Course Details
How to Write Clear Financial Documents
2 May 2013
Professional Development
Communication
Write Limited
Level 9, Baldwins Centre
342 Lambton Quay
Wellington
New Zealand
http://training.write.co.nz/venues/1-write-wellington-office
Full Day
9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
$580.00
excluding GST per person
excluding GST per person
A workshop to help you apply plain English techniques to disclosure documents and other financial publications
Writing financial documents that are clear, concise, and effective is no easy task. You have the double challenge of communicating complex, industry-specific information within a highly regulated framework.
This intensive 1-day workshop will help you tackle that challenge on two levels. The workshop will:
help you to think as your reader thinks
give you plenty of practice in proven techniques to increase readability and comprehension.
Bring your own document to work on
You’ll critique and redraft parts of your own documents throughout the day, so make sure you bring at least one relevant document with you. (You won’t need to share any of this work with other workshop participants.)
Depth of training
Getting started
Examining the drivers towards clarity — the legal requirements and your own business drivers
Understanding the implications of complexity
Getting to grips with plain English
Understanding what plain English is and isn’t — how to make any document effective
Exploring three perspectives on plain English — the shortcut to better writing
Becoming aware of the international context — useful precedents and plain language laws
Reviewing the FMA’s advice set out in its Guidance Note: effective disclosure
Getting the target right
Understanding your readers — effective personas and primary questions
Understanding your document’s purpose — what you expect the document to achieve
Getting the big picture right
Understanding document frameworks and reader logic — key messages, logic trees, and the inverted pyramid structure
Working with prescribed sections and integrating these into the whole
Deciding what to leave in — a focus on the reader’s need to know
Learning how to signal key information — the critical importance of subheadings
Getting the language right
Understanding the impact of language on reader engagement and compliance — how to avoid the ‘eyes glaze over’ effect
Preferring clear, familiar words — what to do about technical terms, jargon, and ‘terms of art’
Deciding how to treat legitimate, necessary terms — when to use glossaries, in-text definitions, and paraphrasing
Understanding ideal sentence length — techniques to maximise comprehension
Understanding the active voice and its impact on tone
Applying techniques to make language clear — strong, active verbs and concrete nouns
Getting the presentation right
Examining the impact of presentation on reader understanding and engagement
Using four basic principles of design to improve impact and readability
Using infographics and other visuals to make key information clear
Training customised for your team
We’ll use your documents to customise an in-house workshop for your team. Contact us on 04 384 6447, or enquiries@write.co.nz.
Testimonials
‘Interesting, informative, engaging.’ Swathy Gudipoodi, Watercare
‘Sometimes I dread training courses because the teacher is cheesy or tries too hard to make the material fun. This course was engaging while keeping all of the exercises on topic and relevant while not boring.’ Lindsay Hutnance, Medical Assurance Society
Writing financial documents that are clear, concise, and effective is no easy task. You have the double challenge of communicating complex, industry-specific information within a highly regulated framework.
This intensive 1-day workshop will help you tackle that challenge on two levels. The workshop will:
help you to think as your reader thinks
give you plenty of practice in proven techniques to increase readability and comprehension.
Bring your own document to work on
You’ll critique and redraft parts of your own documents throughout the day, so make sure you bring at least one relevant document with you. (You won’t need to share any of this work with other workshop participants.)
Depth of training
Getting started
Examining the drivers towards clarity — the legal requirements and your own business drivers
Understanding the implications of complexity
Getting to grips with plain English
Understanding what plain English is and isn’t — how to make any document effective
Exploring three perspectives on plain English — the shortcut to better writing
Becoming aware of the international context — useful precedents and plain language laws
Reviewing the FMA’s advice set out in its Guidance Note: effective disclosure
Getting the target right
Understanding your readers — effective personas and primary questions
Understanding your document’s purpose — what you expect the document to achieve
Getting the big picture right
Understanding document frameworks and reader logic — key messages, logic trees, and the inverted pyramid structure
Working with prescribed sections and integrating these into the whole
Deciding what to leave in — a focus on the reader’s need to know
Learning how to signal key information — the critical importance of subheadings
Getting the language right
Understanding the impact of language on reader engagement and compliance — how to avoid the ‘eyes glaze over’ effect
Preferring clear, familiar words — what to do about technical terms, jargon, and ‘terms of art’
Deciding how to treat legitimate, necessary terms — when to use glossaries, in-text definitions, and paraphrasing
Understanding ideal sentence length — techniques to maximise comprehension
Understanding the active voice and its impact on tone
Applying techniques to make language clear — strong, active verbs and concrete nouns
Getting the presentation right
Examining the impact of presentation on reader understanding and engagement
Using four basic principles of design to improve impact and readability
Using infographics and other visuals to make key information clear
Training customised for your team
We’ll use your documents to customise an in-house workshop for your team. Contact us on 04 384 6447, or enquiries@write.co.nz.
Testimonials
‘Interesting, informative, engaging.’ Swathy Gudipoodi, Watercare
‘Sometimes I dread training courses because the teacher is cheesy or tries too hard to make the material fun. This course was engaging while keeping all of the exercises on topic and relevant while not boring.’ Lindsay Hutnance, Medical Assurance Society