- Susan Weiner Investment Writing

Mix up your style with this writing exercise

May 30, 2017/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Could tweaking your style make your articles, blog posts, and white papers more effective? Try the writing exercise I describe below. The results may surprise you.

In Stylish Academic Writing, author Helen Sword proposes a writing exercise in which you first evaluate something you’ve written in terms of the chart below.

In other words:

Does it use the first person (see column A)?
Does it use a personal or impersonal voice (see column B)?
Is it subjective or objective (see column C)?
Is it formal or informal (see column D)?

Answering these questions will help you to understand your starting point.

The next step in Sword’s writing exercise? She says:

What happens if you change one or two of these variables? For example, if you usually write in a third-person, impersonal, objective, formal mode, introduce I or we and see how you feel about the results.

Writing exercise: my sample rewrites

For example, let’s rewrite my first paragraph without any pronouns. Here’s the result, which I’ll call Alternative #1:

When writers tweak their style, does it make their articles, blog posts, and white papers more effective? The writing exercise below will help writers to test that hypothesis. The results may surprise the participants.

Now, here’s Alternative #2:

Hey, want to write more effectively? Dump your old habits and replace them with a new style!

What do you think about the writing exercise results?

Comparing my initial paragraph with Alternatives #1 and #2, which is the most engaging? Do you find one more convincing than the other? More credible?

I like the leanness of #2, but it doesn’t sound like me. Still, it does make me wonder if I could streamline my introduction. It’s good for me to challenge myself. You can benefit, too.

Speaking of leanness, you can assess whether your text is lean or flabby using the tool I discuss in “Editing tool: the Writer’s Diet.” Helen Sword, the author of Stylish Academic Writing, designed the tool.

Disclosure: If you click on the 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.

Image courtesy of nenetus at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Writing tip: being too precise can bloat your writing

May 16, 2017/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Don’t write in a way that’s too precise. It’ll make your prose unnecessarily long.

Example of being too precise

My husband reminded me of this when proofreading my December e-newsletter. I had written “As the end of 2016 nears.” He changed it to “As 2016 ends.” Good call, dear hubby!

I’d been concerned that December 6, the date on which I’d send my newsletter, wasn’t in the last week of the month. My husband understood that—in the context of my newsletter—it was good enough to see December as the end of the year.

This example demonstrates why it’s helpful to have an outside copyeditor. They can see things that you can’t because you’re too immersed in your work.

Precision helps sometimes

Being precise isn’t always bad. Sometimes it can condense your sentences, as when you write “December” instead of “the last month of the year.”

Underline your way to less financial jargon

May 2, 2017/2 Comments/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Using less financial jargon is a goal that most writers can agree on. But how can you get there? Reading Helen Sword’s Stylish Academic Writing, a book that’s useful for non-academics, too, gave me an idea.

Here’s a suggestion from Sword:

If you suspect that you suffer from jargonitis, start by measuring the scope of your addiction. Print out a sample of your academic writing and highlight every word that would not be immediately comprehensible to a reader from outside your own discipline.

Underlining the jargon would also be a great first step for financial writers. But simply underlining what you perceive as jargon won’t get you to your goal of using less financial jargon. I have some suggestions for you.

1. Ask a member of your target audience to help

Your perception of jargon and your target audience’s perception may differ. For example, in a comment on my post, “Words to avoid in your investment communications with regular folks,” Dan Sondhelm said, “I teach portfolio managers to not say anything to do with a ‘bet’ or ‘exposure.’ ” Those words—especially “bet,” a one-syllable word that’s widely used by regular folks—may not sound like jargon to a financial project. However, in context, a member of your target audience may be confused.

To get a sense of your target audience’s perception, ask one of them to underline words in your sample. Don’t specify that they’re looking for jargon. Instead, ask them to underline words that they’re not sure they understand in your context.

If your volunteer doesn’t underline much, perhaps they’re embarrassed to reveal their ignorance. Another test is to say, “Please explain this text in your own words.” If they parrot back your vocabulary, you must be using jargon—or writing in a way that’s difficult to understand. Either way, you’ve gained valuable feedback.

2. Rewrite your sample’s jargon-heavy sentences in at least two different ways

Play around with different ways to rewrite your jargon-heavy sentences. Then, let your rewrite sit overnight, at a minimum. The ideas will marinate in your head while you wait.

You may come up with your best rewrite on your last attempt.

I know you can’t invest this much time into writing every time. But doing it occasionally will shake up the way you think about writing.

