I help accountants and auditors turn insights into impact by improving their business writing.
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.
The 3rd edition of my book, Financial Management and Accounting in the Public Sector, is published in March. If you’re a lecturer or teacher you can order an inspection copy from the publisher.
Here’s a writing tip: Sometimes it’s best to write nothing at all. There are countless places where you can find tips for better writing. They’ll all say you should be brief. Cut out the waffle and the jargon. Well, sometimes I think you should cut out 100% of a document. Just don’t write it! Instead of less is more it’s a case of nothing is more than enough. When could this be the case?
Teaching accountants how to write is like teaching smart people how to learn. Chris Argyris wrote a seminal article for Harvard Business Review entitled, Teaching Smart People How to Learn. The gist of the article is that smart people are almost always successful at what they do. They pass exams and job interviews and so on. Because they rarely fail they haven’t learned the skill of learning from failure. The problem with this is that when they fail at something they become defensive, screen out criticism and look to blame someone or something else.