Plain English Chapter Five: Writing J. S. O’Rourke, IV. University of Notre Dame / USA.

Plain English

Chapter Five:Writing

J. S. O’Rourke, IV. University of Notre Dame / USA

Copyright ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 5-2

Why Do We Write? To Inform

To Persuade

To Inspire

To Document

To Analyze

To Justify


What Should You Know? Your audience Your subject Your reasons for writing The occasion or context How to organize your thoughts How to express yourself

effectively


What are their demographics: age, income, education, job experience?

What concepts can you safely assume they will understand?

How will they read the document for the first time? Will they read it straight through or skip around to sections that interest them most?

Know Your Audience


Know Your Audience How will they use the document?

What is its intended function? What information will they be looking

for later, and is it easy to find? How much do they know about this

subject? How do they feel about this subject?


Know the Subject Do your homework. Read through and outline the material. Meet to resolve questions. Question the need for everything that

appears in the document. Eliminate redundant information. Discuss the introduction and summary.


Organize the Content Start with the big picture. Use descriptive headings and

subheadings. Group related information together. Explain industry terms or concepts. Review the flow of information. Outline your new document.


Qualities Common to All Effective Business Writing

Significance Clarity Unity Economy Acceptable Usage


A Mutual Fund ProspectusMaturity and duration management

decisions are made in the context of an intermediate maturity orientation. The maturity structure of the portfolio is adjusted in the anticipation of cyclical interest rate changes. Such adjustments are not made in an effort to capture short-term, day-to-day . . .


A Mutual Fund Prospectusmovements in the market, but instead

are implemented in anticipation of longer term, secular shifts in the levels of interest rates (i.e., shifts transcending and/or not inherent to the business cycle). Adjustments made to shorten portfolio maturity and duration are made to limit capital losses . . .


A Mutual Fund Prospectusduring periods when interest rates are

expected to rise. Conversely, adjustments made to lengthen maturity for the portfolio’s maturity and duration strategy lies in analysis of the U.S. and global economies, focusing on levels of real interest rates, monetary and fiscal policy actions, and cyclical indicators.


Warren Buffet’s RewriteWe will try to profit by correctly predicting

future interest rates. When we have no strong opinion, we will generally hold intermediate-term bonds. But when we expect a major and sustained increase in rates, we will concentrate on short-term issues. And, conversely, if we expect a major shift to lower rates, we will buy long bonds. We will focus on the big picture and won’t act on short-term considerations.


Common Problems in Management Documents

Long sentences. Passive voice. Weak verbs. Superfluous words. Legal and financial terms. Numerous defined terms.


Common Problems in Management Documents

Abstract words. Unnecessary details. Unreadable design and layout.


Write Actively The time you spend searching for a

good verb is time well spent. When a verb carries more meaning, you can dispense with many of the words used to bolster weak verbs.

Weak verbs keep frequent company with two grammatical undesirables: passive voice and nominalizations.


Active and Passive Voice Passive:

“Our company was bought by Google.”

Active:“Google bought our company.”

Obscure Passive:“Our company was bought.”


What’s Wrong withPassive Constructions?

They generally add length to a sentence: 25% to 33% on average.

Passive sentences often obscure or delete entirely the agent or human actor.

Responsibility for action in the sentence is obscure or missing.


How Can You Recognize a Passive Sentence?

Some form of the verb to be: “The toad was eaten by Igor.”

Another verb in the form of a participle:“The toad was eaten by Igor.”

Prepositional phrase beginning with by: “The toad was eaten by Igor.”


How Can You Recognize an Active Sentence?

Doers come before verbs.Before: “The foregoing fee table is intended to assist investors in understanding the costs and expenses that a shareholder will bear directly or indirectly.”After: “This fee table shows the expenses you would pay if you invested in our fund.”


Active Voice Really Is Better

Before: The proxies solicited hereby may be revoked, subject to the procedures described herein, at any time up to and including the date of the meeting.

After: You may revoke your proxy and reclaim your right to vote any time, up to and including the day of the meeting.


Can You Ever Usethe Passive Voice?

Sure, but only if . . . The doer is unknown The doer is obvious It’s all better left unsaid


A Few Suggestions Do your research Show that you are aware of the

other side(s) of the question Don’t overstate your case Don’t oversimplify Show confidence


As You Address Your Audience

Don’t bore your readers Don’t waste their time Don’t confuse them Don’t intimidate your readers Don’t threaten them Don’t disappoint your readers Assume they are intelligent but

ignorant


As You Prepare Your Message

Don’t muddy your message with multiple appeals.

Don’t confuse your audience with more than one central message

Make all of your evidence support your one, primary contention


As You Prepare Your Message

Make all of your illustrations and examples relevant

Make sure you can express your idea in one thesis sentence and your principal arguments on one piece of paper

Do all that you can to make it easy for your audience to buy into your argument
