Comments on: You don’t have to write like a businessperson just because you cover business http://blogs.reuters.com/robert-macmillan/2011/04/08/you-dont-have-to-write-like-a-businessperson-just-because-you-cover-business/ Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:47:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: vb2b http://blogs.reuters.com/robert-macmillan/2011/04/08/you-dont-have-to-write-like-a-businessperson-just-because-you-cover-business/comment-page-1/#comment-136 vb2b Sat, 09 Apr 2011 15:02:52 +0000 http://blogs.reuters.com/robert-macmillan/?p=1218#comment-136 This post is music to my ears, a public service even. I lost count of the number of times I heard the argument: "but our readers are specialists, THEY understand." As Robert says, the unspoken part of the sentence is often "... even if we don't." My usual retort is to point to the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, two publications clearly aimed at (and appreciated by) business people. How is it that their articles are always understandable by lay people? Why do their writers go to great lengths to explain even relatively mundane business terms? More often than not, the Wall Street Journal explains the meaning of GDP -- "the broad measure of the value of goods and services produced by the economy." It never hurts. This post is music to my ears, a public service even. I lost count of the number of times I heard the argument: “but our readers are specialists, THEY understand.” As Robert says, the unspoken part of the sentence is often “… even if we don’t.”

My usual retort is to point to the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, two publications clearly aimed at (and appreciated by) business people. How is it that their articles are always understandable by lay people? Why do their writers go to great lengths to explain even relatively mundane business terms? More often than not, the Wall Street Journal explains the meaning of GDP — “the broad measure of the value of goods and services produced by the economy.” It never hurts.

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