3. Look up jargon in dictionaries or glossaries

Sometimes people use jargon because they don’t understand their topic well enough to use plain language.

Looking up jargon in one of the online resources I mention in “How to make one quarterly letter fit clients at different levels of sophistication” (see point #4. Provide a glossary), will help you to understand it. Then, you can replace the jargon with wording that your readers can grasp.

YOUR suggestions for using less financial jargon?

I’m curious to hear your suggestions for cutting the amount of jargon in financial writing.

Disclosure: If you click on the 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.

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Writing lessons from a famous painter’s journey

April 25, 2017/in blog, writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

I don’t usually read books like Franny Moyle’s Turner: The Extraordinary Life & Momentous Times of J.M.W. Turner. But I shook up my routine during an out-of-town vacation. As I read about the artistic education of Turner, a barber’s son who became one of Britain’s greatest painters, my mind flashed to lessons for writers, especially bloggers.

Turner took lessons from other painters. Writers should do this, too. But that isn’t the lesson that struck me. Instead, I was intrigued by the role of copying. “In addition to views he worked up from his own sketches, Turner copied published work by other living artists to sell in his father’s shop,” writes Moyle.

I’m not suggesting that you copy other people’s writing. I certainly don’t want you to plagiarize. However, before long, Turner started using copies as the foundation for experiments. For example, while working within outlines set by an artist named Cozens, Turner “reverses Cozen’s scheme, placing in light what the artist had placed in shade and vice versa, altering the drama of the view,” writes Moyle.

Can you do a Turner on a blog post that you admire?

Here are some ideas for how to achieve that.

1. Copy the structure, not the content

Study the structure of a blog you admire. See if you can apply that structure to a different topic.

For example, if you read a great post about “5 ways to save more for retirement,” analyze it to see why it works. Then, you can apply what you learn to a different topics, such as “5 ways to get the most out of your homeowner’s insurance.”

2. Turn dark into light

Turner literally turned dark into light in Moyle’s example.

You can metaphorically change dark to light by writing, for example, about the upside of indexed annuities after you’ve read an article about their drawbacks.

3. Change perspective

Turner sometimes changed the perspective from which he viewed iconic sights. Or, he inserted people or cows where he’d seen none in real life.

You can mix up your perspective too. Instead of viewing an investment product through the eyes of your typical client, discuss it from the perspective of a broker who puts commissions above all else. Or, take the perspective of an investor in a very specific situation who might benefit from that product.

Looking at how others write—and putting your own twist on their writing can help you generate new topics and new approaches to tired topics. Try it!

Writers, prepare for National Stress Awareness Month!

March 21, 2017/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Do you enjoy stress? I don’t think so. That’s why National Stress Awareness Month exists. During April, health professionals strive “to inform people about the dangers of stress, successful coping strategies, and harmful misconceptions about stress that are prevalent in our society,” according to the promoters’ official website.

Thinking about sources of stress for writers, I came up with the three topics that I discuss below, along with their solutions.

1. Generating ideas

A blank piece of paper or computer screen is intimidating. You can avoid this stress if you are always collecting ideas. If you’re more of a talker than a writer, dictate your ideas like this portfolio manager. Alternatively, you can jot them down on paper or in an electronic format. One nice thing about saving ideas electronically—whether you use Evernote, Microsoft Word or Excel, or some other format—is that later you can search for a specific word.

Your idea list should always include questions that members of your target audience ask. You can also ask questions of your readers.

If no ideas come to mind, consider using mind mapping, which is a key technique in my financial blogging book and my blogging class for financial advisors. You can enlist your colleagues in a group mind-mapping exercise. Still short on ideas to mind map? Barbie may help, as I discovered. A blogging buddy may also ride to your rescue.

2. Finding and avoiding errors

It’s hard to proofread your own work for grammar, punctuation, and other usage errors. Plus, it’s embarrassing when errors slip through.

The easiest solution is to hire a professional to check your work. On a tight budget? Get a colleague to check it.

But sometimes you’re the only person who can check your text. Using software’s text-to-speech function is the basis of one of my most powerful proofreading tips.

Text can be perfect in terms of usage, but contain errors, as I’ve experienced firsthand. I have tips to help you get your numbers right.

3. Getting along with people who are important to your writing

I have written about how to get along with others whether you’re a marketer overseeing writers, a compliance officer, or a writer or editor.

Here are some posts:

An overall help for writing-related stress

You can reduce your overall stress by putting processes in place to systematize how you approach common challenges. Starting to create processes is a great way to kick off National Stress Awareness Month.

