rewritten first week announcement you can paste into your LMS today and a test you can run on two sections this week.

Seed. Name the one thing a student has to do next. One action, not five.
Sprout. Cut the middle, not the warm opening. Everything you cut already lives in the syllabus.
Grow. Write the human line in your voice, out loud first.
Harvest. Read it on a phone. If the one thing and the human line are both visible before you scroll, you are done.

Nothing is saved and nothing is transmitted. Copy your work out before you close the tab.

https://www.harvestkernel.com/the-two-version-announcement-test/

Open your welcome announcement on your phone right now. Before you scroll, can you see the one thing a student has to do next? One word answer is fine: yes or no.