Dear Investment Writing subscriber

As   June   unfolds, I hope that that you are healthy and safely enjoying fewer restrictions on your daily life. Meanwhile, if you’ve used food delivery services this year, you may enjoy this Nielsen Norman Group article about  improving the usability of food delivery websites .

If you're using Zoom for video conferencing, you'll find useful advice in " Presenting with Empathy " from Duarte, Inc. on YouTube.

Some of you are gearing up to write your second-quarter commentary. Here are a few tips:


You may also benefit from my pre-recorded webinar on “ How to Write Investment Commentary People Will Read .”

Welcome, new blogging class students!

Thank you for signing up for my on-demand financial blogging class during last month’s flash sale! I hope you’re enjoying the class.

If you missed the flash sale, you can still register online for “ How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Class for Financial Advisors .”

Recent topics  
During the past month I’ve blogged about writing lessons from comedians , ready-to-use content , and Mistake Monday . You can read the start of my post about “ Read critically, or write badly ” below.

I’ve been writing and editing for clients on topics such as rebalancing, investing in commercial real estate, and financial advisor marketing.

Need a laugh?
My husband reminded me that we all can use a laugh during this pandemic. I think you’ll enjoy the funny signs in this pandemic article from the U.K.’s Daily Mail (but you must turn off your ad blocker to see it). One example: "Uninstall 2020. It's got a virus."

Best wishes,
Susan

The two sentences below from Joe Moran’s  First You Write a Sentence  resonated with me. Trying to explain why bad sentences exist, he says:
The writer knew what she wanted to say, thought she had said it, and gave up reading and listening. To write well, you need to read and audit your own words, and that is a much stranger and more unnatural act than any of us know.
One problem is that what we as writers want to say is clear to us. As we skim what we’ve written, the mind fills in missing information and relationships between one sentence and another. As a result, we mistakenly think that all is well with our sentences.

How can you fight your mind’s tendency to gloss over problems when editing your own writing? Below you’ll find one suggestion from Moran, and more solutions from me.

1. Write more slowly in the first place

Moran says:
Most of us, when we write, march too quickly on to the next sentence. To write intelligibly is hard enough, so be sure you have done that first. Fix your sights on making one sane, sound, serviceable sentence. As a farmer must do, hold your nerve and resist the impulse to put your energies into cash crops with quick returns. Have the confidence to leave fields fallow, to wait patiently for the grain to grow and to bear with the dry seasons.
Try his approach. You may enjoy it. If you’re like me, you’ll probably feel too pressured most of the time to write slowly. However, taking this approach sometimes is a nice change of pace.

2. Let it marinate

It’s hard to edit something immediately after writing it. I can catch some problems right away. Others take time to surface. This is why I sometimes write out posts by hand, and then scan and send them to my virtual assistant to input into a Word document or directly into WordPress. I do another round of editing after the posts have been typed.

I can see problems more clearly once the ideas have had time to marinate in my mind after I initially put them on paper. Some people call this approach “sleeping on it.”

Some of the problems I find are those Moran discusses when he explains how “A sentence can confuse in countless ways.” He points to small word choices with big, bad consequences:
Prepositions confuse because they so easily shapeshift into conjunctions or adverbs in the reader’s head. A poorly placed  for  or  as  is enough to lead the reader astray.  Since  can mean “because” but also “after that time.”  While  can mean “although” but also “during that time.” Prepositional phrases confuse if they are too far away from what they modify.  I wrote my speech while flying to Paris on the back of a sick bag . Even over-correctness confuses. When you strain to avoid splitting an infinitive, believing (wrongly) that splitting one is wrong, it can draw attention to itself and give the reader pause.
Also, the time that passes since that writing allows me to read my work more objectively and sometimes inspires additional ideas.

With my “how-to” blog posts, I often write a bare-bones list of steps in my first draft. Then, I add flesh to those bones in the second draft.

3. Use techniques for self-analysis
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.

The image is courtesy of Studio GOOD Berliny [ CC BY-SA 4.0 ].

Looking for more practical tips for your marketing and writing?  Visit my blog  to read my latest posts!
“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.”

Photo Credit: Dave Dugdale via Compfight cc 
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