Basically, the less you have to think about your next step, the less stress you will feel. My post on 8 reasons you need a financial blogging process goes into more detail on this.

Even something as simple as creating style guidelines is a practical step toward creating a process. It can reduce the number of stressful decisions you need to make.

Thanks, Selena Soo!

This post about National Stress Awareness Month was inspired by an events calendar, a technique that I recommended in Use a wacky days list when you run out of blog ideas.

However, it wasn’t my post that sparked this post. Instead, it was Selena Soo’s 2017 “Publicity Insider” Calendar, a freebie on her website. Skimming my download, my eyes fixed on National Stress Awareness Month, and this blog post was born.

This reminds me that you should always keep reading, even if you think you already know everything another expert may know. The results may surprise you.

Can you “impact” results? A case against using “impact” as a verb

March 14, 2017/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Want to send a longtime, classically trained writer into a screaming fit? Write about how your financial strategies “impact” results. Using “impact” as a verb is as irritating to many writers as my husband’s early-morning cellphone alarms that go off before my alarm clock are to me. When you use the word this way, you will irritate readers who are familiar with proper usage.

Experts against “impact” as a verb

Bryan Garner of Garner’s Modern American Usage says, ” Reserve impact for noun uses and impacted for wisdom teeth.” On a related note, he says that “impactful” is “barbarous jargon dating from the mid-1970s.”

Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty agrees, saying “Don’t annoy people with jargony usage.”

I was a bit concerned when I saw that The Mayfield Handbook of Technical & Scientific Writing says, “Do not confuse the words affect, effect, and impact, each of which can be used both as a verb and as a noun.” However, it goes to specify using the verb only in the sense in which it’s used with impacted wisdom teeth. It says, “Avoid incorrectly using impact as a verb in place of affect or as a noun in place of effect.”

Alternatives to “impact” as a verb

The experts agree. “Affect” is almost always better than “impact” as a verb.

Looking for an alternative? Try “influence.”

Here’s an example of how dropping “impact” can streamline your communications. Change “negatively impact” to “hurt.” That’s beautiful.

The case for using “impact” as a verb

“Impact” is widely—too widely—accepted as a verb. That’s why the experts spend time railing against it.

I cringe when I see “impact” used as a verb. However, I understand what the author means. In my mind, this makes it a less serious mistake than dense, impenetrable writing.

As a writer, you may have limited influence over decision makers, as I discuss in “When do you push proper usage on your writing clients?” You may decide to let “impact” go in favor of fixing a much bigger problem. I understand.

Image courtesy of Clare Bloomfield at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

When do you push proper usage on your writing clients?

January 31, 2017/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Some battles over proper usage in writing are worth fighting. Others are not. When should you push your clients on proper usage? If you write or edit for investment, wealth management, or other financial services firms, you’re likely to grapple with this question.

By the way, when I say “usage,” I refer to a host of issues that sometimes get lumped under “grammar.” In addition to grammar, it includes punctuation, spelling, and other issues of writing style.

When I say “clients,” I include internal clients—such as subject-matter experts or bosses—for staff writers and marketers, in addition to the clients of external writers and editors.

I usually point out improper usage. However, I divide usage issues into three categories. The seriousness of the category dictates how strongly I fight my client on an issue.

Category 1. Embarrassing or unethical mistakes

If your client writes “they’re” instead of “their,” it’s a no-brainer to insist on a correction. “They’re” instead of “their” is flat out wrong. These battles are usually easy to win. It’s best to treat them lightly, with the comment along the lines of “Oops, a typo sneaked in. It’s hard for all of us to proofread our own work.” I may also insert a link to an article explaining usage practices the client may not know.

Susan Rooks, Grammar Goddess, agrees with me about correcting outright mistakes. In response to my LinkedIn question about when to correct mistakes, she said, “When they will confuse others, or embarrass themselves or their company. While I do worry somewhat about punctuation, I am more concerned with the words that writers use. Mixing up homophones, using the wrong terms, or not seeing the impact of negative language on readers are all worth going to bat for.”

On rare occasions, I run into issues of copyright infringement. It has always been an innocent mistake. The person didn’t realize that simply naming the source doesn’t give you the right to use any text, exhibit, or image. It’s important to push clients on these issues. Why? Because their mistakes could inspire the copyright holders to sue them, bringing financial penalties and embarrassment. You’ll find resources to educate your clients about “fair use” of copyrighted material in my article on “Legal danger for financial bloggers: Two misconceptions, three resources, one suggestion.” You’ll also find tips in “Credit sources fairly in your financial blog posts.”

