Data Authors: Skilled Designers of Data Presentations - Data Fluency: Empowering Your Organization with Effective Data Communication - page 113

choosing common, natural language over complex jargon, and using fewer,
simpler words. For example, within the medical world it may be understood that
cephalalgia is a medical term for headache, but if you tell the average person
that you have a cephalalgia , he may wonder if that's a disease or some kind of
growth. If the users of your data product need to look up terms or ask what
an acronym means, you've distracted from the purpose of the data product.
As with everything else in authoring data products, audiences come first.
Consider how language can be tailored to the way your audiences speak.
What terms are they familiar with? Do they understand the meaning behind
complex metrics? For internal audiences, commonly used shorthand may be
perfectly accessible. But when crossing different functional areas, the familiar-
ity with terminology may dissipate. It is better to err on the side of expressing
concepts in simple and more explicit terms. CPC and PPC are well understood
in marketing, but a finance executive is better served by referring to “cost-per-
click” or “pay-per-click” advertising. The importance of language becomes even
more pronounced when crossing organizational and international boundaries.
Many marketers, web designers, and consultants have established a “voice” in
their writing that creates a balance between friendly and professional. The goal
of business writing is described by Carter Daniel in his topic Reader-Friendly
Reports (McGraw-Hill, 2012):
Business writing isn't a different language with a separate set of words and phrases.
In receipt of, as per your request, beg to acknowledge , and please be advised
are relics of the past. They aren't used anymore, or shouldn't be anyway.
Business writing also isn't dull and stereotyped. Bad writing is dull; good writing
is interesting. These statements are true for all writing, business or any other
kind. If you are interested in the subject but find the report dull, something's
wrong with the way the report is written.
Business writing is like any other form of writing except more efficient. Think
for a minute about who your audience is, and you'll understand the reason for
insisting on efficiency. Business people are intelligent, suspicious, and busy. So
when you write for them you have to be factual, persuasive, and efficient: factual
because they are too intelligent to be fooled by vagueness and bluffing; per-
suasive because you have to overcome the suspicion that always accompanies
money matters; and efficient because you'll lose your reader if you waste time.
Therefore, when you are writing the descriptions, labels, or notes that accompany
your data product, focus on how the text can be easy to read for your target
audience and expressed in a way that is straightforward, concise, and engaging.