Better Business Writing - How to Write Right

Good leaders walk the talk, but they also “write right”. They know how to say in a few words what needs to be said in crisp, clear language. The road to bad communication is paved with good intentions but poor construction. Readers know when subjects and verbs don’t agree when punctuation misses the point when words don’t fit, and content is confusing. In this session, learn how a few basic rules on grammar, punctuation, and usage can improve business written communications with clearer, more succinct content.

Business writing is best when it is spare and clear, precise, and concise.  This session is designed to give practical and useful advice and tips on how to tighten up the language and organize the content into a logical, convincing read.   Attendees don’t have to be English majors or literature students.  The aim is to improve the readability of your written words.

• Eliminate puffy and ambiguous words and phrases and replace them with sharper, clearer alternatives
• Understand how to use punctuation to tighten writing into a more readable and understandable documentation
• Build stronger, easy-to-understand explanations and recommendations with more focus on sequential, logical constructions—less is usually more
• Support these objectives with appropriate before-and-after examples

• Techniques for writing clearly and concisely
  • Clear writing
    • Specific words vs. generalities
    • Active vs. passive voice
  • Unnecessary words & phrases
    • Doublets & redundancies
    • Wordy habit phrases
    • Wordy dependent clauses
    • Unneeded connecting words
    • Wordy “due to” explanations
• Techniques for writing well-organized, logical arguments
  • Introductions & summaries of the integrated argument
  • Avoiding elevator analysis
  • Bringing order to facts, interpretations & evaluations
  • Making words count right
  • Some extra readability writing tips—rounding numbers, acronyms, “of” and parenthesis eradication

Good writing takes practice, and many schools have reduced the time spent on formal writing, especially practical grammar, proficient spelling, appropriate punctuation, logical development, etc.  This course can’t fill that kind of educational vacuum, but it can help participants improve the skills they do have.

So this is a webinar useful to many areas of your organization—not just lenders and credit approvers, not just credit analysts and loan reviewers, but also auditors, loan administrators, marketing, retail, operations—anyone who has to explain or convince others that what they are saying makes sense.

• Credit Analysts
• Credit Managers
• Loan review officers
• Work-out officers
• Commercial lenders
• Credit Risk Managers
• Chief Credit Officers
• Senior Lenders
• Senior Lending Officer
• Bank Director
• Chief Executive Officer
• President
• Board Chairman

A frequent speaker, instructor, advisor and writer on credit risk and commercial banking topics and issues, Martin J. "Dev" Strischek principal of Devon Risk Advisory Group based near Atlanta, Georgia.  Dev advises, trains, and develops for financial organizations risk management solutions and recommendations on a range of issues and topics, e.g., credit risk management, credit culture, credit policy, credit and lending training, etc.  Dev is also a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB’s) Private Company Council (PCC).  PCC’s purpose is to evaluate and recommend to FASB revisions to current and proposed generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) that are more appropriate for privately held firms.  He also serves as the PCC’s representative to FASB’s Credit Losses Transition Resource Group supporting the new current expected credit loss (CECL) standard to be implemented in fiscal year 2019 for public companies and 2020 for private firms.

The former SVP and senior credit policy officer at SunTrust Bank, Atlanta, he was responsible for developing, implementing, and administering credit policies for SunTrust’s wholesale lines of business--commercial, commercial real estate, corporate investment banking, capital markets, business banking and private wealth management. He also spent three years as managing director and credit approver in SunTrust’s Florida commercial lending and corporate investment banking areas, respectively. Prior to SunTrust, he was chief credit officer for Barnett Bank’s Palm Beach market. Besides stints at other banks in Florida, Kansas City, and Ohio, his experiences outside of banking include CFO of a Honolulu construction company, combat engineer officer in the U.S. Army, and college economics instructor.

A graduate of Ohio State University and the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking, Dev earned his M.B.A. from the University of Hawaii. Mr. Strischek serves as an instructor in several banking schools, including the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, and the Southwest Graduate School of Banking. His school, conference, and workshop audiences have included participants drawn from the ABA, RMA, OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, FFIEC, SBA, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the AICPA.

Mr. Strischek has written some 200 articles on credit risk management, financial analysis and related subjects, and he is the author of Analyzing Construction Contractors and instructor of  a contractor analysis workshop. A past national chair of RMA and former RMA Florida Chapter president, Dev has consulted on credit risk issues with banks in Morocco, Egypt, and Angola through the US State Department’s Financial Service Volunteer Corps (FSVC).