If you’re in financial services, your client will presumably run content through a compliance review. If you know that certain content typically requires a certain disclosure, you can mention that. But the client’s compliance professional is the ultimate authority.

Category 2. Mistakes that hurt reading comprehension

Sometimes your clients produce writing that’s unclear because of its vocabulary, length, or organization. That’s not good for them or their company’s pursuit of marketing or educational goals.

Many clients express gratitude and relief when you streamline their writing. Some do not. Instead, they cling to their original wording, perhaps because of issues I discussed in “Why experts love bad writing.”

What can you do with stubborn clients? Here are four options:

Present evidence for making changes. My articles, “Seven Ways to Talk Your Financial Execs Out of Jargon and Bad Writing” (free registration with MarketingProfs required) and “Financial jargon killer: The Wall Street Journal,” make a case for better writing. You could also share well-written articles by experts whom your client respects. As with category 1, it’s wise to take a respectful approach. Suggest changes by presenting information that you say your client might not have known. As Bob Hughes, director at U.K.-based Grammar Ally, says, “Persistence usually works better then insistence: the persuasive, collaborative approach versus the adversarial. Most people – there are exceptions – welcome information they simply didn’t have before. This makes ‘support’ and ‘sharing knowledge’ preferable to ‘correction’, which is often taken to be drawing attention to something someone ‘got wrong’ rather than simply didn’t know.”
Meet your client partway. Figure out what your client cares most about. See if you can satisfy their needs, while also improving the writing. For example, if the client insists on using the term “Goldilocks market,” define the term parenthetically. You’ll find examples of this in “Plain language: Let’s get parenthetical.” If it’s just one sentence that’s a problem, consider presenting several alternatives to your client.
Appeal to higher authorities. Does your boss, or the person at the client company who pays your invoices, believe in good writing? They may let you overrule your subject-matter expert’s wording. But tread carefully if you take this approach. It may not make a difference if the expert never sees the text again. On the other hand, if the expert sees it, it could create ill will.
Cave in. In other words, pick your battles carefully. Some things aren’t worth fighting over, especially if they’re small problems in an obscure part of a well-written document.

Category 3. Mistakes that don’t inflict major damage

Some mistakes bother me much less than others. These are typically mistakes that hurt reading comprehension less than others. For example, excessive capitalization of titles is common in financial services.

I often see “Jane Smith, President and Chief Investment Officer” instead of “Jane Smith, president and chief investment officer.” That’s wrong, wrong, wrong. Words that are capitalized to stress their importance drive professional writers crazy. The use of initial capitals in “President and Chief Investment Officer” does slow reading comprehension slightly. But its effect is small compared with the effect of a sentence that improperly uses “they’re” instead of “their.”

When I have clients who use excessive capitalization, I inform them about the proper practice. Then, I let them decide about what to do. I save my energy for more important battles, which typically fall into Category 2.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic/freedigitalphotos.net

Note: On Jan. 31 I edited this post to correct a typo.

Words to avoid in your investment communications with regular folks

January 10, 2017/10 Comments/in investment commentary, writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Big words make your readers work harder to grasp your message. This is particularly true of jargon, such as “duration,” unless your piece is strictly for investment professionals.

Below are some words to avoid when communicating with regular folks. Most of them are financial jargon. Others—like “mitigate“—are unnecessarily long or confusing. Replace jargon and long words with shorter, less technical words that pack more punch. They also make it easier for readers to absorb your message.

Accommodative monetary policy
Active share
Alpha
Barbell
Basis points
Beat, when used as a noun to refer to beating analyst forecasts
Bet
Capital-light business model
Comp
Compute as a noun or adjective
Conditional value at risk (CVAR)
Constructive, as in “we are constructive on small-cap stocks”
Contango
Convexity
Correction
Dead money
De-gross
Disseminate
Downside deviation
Drawdown
Duration
Ecosystem
Efficient frontier
Ex-, as in “ex-Japan”
Ex-growth
Expected return
Exposure
Externality
Fiscal
Flight to quality
Growth wall
Headwinds/tailwinds
Inverted yield curve
Kurtosis and other statistical terms (copula, eigenvectors, semi-deviation, subadditivity, etc.)
Leverage
Levered names
Liquidity
Long/short
Mean-variance optimization
Mitigate
Modern Portfolio Theory
Monte Carlo analysis
Orthogonal, which apparently is used to mean “uncorrelated,” although that doesn’t appear in the dictionary definition of the word
Pricing power
Rerate
Reversion to the mean
Risk assets
Risk on/risk off
Risk premium
Risks to the upside
Runway, when not referring to an airport runway
Secular
Sharpe ratio
Size up
Spanning a broad risk/return spectrum
Spread product—A Google Alert on “spread product” yielded results related to margarine and Vegemite.
Spend (as a noun)
Stack ranking
Tranche
Universal asset owner
Use case
Value at risk (VAR)
Value traps

