April Newsletter: This is where you’ll find my newsletter from now on!

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Starting in May, this newsletter will be published on the first Tuesday of the month here instead of arriving in your email inbox via Constant Contact. I’ll also share it via social media.

Set a calendar reminder for the first Tuesday of every month, and follow me on LinkedIn to increase the likelihood that you’ll see the newsletter.

Thank you for being a loyal reader and for understanding my decision to migrate the newsletter here!

Once you define an abbreviation, should you skip the spelled-out term?

Once you’ve introduced GDP as the abbreviation for gross domestic product, should you only use GDP in your articles or other publications? Yes, you should. At least that’s the opinion of most of the writers with whom I checked.

I also lean toward defining an abbreviation once and then using only the abbreviation. However, in a long piece, I could see redefining the abbreviation after a big gap in its use. How long is a long piece? As soon as the reader can’t find an abbreviation on the same page, you might make a case for reintroducing the complete term. However, this depends on the frequency with which the term is used. It’s easier to remember a term that’s used often.

A writer friend suggested that you can remind readers of the full word or expression by spelling it out in headings. That’s a judgment call.

However, if the complete term is used in a quotation, don’t abbreviate it when you use the quotation in your article.

Whatever you decide about this issue, your organization should consider adding your preferred practices to a style guide to ensure consistency. Also, if you use many abbreviations, you may find it useful to “Help your readers by linking to definitions,” as I discuss on my blog.

Tool helps you distinguish between seemingly similar words

Check out the WikiDiff website if you want to compare the definitions of two words that seem similar.

For example, go to the site to compare different and diffident. The two words sound similar, but their meanings are unrelated. Sure, you could Google the two words separately, but it’s handy to compare the definitions on one page.

The future of investment management

“Building a Future-Ready Investment Firm” is the focus of a research study released earlier this year by research partners including Deloitte. It touches on topics such as “How Digital Technology and AI Will Change Wealth Management.”

Your cooking and your microbiome

I was interested to learn that “Cooking dramatically increased the calories humans and mice got from food. Cooked meat yielded 10 to 15 percent more calories than raw. Cooked sweet potatoes were a whopping 30 percent more caloric than uncooked ones.” This is according to “You Are What (Your Microbes) Eat” in Harvard Magazine.

Speaking of cooking sweet potatoes, I enjoyed this sweet potato recipe using miso.

What my clients say about me

“Fast, effective, insightful. I can think of no better resource for superior financial writing.”

“Susan has an exceptional ability to tailor investment communications to the sophistication level of any audience. She has an uncanny ability to make very complex investment and/or economic topics accessible and understandable to anyone.”

“Susan’s particularly good at working through highly technical material very quickly. That’s very important in this business. A lot of people are good writers, but they have an extensive learning curve for something they’re unfamiliar with. Susan was able to jump very quickly into technical material.”

Read more testimonials!

Improve your investment commentary

Attract more clients, prospects, and referral sources by improving your investment commentary with 44 pages of the best tips from the InvestmentWriting.com blog.

Tips include how to organize your thoughts, edit for the “big picture,” edit line by line, and get more mileage out of your commentary.

Available in PDF format for only $9.99. Buy it now!

Boost your blogging now!

Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients is available for purchase as a PDF ($39) or a paperback ($49, affiliate link).

Hire Susan to speak

Could members of your organization benefit from learning to write better? Hire Susan to present on “How to Write Investment Commentary People Will Read,” “Writing Effective Emails,” or a topic customized for your company.

March Newsletter: Comma or colon before a quotation?

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I instinctively choose between a comma and a colon before a quotation. But I wondered if there was a rule that I should know about.

I was happy to discover Grammar Monster’s “Comma or Colon before a Quotation?” The blog post features an easy-to-follow flow chart for picking a comma or a colon. The key is deciding whether what precedes the quotation is an independent clause (in other words, could it be a standalone sentence?).

