- Susan Weiner Investment Writing

Are you as compulsive as me or I?

November 27, 2012/in grammar/by Susan Weiner, CFA

I’m not perfect. I make grammar mistakes, too. This post is my attempt to learn from one of my many mistakes.

I wrote “… as compulsive as me” in a Weekly Tip. A kind reader told me I’d made a mistake, I should have written “as I.” I have asked some friends for their opinion on this topic. They all agreed that “I” – not “me” – was correct because the sentence could be completed “…as compulsive as I am.”

Here’s an explanation by David Budin that I found particularly helpful.

If you’d like to see more of my mistakes, please visit Mistake Monday on the Investment Writing Facebook page. When I make mistakes, I include them in my Mistake Monday feed. It’s a good reminder for me to learn from my mistakes.

Have you learned from a recent writing mistake?

Please share what you’ve learned from your mistakes.

Why hire a writer? Three powerful reasons

November 13, 2012/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

You can write. You know your company, products, and services better than anyone else. You may even be a great writer. So why should you hire a freelance writer instead of writing your own article, white paper, or other piece?

1. Your project will be completed on time

You’ve got lots of work to do. Writing keeps getting pushed to the back of the line. A writer who understands the importance of deadlines will give you a realistic schedule and complete your project on time.

2. Your topic will be explained clearly

Experts like you often suffer from the curse of knowledge, a term I first encountered in Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. It’s hard for you to explain things to outsiders because you know too much. You may get bogged down in details before you tell readers why they should care about your topic.

A writer can tackle your topic from the perspective of an outsider. Journalistic skills help the writer draw out the right information when they interview you.

3. Your piece will be easy to read

Writing isn’t your focus. Despite your talent, you lack the time to edit and proofread carefully. When you reserve your energy for editing and proofreading your professional writer, you’re bound to get better results.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How I work with financial advisors

November 9, 2012/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Q. How do you work with financial advisors?

A. I work with financial advisors as well as larger companies in investment management, wealth management, financial planning, and vendors to those industries. My work with all of these companies shares a common theme: helping people to write more efficiently and effectively for their target audiences.

The work I do with advisors tends to differ from that I do for larger companies. For advisors, I focus on teaching them how to write better. I’ve been doing this for years on my blog. In 2006, I started teaching CFA charterholders to write better investment commentary. A few years ago I added a virtual class, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Lesson Class for Financial Advisors.” The class includes a private forum and homework. Students receive personalized feedback from me.

Advisors will soon be able to learn blogging with a new e-book, Simply Irresistible: Writing Financial Blog Posts People Will Read. The book will help them boost their blogging results with a step-by-step process and worksheets.

I created the class and developed the book for price-sensitive advisors who want the benefit of my expertise but are on a tight budget or have one-time needs. As a writer-editor, I work mainly with companies with larger budgets and ongoing needs. Those companies are also welcome to take advantage of my training and book.

Keep it simple–or else!

November 6, 2012/in writing/by Correna Wood

If you want your readers to understand you, keep it simple.

You may be surprised by the American public’s low level of reading comprehension. More than 40 percent of adult, English-speaking hospital patients didn’t understand the following sentence:

Do not take this medication on an empty stomach.

This is according to Roger Lehrman’s “The Political Speechwriter’s Life,” which appeared in The New York Times (Nov 4, 2012). Yikes, this is scary.

Americans read, on average, at a seventh-grade level, according to Lehrman. If you want to reach them, you must write at their level. Here’s what Lehrman says about this:

You can’t hand your boss a speech saying, “It’s got all of your ideas. But 40 percent of your audience won’t know what you’re talking about.”

If you’re writing for a general audience, use plain English and keep it short. Short sentences also tend to be easier to understand.

What about writing for college-educated audiences?

You may think, “But my clients and prospects are all college-educated. Why should I keep it simple?”

Here’s my reply: your writing’s grade level is a measure of how hard you’re making your readers work to understand you. If you make their lives easier, they’re more likely to stick with you.

If your readership includes some more sophisticated readers, you can still appeal to them. I discuss some of these techniques in “How to make one quarterly letter fit clients at different levels of sophistication.”

Tools to help you assess your writing

To get a sense of your writing’s grade level, use the readability statistics in your word processing program or Hemingway App. If the numbers say you’re writing at a high grade level, you may benefit from rewriting your text.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

April 2018 note: I replaced a no-longer-available tool with Hemingway App.

FAQ: “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Lesson Writing Class for Financial Advisors”

November 2, 2012/in blog/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Are you a financial professional, writer, or marketer with questions about whether “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Lesson Writing Class for Financial Advisors” will work for you?

You’ll find answers to common questions below. Do you have questions I haven’t answered below? Leave them as a comment or call me at 617-969-4509.