On a related note, don’t use acronyms without first defining them. This means words such as AUM, CAGR, CAPM, CLO, DOL, EBITDA, EPS, LIBOR, MBS, MLP, TTM, YOY, and YTD. It’s often best to avoid acronyms completely. I’ve discussed this in “How to capitalize financial acronyms.”

If you’re writing an educational piece for regular folks

It’s okay, even admirable, to educate your regular Jane or Joe investors about complex financial concepts.

When you write to explain technical vocabulary, make sure you:

Define your terms using plain language. You can introduce the technical terms and then define them using the techniques in “Plain language: Let’s get parenthetical.”
Mention the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) so readers know why they should slog through the explanation.
Explain the benefits of the complex financial concept for regular folks. For example, don’t use a multi-billion dollar pension fund as your key example unless your readers are participants in a similar plan.
Use analogies, where possible, because they’ll stick in your readers’ minds better than dry explanations.

Must you bore sophisticates?

You may worry that your content will bore sophisticated readers if you go easy on technical vocabulary. No, you won’t. Not if you do it right.

Read “How to make one quarterly letter fit clients at different levels of sophistication” for my take on how to keep everybody happy.

If you’re communicating with other investment professionals

Some jargon is okay if your communications go exclusively to other investment professionals. In that context, jargon can act as a kind of shorthand. For example, “basis points” can be used in a way that’s more precise than “percent.” “Spread product” is more concise than the definition of “spread product.”

However, if you’re targeting institutional investors, don’t assume that they’re all sophisticated consumers of investment content. An investment committee, for example, can include less sophisticated members.

Still, there’s no need to make your professional communications overly complex or wordy.

Your suggestions for words to avoid?

If you can suggest words to avoid in your investment communications, please share them in an email or social media post to me.

Updates: I updated this on April 6, 2017, and Dec. 20, 2019 to add words suggested by my readers. I also updated on Dec. 16 and Dec. 23, 2019; Jan. 2, 2020; Jan 29, 2021; July 27, 2023; March 3, 2024; April 24, 2024; Jan. 26, 2025. I appreciate the support of my readers. Thank you!

Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

20 ways to organize a story

January 3, 2017/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Looking for fresh approaches to your articles or blog posts? Check out this guest post by writer Kate Harold.

20 Ways to Organize a Story

By Kate Harold

When you write story after story like I do, you run the risk of getting stuck in a rut – where your stories can start to feel a bit stale. The standard article format of intro-details-conclusion is functional. However, use it too much and your readers may begin to think Ho-hum.

Stop Your Stories From Falling Flat

How can you keep your writing feeling fresh? Mix things up by altering how you organize what you write. A simple change in structure can help breathe new life into a long list of blog posts or newsletter articles. See if you can liven up your next story using one of these techniques to organize it:

Listicle: A story like this one, based primarily on a list. Often includes a number in the headline.
Q&A
Chart/Charticle: An article with a chart as the leading feature.
Age-based: For topics that cover varying ages, i.e. investing through the years.
Chronological/Timeline
“By the numbers”: Popular with sports statistics, but can be easily be adapted for other industries.
Recipe: Can be engaging when used for non-food-related topics.
Do’s and Don’ts
Whys and Why Nots
How to
Problem/Solution
Step-by-Step Guide: Use numbered steps as subheads.
Quiz
Pros/Cons
Myths/Facts (myth buster)
Slideshow: Group of related photos for online viewing, with short text to accompany each.
Round-up: Several ideas that fall under one theme, with a brief description of each.
Expert Roundtable: Group of experts offering varying insights on a subject.
Then and Now
Did You Know?

A quick glance through this list often helps me think of a subject in a new way. And when you can present a topic in a way that feels new, you can bet your readers will notice.

About Kate Harold

Kate Harold is an award-winning freelance writer, editor and proofreader based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She writes primarily for the healthcare industry, but has covered a hodgepodge of other topics including steel cranes, circus clowns, and caps for spray paint cans. Learn more about her at www.kateharold.com.

Image courtesy of basketman at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.