Write a great “about” page

“The 7 Questions Your ‘About’ Page Should Answer” by Andy Crestodina was highly recommended by my friend, the extraordinary copywriter Robyn Bradley, so I had to check it out. It features a nice template and practical tips.

I was interested to learn that Crestodina thinks conflict is an essential element of a good “about” page on your website. His explanation makes sense, but I’d never thought of the topic that way until I read his article.

Discounted paperbacks of Financial Bloggingbook cover: Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients

Buy a paperback copy of Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients for only $39 (regular price is $49) while the supply lasts. This offer is only for shipment within the U.S. Simply email me with your mailing address, pay the invoice I’ll email you, and I’ll send your book via priority mail.

I’m happy to sign the title page of your book. Just tell me to whom to inscribe it and what you’d like me to write.

Why there’s no apostrophe in writers room

My post on “Why there’s no apostrophe in writers room” inspired a piece of fan mail to me recently. Honestly, this topic continues to confuse me, so I circle back to this post occasionally.

As I proofread this newsletter, my software tells me that I need an apostrophe in “writers room.” This is an example of why you can’t rely solely on automated grammar and spelling checks.

Reminder: April will be my last month on Constant Contact

April will be the last month that I’ll email this newsletter to you via Constant Contact. After that, you’ll find it here on my blog. Visit my blog monthly and follow me on LinkedIn to ensure you keep up with the newsletter.

How AI affects evaluating student performance

With generative AI making it easier for everyone to write exam answers and essays, the role of written communications will become less important in academia, according to “AI in the Academy: Cautious embrace of a new technology” in Harvard Magazine. As a result, “The role of oral, live, public speaking assignments is going to increase,” says Professor Jeffrey Schnapp.

I wonder if this will also affect how companies interview writers and editors before hiring them. However, I think the best way to assess editorial skill is with a paid assignment. Even before AI, readers never really knew if a published article or editing sample was solely the work of one individual.

What my clients say about me

“Fast, effective, insightful. I can think of no better resource for superior financial writing.”

“Susan has an exceptional ability to tailor investment communications to the sophistication level of any audience. She has an uncanny ability to make very complex investment and/or economic topics accessible and understandable to anyone.”

“Susan’s particularly good at working through highly technical material very quickly. That’s very important in this business. A lot of people are good writers, but they have an extensive learning curve for something they’re unfamiliar with. Susan was able to jump very quickly into technical material.”

Read more testimonials!

Improve your investment commentary

Attract more clients, prospects, and referral sources by improving your investment commentary with 44 pages of the best tips from the InvestmentWriting.com blog.

Tips include how to organize your thoughts, edit for the “big picture,” edit line by line, and get more mileage out of your commentary.

Available in PDF format for only $9.99. Buy it now!

Boost your blogging now!

Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients is available for purchase as a PDF ($39) or a paperback ($49, affiliate link).

Hire Susan to speak

Could members of your organization benefit from learning to write better? Hire Susan to present on “How to Write Investment Commentary People Will Read,” “Writing Effective Emails,” or a topic customized for your company.

7 factors that affect reading ease

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On this blog—and in my writing workshops—I’ve written about things that affect reading ease. I’ve focused on the average number of syllables per word, words per sentence, and sentences per paragraph. However, Harold Evans’ Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters, introduced me to a seven-factor list from Robert Gunning, creator of the fog index.

Factors that affect reading ease

Some of the seven factors relate to length. They’re similar to the syllable, sentence, and paragraph measures. They also feed into the fog index. Evans describes the fog index as follows:

If you want to be clear, count the average number of words in your sentences, count the number of words of three syllables (the percentage of hard words), total the two, and multiply by 0.4. The lower ranking on the fog index, the easier the reading…

The seven factors include:

  1. Average sentence length in words
  2. Percentage of simple sentences
  3. Percentage of strong verb forms
  4. Proportion of familiar words
  5. Proportion of abstract words
  6. Percentage of personal references
  7. Percentage of long words

Why do the other factors matter? I like #3, the percentage of strong verbs, and #4, the proportion of familiar words, because they typically make the writer’s intent easier to grasp.

