You don’t design a presentation, you write it

Here is a tip to help you write one.

Every time you speak, you need to have something to say. I understand that when you are asked to talk about your specialist subject it is not difficult to find things to say so you might feel able to improvise on the day.

But, some of the presentations you give in your job are really important. Should you really approach them with the plan of ad-libbing around some bullet points and notes?

I think you should write a script for all presentations BUT especially for the important ones. The ones that could lead to winning new clients or getting a promotion.

The first thing to do before writing a script is to identify your key messages. Once you are clear about the messages and the approach or structure of your presentation, then you can write a script that delivers what it needs to deliver.

English is spoken at about 120 words per minute so that tells you how long your script needs to be.

One way of writing a script that reflects the way you speak is to dictate it. Smartphones and laptops have built-in voice recognition so it’s easy enough to do.

However you get the first draft of your script together it won’t be good enough. First drafts never are. You will have to revise it until it is as good as you can make it.

Then you will have to rehearse it in order to learn it and be able to give the presentation without reading from your script.

I know this is a lot of work but it will make the difference between a so-so presentation and a great one.

How to make your writing more concise

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

You’ve read many times the advice to keep your writing clear and concise. You get concise sentences when you take out the words you don’t need. But how do you do that?

First it means being a brutal editor of your work. Re-read your work before you “publish” it. For each sentence ask yourself if you could say the same thing in fewer words.

Are there jargon words you could replace?

Are there adverbs to remove? Often the best way to do this is to replace the verb and adverb combination with a more accurate verb. For example, instead of walk slowly you could have dawdle or amble or creep.

Have you said the same thing with different words (tautology is the technical term from the Greek for same words)? Here are some examples:

• innocent bystander
• global pandemic
• new innovation
• close proximity
• in my opinion, I think that …
• necessary requirement
• added bonus

After taking out jargon, adverbs and tautologies you will have a much more concise document or email or whatever.

Try it the next time you write something

PS. The quotation at the top is by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (the guy who wrote The Little Prince).

Keep your lines short

Sixty-five characters.

Two and a half alphabets.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm

Good typography helps a reader to understand the writer’s message and one of the principles of typography relates to line length. 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 the eyes and possibly the head, too. This is why magazines and newspapers are typeset in columns.

Unfortunately, the default template in Word gives a line length of about 90 characters.

There are different ways to manage line length in your documents. With the conventional document in portrait mode you can adjust the left and right margins as well as the point size of the font you’re using until you get two and half alphabets on a line. Margins of 30mm on left and right and 14-point Calibri Regular works. As does 13-point Arial and 14-point Times New Roman.

Alternatively you can use a smaller point size and put the text into columns.

Columns are really important when you are creating a document in landscape mode. Without columns, and wide margins, the lines will be far too long to be read comfortably. (You might consider this fact when creating slide presentations, but I will share a lot more about presentations in future posts.)

Begin with the end in mind.

As far as financial writing is concerned I suppose what I mean is that first you need to understand what outcome the document should produce. Is it a decision? For information? To persuade someone? To sell something? To be accountable?

If you want a decision from the reader — your boss, perhaps, then make it clear that is the purpose of the document. You might put the recommended way forward right at the top of the document, with the remainder of the document being your reasons and advice for the recommendation.

If you are simply reporting something for information, make that clear, but, more than that, if there are key messages you want to communicate then make them obvious.

If you are not clear what outcome you want (i.e. the purpose of a document is not clear) then that is good to know—it is always good to know what you do not know, because you can do something about it. Maybe you can ask the recipient what they want, or ask your manager to advise you. Perhaps they don’t know what the purpose is either. If that is the case then it would be a chance for everyone to clarify what is really needed.

The content and the layout of your words, tables and charts should make it easy for the reader to get what they need. If the point of the document is to give advice to make a decision then that should be clear to the reader right from the start. And don’t include anything you don’t need.

The key to presenting information helpfully is to distinguish the way you solve a problem from the way in which you should present the solution.

To solve a problem you start at the beginning and work through the analysis logically until you reach the conclusion. Conventional business writing makes the reader work through the same process. It is as if the writer wanted to communicate to the reader: I’ve worked very hard to get this answer and I want you to know it. Or even worse: I’ve worked very hard to get this answer and I want you to work hard too!

Don’t do the conventional. Make it easy for your reader to get your message. Even if your organisation has templates for its reports and other documents, that does not mean you cannot complete each templated section using the mindset of what does the reader need to know and what is the best order for presenting that information?

If you want to improve your business writing perhaps I can help: https://wordswithfigures.com

Beginnings and endings matter

Getting the start and finish of your documents right. They are more likely to be remembered than the long bit in the middle.

The introduction and summary contain the key messages of the entire document and the reader’s expectations are set by them.

Let’s face it, this might be the only bit someone reads and you want them to be impressed, don’t you?

In long documents you need provide a brief overview of the purpose and key messages of the document for the busy reader. This should enable them to decide within 60 seconds whether to read the rest, and if they do read it, which parts to look for.

The introduction and/or summary need to have enough content to be able to stand alone and represent the entire document.

I think this can be shorter than people often expect (but writing concisely takes more effort than waffling).

I always recommend to my students not to write long backgrounds as introductions to their essays. If the background information really is essential (and perhaps it is) then it should be in the body of the document, not in the introduction.

Even in an email, it is worth thinking about the opening sentence. Don’t waste the receiver’s time with niceties or rambling introductions. Just get straight to the point. Ask for what you want, or explain that the attached document is for a decision or for information or whatever.

"Writing is easy."

Mark Twain said “Writing is easy. You just cross out the wrong words.”

Ernest Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is shit.”

Whilst we may not be the equal of these great storytellers we can learn from them and every other author.

Once you have written your first draft you should not click Save and send it off to the audience. Revise and edit your work. Make it as good as you reasonably can before you declare it finished.

I know sometimes we can be up against a deadline. The report is due at 5pm and you finish it at 4.55. Well, yes that does happen, but if something is important you need to manage your time to get it right. That means leaving enough time to edit your first draft.

And let me be clear — I mean you should edit the draft of the content BEFORE it is formatted for despatch.

I have several tips for you about revising and editing.

• If you can, leave the draft for a day or two so you come back to it with a fresh mind.

• Fewer words is usually better than more words so try to reduce the document by at least 10 per cent. Sometimes a lot more than 10 per cent can be cut.

• Reading your words aloud can really help you with making sure it flows properly.

• Grammar checking software, like Grammarly and even an app called Hemingway, can help.

• Work hard on getting the opening right. Often I find the first draft includes lots of unnecessary information in the introduction, words written as a sort of warm up, to get the thing going. These can be quickly deleted and the document will be the better for it

• Don’t be afraid to “kill your darlings”. Do not keep something in the document just because you spent a long time writing it. If it does not add value to the reader it needs to be cut out.