by Simon Wright

Created on: June 21, 2009

One of the great challenges for finance writers is to write about topics that are either perceived as being boring or overly complicated, or where the majority of your readership have little knowledge. Investment certainly falls into this category. There is a small sub-set of the population whose enthusiasm for the stock market (and other investment instruments) matches the enthusiasm that most of us reserve for our favourite sports teams or movie stars. However, the majority of us tend to have limited knowledge or interest in the topic, although we may have a nagging suspicion that it would benefit us to know more about it.

The investment writer's task, therefore, is to present the information in an easy to read and persuavive manner and to play upon our self interest in making more money. Let's look then at some of the techniques and tactics that investement writers can employ.

Avoid jargon and use plain English:

As soon as writers start to use terms such as stocks, equities, derivatives, etc, there is likely to be a drop off rate in their readership. In some cases, that drop off may actually be evidenced by the loud sound of snoring. The temptation may be to use the industry jargon to show that you are an expert on the subject matter. However, you will be displaying a much more powerful grasp of your topc if you can take the langauge of investement textbooks and financial institutions and translate it into something resembling common English.

Write for impact:

We can usually spot an accomplished writer whether they are writing about their personal area of expertise or about something that is more alien to them. The signposts that we subconsciously look for include a good grasp of grammatical rules, an absence of spelling errors and formatting that assists our reading experience rather than hinders it. Above these basics, however, the tone of the writing will be fluent and compelling. The writer will understand that more is less and will have ruthlessly cut out words that just amount to waffle.

Focus on benefits, not features:

As readers, we are likely to want to know what investment can do for us. We aren't really interested in the intricate mechanics of how an investement instrument works, so a writer who focuses on the benefits of unit trusts is more likely to be successful than one who tries to explain exactly how they work. Anecdotes are a great way to bring home the potential benefits or pitfalls, so look for opportunities to illustrate the points

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