I’m puzzled by #6, percentage of personal references.

As I see it, personal references could cut both ways. Requiring detailed knowledge of your personal life will make your writing harder to understand. On the other hand, comprehension will improve when you use “you” and referring to things your readers care about.

The fog index isn’t infallible

Gunning’s seven factors can help you assess your content’s reader-friendliness. But they’re not infallible.

As Evans says,

Combine readability statistics with common sense. You can write illogical nonsense and get a good score of readability; the classic proof is that if you enter your sample from the last word to the first, you get the same score. Metaphor, analogy, and satire are unrecognized, wit unappreciated. The formulas have tin ears for the rhythm of sentence variety, for word choice, for the energy in the writing.

Test your reading ease online

You can run your text through an online version of the fog index.

 

Disclosure:  If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I only link to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Note: Updated March 24, 2024.

February newsletter: Do grammar errors affect your heart rate?

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Have you ever felt as if your heart skipped a beat upon noticing a grammar error? It’s not just your imagination that bad grammar can affect your heart rate.

When people spot grammar errors, their heart rate variability declines, indicating that they’re stressed. That’s according to a University of Birmingham research study reported on in “Grammar Goofs Make Your Heart Skip: The Stressful Beat of Misused Language” in Neuroscience News.

Flash sale on Financial Blogging

I plan to run a flash sale on the PDF version of my book, Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients. Watch your email for details in the week of Feb. 19!

Here’s what advisors say about my book.

  • A great read for advisors who want to blog better—or learn how to start!
    Michael Kitces, Nerd’s Eye View
  • Susan’s words have helped me hone my message and become clearer in my explanations. Through my dedication to blogging, my business has grown as a result. I owe much of my success in business to Susan’s teaching and guidance.
    Dave Grant, Finance for Teachers
  • I wish I had read Susan’s Financial Blogging before I produced 300 weekly posts. There was a lot of practical advice in a slim 13- page guide to producing effective blogs. The blog preparation work sheets should be of particular value to an author who wishes to get smart people to do smart things with their money. My posts will be better for having read the book.
    A. Michael Lipper, Mike Lipper’s blog

Format your content effectively!

The Nielsen Norman Group highlights five techniques you can use to format your content effectively in “5 Formatting Techniques for Long-Form Content”:

  • Summary of key points
  • Text boxes, also known as callouts
  • Bullet points
  • Visual exhibits
  • Highlighting key points

These techniques help to break your content into easily digestible, visually appealing chunks of information.

Inflation calculator

Wondering how much overall U.S. inflation has increased over a specific period? Use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator.

Shake up your brain!

My approach to using ChatGPT to explain a complex idea is the focus of “Jan. Metaphor Minute: Shake Up Your Brain” by Anne Miller. I was impressed by Anne’s analysis of what came to me instinctively.

This newsletter is moving from Constant Contact

I plan to migrate this newsletter from Constant Contact to my blog—where you are reading it now—and possibly LinkedIn by April 2024, so please bookmark my Investment Writing blog and follow me on LinkedIn. You’ll have fewer messages in your email inbox, and I’ll have fewer platforms to manage because of the change.

Thanks for your understanding!

What my clients say about me

“Fast, effective, insightful. I can think of no better resource for superior financial writing.”

“Susan has an exceptional ability to tailor investment communications to the sophistication level of any audience. She has an uncanny ability to make very complex investment and/or economic topics accessible and understandable to anyone.”

“Susan’s particularly good at working through highly technical material very quickly. That’s very important in this business. A lot of people are good writers, but they have an extensive learning curve for something they’re unfamiliar with. Susan was able to jump very quickly into technical material.”

Read more testimonials!