Q. Is this a webinar?

A. No, it’s a relatively low-tech approach. Students told me they enjoyed not being tied to their computer during the lecture part of the class. This reinforced my instinct to keep the technology simple.

Q. How are classes taught?

You will download audio files to listen to when it’s convenient for you.

A. Each of the classes consists of a recorded audio file (.mp3 format) and a handout (.pdf or Word file) for you to print or view on-screen, complemented by homework assignments, discussion posted to a private website, and a weekly telephone conference call. You’ll download the files from the private website, and then review the lesson at your convenience. You will post your homework assignment and any questions to the private website. You will receive my feedback through the website.

You’ll use a private discussion forum to access materials and share your homework.

Q. What if I don’t see myself as a “financial advisor”? Can I still take your class?

A. I use the term “financial advisor” as shorthand for my target audience, which includes employees of investment, wealth management, and financial planning firms as well as the vendors who support them. You could be a marketer or writer, not just a financial professional.

Q. I can’t commit to a class that meets at a specific time. Will you work around my schedule?

A. I’ve tweaked the class format so you can listen to the class on YOUR schedule, not mine.

Lessons are prerecorded. This way, you can listen when it’s convenient for you.
You can post your homework–and receive my individualized feedback–any time between the posting of the lesson and two weeks following the end of the five-lesson series. Students who did their homework and then revised it following my feedback told me that doing the homework–and getting my feedback–was incredibly valuable.
Class discussion sessions will be recorded and may be downloaded. Listening to a recording isn’t the same as participating “live” but at least you’ll hear your classmates’ questions and comments.

You can save all the audio and handout files to give yourself a refresher course months or even years after your formal training ends.

Q. Why is the class limited to 16 students?

A. You’ll learn more when you get the personal attention that comes with a small class. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to ask questions during our group telephone calls. Plus, you’ll get written feedback on your homework assignments.

Q. Do we get any live interaction with you and other students?

A. Yes, there will be five live conference calls on at least five dates. These calls will focus on your comments and questions. They will be recorded in case you can’t attend “live.”

Q. What do students say about your class?

A.

You’ll find more recommendations if you scroll down the registration form for the class.

Register TODAY to learn a step-by-step process to

Generate and refine ideas for blog posts that will engage your readers
Organize your thoughts before you write, so you can write more quickly and effectively
Edit your writing, so it’s reader-friendly and appealing

Wise words for writers from “Alpha Better Juice”

October 30, 2012/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Rereading your drafts results in better writing. That’s the bottom line of the following quote from Roy Blount Jr.’s Alpha Better Juice or, the Joy of Text:

The web is a wondrous thing…, but so many people who publish things on it seem not be aware of that heretofore traditional stage of composition that involves reading over what you have written before you present it to the world. That’s one of the key advantages of writing as opposed to chatting: you can look at what you wrote and see whether it makes sense to, for starters, yourself, in which case it might make sense to somebody else.

I know it’s tempting to hit “publish” or” send” as soon as you finish a blog post draft or email. I’ve done that many times myself. But next time you finish a draft, please pause to reread it. There’s often one little thing you can tweak to improve the odds that your communication will achieve its goal.

Guest post: “Good Writing is Good for Business”

October 18, 2012/1 Comment/in writing/by Correna Wood

Gil Weinreich and I had a great conversation about the importance to advisors of good writing when he interviewed me for an article about email that appeared on AdvisorOne. I’m delighted that I convinced him to share his thoughts in this guest post.

Good Writing is Good for Business

By Gil Weinreich

More than 15 years of financial journalism experience have convinced me that a high proportion of financial services industry professionals – be they corporate executives or retail financial advisors – are poor communicators.

I recall one broker, who expensively branded around the motto “I value every sale.” Of course you do. Each sale makes you richer. But what does it do for me?

That is typical of an inability to imaginatively penetrate the deep-seated concerns of clients, who are looking for someone they can trust to help manage their personal finances, not a parasite to feed off their hard-earned assets.

Another common communications flaw is self-important verbosity, which gives the appearance that the writer was hoping a quantity of words would somehow give the impression of quality: “We help clients achieve their investment goals and objectives in light of their various needs and circumstances through ongoing consultation and periodic reviews.”

Just one of each pair (i.e., goals or objectives, needs or circumstances, consultation or periodic review) would do, and a competent writer could embellish each of these subjects rather than numb readers’ interest through repetition.

Poorly thought out word choices is another common malady: “From today’s needs to tomorrow’s goals, we will guide you on your financial path.” But most clients want to discuss today’s goals and tomorrow’s needs.

