 There are authors who write their books by hand. With a pen or pencil. Until the industrial age this was the only way Writing by hand can help with creativity and maybe there are times when you would benefit from this. Many,
> “I apologise for such a long letter - I didn’t have time to write a short one.” — Mark Twain. Accountants (and lots of other professionals, I’m sure) write convoluted documents because they don’t have (make) the time to write clear ones. If you want **YOUR** reader
Your reader has limited time. Do them a favour with your emails and reports and keep them as short as possible. If a document is short (it fits onto 1 page or 1 screen) the reader can read it and remember what you want them to remember. If you include
Pie charts are easy to create and they’re colourful and you might want to include lots of them in your documents and presentations. 👇 Let me explain why you should avoid pie charts — and donut charts — in most situations. [garybandy.micro.blog/uploads/2...](https://garybandy.micro.blog/uploads/2023/
Does your organisation have a style guide? This is a document that sets out standards for written communication. It could cover preferred spellings, rules for capitalising words, lists of words and phrases that should be avoided, etc If your organisation has one you should, of course, use it. If your
## 1. Use keyboard shortcuts There are shortcuts for most of the popular actions such as copy (Cmd/Ctrl + C), paste (Cmd/Ctrl + V), save (Cmd/Ctrl + S), and open (Cmd/Ctrl + O). In Word the shift key combined with arrow keys highlights text faster than you can drag a mouse.
If you want your reader to get your message you need to make your message clear. Don’t just copy and paste a chart from Excel into a Word document or presentation. You need to format it first. [Here's how](https://garybandy.micro.blog/uploads/2023/82b2e3ace6.pdf)
Set your margins and font-size so that the length of each line is around 65 characters. That’s two and a half alphabets. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm A line length of about 65 characters is optimal for reading. Lines that are much longer than this are harder to read, involving more movement of
In my first job as a qualified accountant I learned most of what I had to do from the files left by my predecessor. This included numerous reports and standard letters that I copied in terms of style and content. It meant that I would write sentences like: “I would
Once you have written your first draft you should not click Save and send it off to the audience. This is as true for a two paragraph email as for a 20 page report. Always revise and edit your work. Make it as good as you reasonably can before you
I asked ChatGPT for 25 ideas for posts about writing and presentation skills for accountants. This is what I got: 1. The importance of clear and concise writing in accounting reports 2. Tips for improving your writing skills as an accountant 3. How to write effective emails in the accounting
Three mistakes to avoid when presenting financial data. 1. Don’t overwhelm with details: While it’s important to provide context, avoid overwhelming your clients with too much information. Stick to the most important points and keep the presentation concise. 2. Don’t make assumptions: Avoid making assumptions about your