Improve your investment commentary

Attract more clients, prospects, and referral sources by improving your investment commentary with 44 pages of the best tips from the InvestmentWriting.com blog.

Tips include how to organize your thoughts, edit for the “big picture,” edit line by line, and get more mileage out of your commentary.

Available in PDF format for only $9.99. Buy it now!

Boost your blogging now!

Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients is available for purchase as a PDF ($39) or a paperback ($49, affiliate link).

Hire Susan to speak

Could members of your organization benefit from learning to write better? Hire Susan to present on “How to Write Investment Commentary People Will Read,” “Writing Effective Emails,” or a topic customized for your company.

Q&A format for articles: Good or bad?

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The Q&A format has its uses. An FAQ section covering frequently asked questions belongs on many websites. However, this format should be used sparingly for articles.

Q&A format for articles good or bad infographic

 

FAQs work, so why not Q&A articles?

Unlike articles, FAQs are meant to be searched or skimmed for one question, not read word-for-word. Their readers seek answers to specific questions or solutions for problems, such as “How can I fix it when I get Error Message XYZ?” An FAQ may include many questions, but the reader is interested in one—or only a few—Q&A pairs.

Q&As make it hard to grasp an overall message

The Q&A format makes it harder for readers to grasp your overall message than with an article. A traditional article can offer an introduction, headings, and a skilled writer’s transition between topics.

Q&A interviewees may hold you hostage

The Q&A format works best when your interviewees know how to hit your readers’ hot buttons, and they’re articulate. You can’t count on finding that in every interviewee.

When you choose a Q&A format, you deny yourself the use of paraphrasing. As a reporter, I learned that only lazy reporters always use direct quotes. Paraphrases, which restate what your source said, can be more economical and effective. Plus, a colorful quote stands out better against a background of plain vanilla text.

Q&A format is okay when…

A Q&A format works well when you:

  1. Write FAQs
  2. Keep it short—My gut tells me three questions is a good length. A Q&A may work well as a blog post. I often discuss reader questions on my blog.
  3. Interview a famous person whose fans care about every word he or she utters—Think Taylor Swift and young girls or Warren Buffett and investors.
  4. Add headings—They’ll make it easier for the casual reader to find information that interests them.
  5. Edit the interview transcript—Word-for-word transcripts don’t make anyone look good. At a minimum, cut out the ums, uhs, incomplete sentences that don’t work, and irrelevant material. If you’re interviewing a corporate employee for your company’s newsletter, you can take more liberties, as long as you check with the employee to make sure you haven’t misrepresented him or her.

What do YOU think?

I’m curious to learn what you think about the pros and cons of the Q&A format. If you’ve used it effectively, feel free to share a link.

 

NOTE: Originally published April 9, 2013. Updated Jan. 14, 2024.

Singular or plural–which is right for $5 million?

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It’s not always easy to tell whether a noun is singular or plural. Take this example “$5 million was/were enough.”

When I informally polled some writer friends, four out of five voted for “was.” That sounds right to me, too.

The word “dollars” is plural, but “$5 million” becomes what grammarians call a collective noun.

Think of it this way, a portfolio management team is made up of people, but the team is a single entity so you say “The team was” instead of “The team were.”

On collective nouns, a Grammar Girl blog post written by Bonnie Trenga (but no longer available online) said the following:

Inanimate objects, such as “sugar” or “furniture,” are called mass nouns or uncountable nouns, and are always singular. So you would say, “This sugar is very sweet” or “My furniture is too old.” You can’t say, “This sugar are” or “My furniture are.” If you want to talk about individual grains of sugar or individual pieces of furniture, then you have to say something like “Eight grains of sugar were found” or “These pieces of furniture are new.”

However, as one of my friends and the Grammar Girl blog pointed out, the British treat collective nouns differently. They combine them with plural verbs. No wonder some of us are confused!

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Note: This post was updated on Nov. 30, 2023.

