I help accountants and auditors turn insights into impact by improving their business writing.
Tables in reports are helpful for presenting information but you need to help your reader to see your message. Formatting your table can help but too much formatting works against you. All you’re doing is adding clutter. In particular, don’t use “zebra striping” (where alternative rows are shaded one darker, one lighter). You may think it makes your tables more organised as well as pretty, but it doesn’t actually help the reader focus on what’s important.
When writing about financial topics to non-financial people don’t use technical terms or jargon. What I mean by this is not to use a term and then explain it. Don’t use the term at all. Just write what the term means because the reader doesn’t need to learn the term. I give an example in this video.
This poster hangs above my desk. It is a reminder to be willing to delete bad writing. I hope my ratio of good writing to bad is better than 1:99 but bad writing is bad writing. The lesson for us all is: • Always read what you write. • Delete everything you don’t need. • Revise what’s left to be as clear and simple as you can make it.
We begin to write by using short sentences. As we grow so do our sentences. By the time we are at work we think we need long, complex sentences to be professional. This leads us to a use jargon and unclear language. We end up writing without clarity and impact. Yes, long sentences can sound impressive—like something from a professor, journalist, or expert. But how often do you actually enjoy reading their work?
You’ve probably read or watched lots of advisors recommending your use stories in your finance presentations. But what does that mean? How do you tell a story? There are stories all around you that you can adapt. Here are some ideas from movies.
Here’s a third clip from my appearance on the Human Too podcast where I explain why I spend so much time and energy giving tips to accountants and auditors to improve their writing and presentation skills. Having great insights about finances, and great advice to give, is no good if you cannot communicate your insights and advice to the right people.
Here’s a second clip from my appearance the Human Too podcast where I explain that being an introvert does not stop me from standing in front of a hundred people and talking. As well as being on the human Too podcast I will be delivering a presentation skills webinar with Hannah on 26 September 2024. You can find more details and register here.
I am the guest this week on Hannah Macdonald’s Human Too podcast. It’s a podcast that shows accountants are human, too. In this episode I discuss my career as a CIPFA accountant and how it divides into two halves. The first half is fairly conventional, rising through the ranks of local government to reach chief finance officer level. The second half is unique. I’ve been self-employed for almost 20 years and have migrated over that time from interim management and consultancy assignments to teaching and writing.
Write shorter reports instead. Long reports usually have an executive summary that is maybe only 1 or 2 per cent as long as the report. Isn’t this an admission that 98% of the report is not needed by most readers, if not all of them? One thing you can be confident about is that your most important readers – the decision-makers – will read only the summary. Shouldn’t we all write shorter reports instead of long reports with summaries?
Remove the negative tone of your writing by using and instead of but to join two thoughts. When you do this you’ll sound more positive. We all know when someone says, “Yes, but …,” they are disagreeing with us. When we get feedback from someone that follows the “(comment 1) but (comment 2)” we know the but is the warning sign. Sometimes two clauses need to be joined by ‘but’. Most of the time, however, you’ll find that using ‘and’ works just as well.