I help accountants and auditors turn insights into impact by improving their business writing.
Whether writing an email or a 20-page report we tend to think of it needing a beginning, middle and end. This encourages us to write something along the lines of: Here’s a problem == This is the cause == Analysis of possible solutions == recommended solution The problem with this structure, for busy people at work, is that the important bit is at the end. They have to work through all your analysis to get to the answer.
Often the best way for numerical information to be communicated in a document or presentation slide is in a table. I’ve written before about the need to declutter tables so that the reader/audience can easily see what is important. If you decide that you have numerical information that would be best displayed in a chart then the same principle of removing the clutter applies. Download this handy guide to remind you next time you add a chart to a document or presentation.
I’ve written conventional textbooks published by Routledge that you can buy from traditional and online booksellers. I have a new edition of one of them being published next month. We all know that the internet makes it easier for people to self-publish books and I decided to learn how to do it. I wrote a short book about public sector procurement, using the example of hiring a consultant or advisor. I chose that topic because it is an example that would be relevant across the public sector, from government ministries to police forces, schools to hospitals.
The readers of your finance reports are busy and you need to grab their attention right upfront. Here are three ways you could open up a finance report that will keep the reader reading. An unexpected or controversial statement (followed by supporting evidence). If making a bold statement is too much for you, you could instead re-frame the statement as a question. We should stop making product A becomes should we stop making product A?
In Politics and the English Language (1946) George Orwell wrote this list of rules: Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
If you order the new edition of Financial Management and Accounting in the Public Sector direct from the publisher you can get a 20% discount using the code AFL01 at the checkout. It’s available for pre-order now, and is published on 14 March.
#publicfinance #PFM #newbook
I have said several times that slide decks should include more images and fewer words. If you make an image-heavy presentation it will have more impact on your audience than a wall of text. However, the images you use need to be good ones, both in terms of their relevance and their quality. Images look best if they fill the slide. Crappy, low resolution clip art is not going to give you the professional look you need.
I think somewhere during the journey towards our professional accounting qualification we adopt accounting-speak. Some of the words we learn to use are very specific and we have to use them. I’m thinking of words like depreciation. But there is tendency also towards overwriting and using words that are pretentious. We write facilitate instead of manage; dialogue instead of talk about; apologise instead of say sorry. The end result is writing that is longer and more complicated than it needs to be.
Before you begin to write your next email or letter or report spend a few minutes collecting your thoughts. If you don’t know what you want to say before you write you will find what you do write drifts and meanders as you are figuring out your point. With business communication your reader’s time is valuable. Don’t waste their time: get to the point of your message up front. Once they know what the key message is they can decide whether they even need to read the rest of the document.
A hammer and chisel, in the right hands, can be used to create wonderful works of art. In most hands they create rubble.
I feel much the same way about Microsoft Word.