My 2023 reading

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Here are some of the most interesting, helpful books that I read during 2023. I hope you’ll find some titles that interest you.

Writing

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Health and Karla Starr. This book has great examples of effective communication with numbers.

Rebel with a Clause: Takes and Tips from a Roving Grammarian by Ellen Jovin

Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less by Jim Vandehei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz—The premise of this book resonates with me.

Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business by Kindra Hall—This is an excellent book about how to write compelling stories to use in your marketing. The author providers practical rules and plenty of illustrations of how to apply them.

Watch Your Language! Mother Tongue and Her Wayward Children by Robert Gorrell—This book will interest those of you who enjoy learning about the history of English-language grammar and style. I prefer books that focus on helping me to write better, so this book isn’t for me.

By the way, if you want to improve your financial writing, check out my book, Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients. Although it focuses on blogging, it teaches you a process you can apply to any type of writing.

 

Race

The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth About Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations by Robert Livingston

Finding Me by Viola Davis

How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon

Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

You Got Anything Stronger? by Gabrielle Union—I didn’t even know who Gabrielle Union was when I started listening to this audiobook, which I got free through The Wall Street Journal. The chapters of her memoir on blackface, blackfishing, and violence against Black people were especially compelling. As a woman without children, I also found fascinating the story of her fertility and surrogacy journey.

 

Self-Improvement

Better Each Day: 365 Expert Tips for a Healthier, Happier You by Jessica Cassity

Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World by Jacqueline Brassey, Aaron De Smet, and Michiel Kruyt

52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness by Annabel Abs-Streets

Four Seconds by Peter Bregman

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves

The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz

Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most by Cassie Holmes

Happiness is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old by John Leland

How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by K.C. Davis

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite

Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters by Laura Vanderkam

You Belong: A Call for Connection by Sebene Selassie

Memoir

Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites by Kate Christensen

Hell and Other Destinations by Madeleine K. Albright

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Solito by Javier Zamora

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

 

Disclosure: If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I provide links to books only when I believe they have value for my readers.

Quotation websites for your writing

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“What quotation websites do you recommend?” A friend’s question in response to my discussion of “Famous quotes make your commentary memorable” prompted me to ask my virtual assistant to research quotation websites. I’m sharing the results of her research, along with my ideas for other ways to find quotes to spice up your writing.

Quotation websites for your writing infographic

Quotation websites

My VA thinks BrainyQuote is the best of the bunch. It does have the most attractive appearance, and it’s relatively light on distracting advertisements.

Here are the websites she identified, along with some sites I’ve identified since my VA’s initial research.

  • BrainyQuote—This website lets you search by author or topic. You can also sign up for a quote of the day, which may help you discover an unexpected gem. If you post quotes on social media, you may enjoy BrainyQuote’s QuotePictures, quotations against the backdrop of an attractive photograph. You can share the QuotePictures to social media—including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest—with a couple of clicks.
  • Quoteland—This website has online forums with topics such as “I need a quote.” I haven’t tried the forums, but they might help you when you’re stuck.
  • The Quotations Page
  • Lib Quotes
  • WisdomQuotes.com
  • Quotabelle described its selection as  “inspirational stories + quotes of real women & girls” when I first visited it, but it appears to have gone out of business.

Online searches

You can find quotations by doing an online search. Here’s what I found when I did a Google search on “quotations about money.”

This kind of search may help you to identify other websites that are good sources of quotations.

Some of the sites may be general. For example, Goodreads, a membership site, has a quotations page. The Goodreads quotes page is driven by members adding and tagging quotes they like. You can browse the quotes by their tags. When I checked, one of the top post for “money” was one that I doubt many financial professionals will use in their writing, except as an example of what not to do.

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
― Oscar Wilde

Cool Funny Quotes is a niche site with a humorous twist. Here are the site’s money-related quotes. Like BrainyQuotes, it offers social-media-ready images of quotations.

