The Process of Writing

Tips for WritingBaker Tilly Firm Communications

Great writing doesn’t just happen Not all at once. It’s an iterative process that requires time and patience. When it all comes together your hard work will pay off, and people will be able to actually read about it! Here’s how to write Use the tips in this e-book to prepare, write and edit. The smallest emails and the largest documents all carry value. Let your brilliance show through your written works!1.

Save the skim for the milk You want readers to fully read and comprehend all that work you spent time on. When documents are too long people stopreading and start skimming through the points. Skimmers miss your main point and all that work goes to waste.Let’s be clearBefore you write:1. Know your main message2. Educate yourself on your topic3. Identify the target audienceIf you want readers to understand, you first need to know exactly what you’re talkingabout. Use simple words and short paragraphs. Remember, less is more. 2.

Active Passive, and Personal.Oh my! Active Sentence An active sentence is when the subject preforms the action of the verb. These sentences make your message clear and engaging to readers. The eam is required to watch a safety video every year. (active) He faxed his application for the new job. (active) The cleaning team dusts and vaccumms the office every night. (active) The team will celebrate the holiday tomorrow. (active) Active sentences are quick and to the point. The best way to fix passive sentences is to flip the words around. Ask, who did what? The team is, he faxed, team will. BOOM! Thse are active sentences. Passive Sentence A passive sentence is old news, seriously. The subject does not preform the action here, rather the action is performed on the subject. A safety video will be watched each year by the staff. (passive) The application for the new job was faxed out by him. (passive) Every night, the office is dusted and vaccummed by the cleaning team. (passive) The hioliday will be celebrated by the team tomorrow. (passive)3.

Active, Passive and Personal Oh my!Personal Sentence Personal pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘we’ speak directly to readers, placing them in the center of your mes- sage. CPA’s have We have Consultation We’ve been asking people Implementation strategy Getting things done! Helpful tip Feeling stuck? Start with a question. This engages readers and provides an easy way to state your point. You can further expand on the topic from there. 4.

Write like you speak This isn’t a court case, so skip the legal styles. Keep your writing natural, follow the rhythm of how you speak. Contractions are okay, but avoid slang terms and choppy sentences.ReadabilityYou want your audience to understand what youhave written, if they can’t understand then the entiremessage is lost.Always remember the audience, write like they arenot familiar with the information to avoid confusion.The best writing is brief, simple and avoidstechinical language. Put the main message firstand incorporate repetition to drive home the point. After writing, read your work aloud5.

The Flesch Scale Here’s how: The Flesch reading scale is a Microsoft Readability Statistics tool In Microsoft word go to ‘File’ that calculates the word count, average sentence length, passive ‘Options’. sentences and Flesch Reading Ease score. Click ‘Proofing’ then scroll down The scale looks at word length, sentence length, and the total amount and check the box next to ‘show of syllables in the text then calculates a score between readabbility statistics’. 0-100. Higher scores mean text is easier to read. Now when you spell check yourWhat the scores mean: score will automatically generate.Scores Reading Ability Required Knowledge of topic required0-100 Basic Basic60-80 Basic Basic40-60 Intermediate Intermediate20-40 Intermediate Intermediate0-20 Advanced Advanced1. Structure What’s the most important information at the strat of your work?2. Word count Is it too long for the audience?3. Sentence length Do your words make sense for people inside and outside of the company? Are yoursentences longer than 20 words?4. Number of paragraphs Are there large blocks of text that are hard to read?5. Writing active versus passive Is it making power statements and convincing sentences or does your writing sound bland? 6.

Avoid these like the plague Flimflam You don’t need fancy adjectives or filler phrases to amp up your writing. State your message in a conversational style and move on. What not to do: “With quick and agile hands, we will carefully prepare the legal documents for the waiting and anticipating clients.” What you should say: “We will prepare the legal documents.” Self-certified claims If you don’t have proof to back up a claim, then don’t write it. Have facts and evidence to back up last quarter’s incredible numbers. Writing toooooo much Opening a PDF to find a 10-pack document is never an enjoyable time. Keep it short and concise, readers don’t need every detail. Your main focus is your message. Let them know what is happening and how it will affect them.7.

What else to avoid The shorterUnfamiliar Language and the plainerIf you don’t use words in real-life conversations such as‘trepidations’ or ‘endeavors’ then don’t use them in your thewriting. better.Long sentences -Beatrix PotterVary your sentences. Like writing too much, sentences should 8.be between 10 to 15 words at most. Also, keep paragraphsbetween 5 and 7 sentences. Helpful tip Don’t be shy on using little words like ‘and’ and ‘but’ in sentences. These are natural connectors that will mimic speech in your writing.

EditingThe backbone of good writing is excellent editing.• Editing is all about reading your work and asking, does this make sense?• Start with your introduction sentence and as you go through, your message should be clear. Ensure there are no grammar or spelling errors.Other considerations• Make numbers and statistics more comprehensible. Give comparisons, 2 million customers filed last year (that’s the same amount as the population of Slovenia).• Single word sentences. Yes! Good! Excellent! Add impact and capture attention with simple sentence structure rearrangements.• Repetition shows you’re serious. Use it to drive, drive, drive that point across!• Repeat sounds to keep writing more natural and consistent.• Keep it casual with words like ‘therefore’ and ‘thus’ just use ‘so’ or ‘to’.9.

What you MUST do!1. Think • Understand your topic • Think about what readers want and what they need to take away from your work • How can you help them understand the message?2. Decide • How will you share this information? • What is central to your writing, what should be their take away? • What is most important and appropriate to include in your writing3. Act • Write out a draft and read aloud • Ask, does this make sense? • Have someone read it over and get their opinion • Use power words, ‘it will’ and ‘does’ whenever possible What NOT to do • Don’t fluff your writing or use excessive jargon • Don’t embellish • Don’t say ‘may be able’ or ‘will try to’ • Don’t be overly formal, remember write like you speak 104.