An asset manager executive once shared with me some shareholder newsletters that were uniformly ponderous, numeric and insipid. What the firm needed, I advised, was to find a capable person with investment knowledge but also literary skill to be put in charge of these communications. What they needed, in short, was a Chief Literary Officer.

The firm’s principals, all MBAs, nodded their approval, but it was clear they didn’t really get it since it violated all their business-school biases. They eventually hired a marketer – though, the firm already had marketers on staff – to oversee their investment communications. Years later, the firm has not grown much in assets under management and their communications do not appear to have much improved.

And that’s the thing of it. It’s hard to stand out in a crowded marketplace when you look, act, think, speak and write like all your competitors. Part of what B-school is about is making money, and financial professionals often, unwittingly, convey the impression that they make money from you rather than for you. Missing is insight into how to connect with customers, clients or prospects on a deeper level. And that is a task that requires broadmindedness and communications expertise.

Kyle Wiens, founder of two high-tech start-ups iFixit and Dozuki, requires all his employees, even salespeople and operations staff, to pass a grammar test as a condition of employment.

Writing in the July issue of the Harvard Business Review, Wiens says:

“If it takes someone more than 20 years to notice how to properly use “it’s,” then that’s not a learning curve I’m comfortable with. So, even in this hyper-competitive market, I will pass on a great programmer who cannot write.”

Poor grammar in financial communications leaves a bad impression, to be sure. But more than that, literarily accomplished financial communications can impress prospects and clients in ways that your average salesperson may not be able to achieve (but which he or she will find to be an indispensable aid). Simply put, good writing –especially because it is increasingly rare — is good for business.

——————

Gil Weinreich is the editor of Research magazine and a daily contributor to AdvisorOne, financial advisor-targeted publications owned by Summit Business Media. He can be reached at gweinreich@sbmedia.com.

Finding easy-to-follow formulas for your blog posts

October 9, 2012/in blog, writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

“Are there writing formulas I can follow?” This question from one of my blogging class students popped into my head as I read a Wall Street Journal article.

Find formulas in newspapers

If you’re an analytical, formula-loving blogger, then turn your eyes to The Wall Street Journal or another newspaper. You’ll find great models there. I especially like newspapers as models because their articles are short and typically get to the point right away. This is perfect for financial blog posts.

Formula: Summary + examples + explanation

“U.S. Profit Streak Hit by Global Weakness” on the Wall Street Journal‘s front page on July 30, 2012, suggested a formula to me. Start your article with a short summary statement. Follow it with short examples. Then dive into explanation.

Here’s how it looks in the article.

Intro: Bid adieu to growing profits.

Short examples: Slowing economies from the U.S. to China, increasingly wary shoppers, recession in much of Europe and a stronger dollar…

Explanation: Until Friday, the outlook had been for further growth in earnings. But forecasts are now turning negative…

Does this formula work for you?

If you use this formula, I’d like to see examples of your work. Please post them below.

By the way, if you like this post, you might also like “Make your writing easier with my fill-in-the-blanks approach for structuring articles.”

Email writers, boost your effectiveness with this quote

October 2, 2012/in email/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Think about your reader if you want your communications to get results.

When you want the recipient of your email or letter to act on your information, heed the following advice from Lee Wood, as quoted by Kenneth W. Davis in The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Business Writing and Communication.

…give me the information in the order I can use it.

—

For example, don’t start by talking about the envelope you’ve enclosed with your letter.

Instead, first ask your client to read the form and then sign it in the spots you’ve marked with a big red X. Only then should you ask the client to mail it in the self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Be kind to your readers. It’ll pay off in better results and relationships.

Want to learn more about writing better emails and letters? Check out my presentation, “Writing Effective Emails.”

Monetary policy in plain English–Can you do better?

September 17, 2012/in writing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Monetary policy. If you’re a financial advisor or investment manager, you know exactly what that means. But what about your clients and other readers of your communications? Do they get it?

Sometimes it’s useful to give a brief explanation of technical terms, as I described in “How to make one quarterly letter fit clients at different levels of sophistication.”

Plain English may not come easily to you. If not, look elsewhere for ideas. The Wall Street Journal is a good source for explanations of such terms.

For example, here’s how columnist David Wessel explained monetary policy in “Central Bankers’ Political Conundrum“:

. . . the interest rates the Fed controls and its ability to print money and buy assets.

I like Wessel’s brief explanation. Sure, he could explain more, but writers must strike a balance between clarity and length.

How would YOU explain”monetary policy”?

There are other ways to explain “monetary policy.” If you have an equally good or even better explanation, please share it below.

If you have plain English challenges

Are there financial terms that you struggle to explain in plain English? If you share them below, I’ll consider them as the topic of a future blog post.

Tag Archive for: writing