If you’re thinking in terms of visuals, Pinterest is another site to search. Here are Pinterest’s quotes related to money.

Books

Some books are rich in useable quotes.

Buffett’s Bites: The Essential Investor’s Guide to Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letters by L.J. Rittenhouse has plenty of great quotes. Unfortunately, it lacks an index.

When you’re looking for quotes, a Kindle or other e-reader may make your research easier. At a minimum, a great index will help.

Compile your own collection of quotations

If you enjoy using quotes in your writing, them save great quotations as you see them. You can find them in anything you read or listen to.

In the old days, I recommended scribbling them in a paper notebook. These days, it’s probably more efficient to save quotes online in a Word document or an app like Evernote or OneNote.

Did they really say it?

Plenty of quotes are mistakenly attributed to famous people. I enjoyed reading a Wall Street Journal review of Garson O’Toole’s Hemingway Didn’t Say That.

The review introduced me to the Quote Investigator website, which explores the origins of famous quotes.

 

NOTE: updated on Jan. 17, 2021; March 8, 2022; Nov. 4, 2022; and Oct. 5, 2023.

When to use numbers instead of bullets for lists

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When should you use numbers instead of bullets for indented lists? I agree with Edward P. Bailey Jr., who says in The Plain English Approach to Business Writing:

I suggest numbered lists when the order of the items is especially important; otherwise use bulleted lists.

If you use numbers when the items’ order is not important, readers may mistakenly assume that the order is important.

When you write lists, don’t forget to use parallel construction. That will also help readers to understand your message.

 

Disclosure: If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I provide links to books only when I believe they have value for my readers.

Automation to improve your writing

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Automated tools can improve your financial writing.

Proofreading

Some of my favorite tools are Speak, PerfectIt, and Grammarly, as I’ve discussed in “My three main software tools for proofreading.” They help me with proofreading. I’ve gone into more detail on one of these tools in “How I use Grammarly to improve my writing.”

If your organization uses Associated Press style, you may like AP StyleGuard, which I discuss in “AP StyleGuard: the answer to your proofreading prayers?” However, having a basic proficiency in AP style, and feeling annoyed by StyleGuard recommendations that didn’t suit my needs, I’ve switched to an online subscription to the AP Stylebook, which offers the ability to add entries customized to your needs, integrated with a subscription to Webster’s New World Dictionary.

If you follow The Chicago Manual of Style, there’s an online version of that. PerfectIt offers integration with that style guide if you subscribe to both services.

Writing more concisely

If you’re looking to write more precisely, check out the Hemingway app and website, which I discuss in “Free help for wordy writers!” Some readers have told me that the simple act of running their writing through Hemingway has significantly improved their writing.

The Writer’s Diet is another tool that tackles similar issues, as I discuss in “Editing tool: the Writer’s Diet.”

“Keep it short with the Fog Index!” includes links to tools that can calculate the Fog Index—a measure of wordiness—of your writing. Alternatively, you can run the readability statistics calculations in Microsoft Word.

None of these tools will make changes for you, but they’ll help you by letting you know that a problem exists.

Using AI to draft articles

ChatGPT, an AI writing tool, seemed to burst on the scene late in 2022. It may turn out to be a useful tool. Before experimenting with it, make sure you understand its limitations, some of which are explained in Brian X Chen’s “How to Use ChatGPT and Still Be a Good Person.”

Integrate automated tools into your writing process

Of course, you’ll enjoy a more productive automated proofreading and editing process if you include your tools as part of a well-developed writing process.

I walk you through every stage of the writing process in my book, Financial Blogging: How to Write Powerful Posts That Attract Clients. Although the book focuses on blogging, its process applies to almost any kind of writing.

For a quick overview of how to integrate automated tools into rewriting, read my “12 steps to rewrite long articles.”

 

 

Note: I made a small change to this article on Sept. 30, 2022, and January 20,2023