Ten Tips for Improving Your Analytical Writing
Instructor: Chris Savos
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Who Is This Course For?
The free course is intended for anyone whose writing could use some improvement, which, if we’re being honest, is almost everyone. Its 10 tips target problems that frequently undermine analytic products but will quickly raise your writing game no matter what you write at work or in school.
The tips come from the instructor’s 27 years of experience creating, reviewing, and teaching others how to write effective analytic products for demanding customers in the public and private sectors. If you consistently follow these tips, you’ll avoid the majority of the pitfalls that lead to extensive edits and products that go unread, misunderstood, or ignored. This short course is also a great preparation for upcoming Proficiency1 courses that address different aspects of analytic thinking and writing.
Students
Most undergrad and grad students rarely receive training in how to create an analytic product. As a result, they face a steep learning curve when starting their careers as analysts. This course offers a head start in honing analytic writing skills before the first day on the job. It will also help students create stronger papers that will stand out to professors tired of reading sloppy prose.
Analysts
Any professional who writes for a living—and most analysts fall into that category—can stand to improve their writing. New analysts mounting that just-mentioned learning curve can accelerate their development with this course, and experienced ones can always use a quick refresher.
Managers
To effectively review analytic writing, you must focus on the big picture and the details, and this course will help you do both. A critical part of being a reviewer is teaching through your edits, and the 10 tips provide a simple framework for developing analysts’ basic writing skills.
Win over your skeptical customer
Your customers have a host of reasons not to listen to you. For you to succeed as an analyst, you must overcome these reasons, and the 10 tips will help you.
They must read
Your customers are very busy and looking for any excuse not to read yet another paper or memo. If they don’t take the time to read your analysis, you have failed to help them and wasted your time. This puts a premium on your being concise.
They must understand
If your customers decide to read your piece, but they are confused by your prose and arguments, you have failed to provide value. Your writing therefore must be clear.
They must believe
Even if customers read and understand your analysis, if they doubt your arguments, evidence, or attention to detail, they will not believe you, and you will have wasted their time. You and your analysis must be credible.
What You’ll Get
One Hour of Video Content
Self-paced, take the course wherever, whenever, and as often as you like.
Course Transcript
Downloadable Ten Tips Handout
A quick reference to remind yourself of the courses key suggestions for improving your analytic writing.
What You’ll Learn
In this course, you’ll learn:
- The proper mindset an analyst needs when approaching any writing assignment
- The challenges of a skeptical customer and how to overcome them
- The fundamental elements of all good analytic writing
- How to avoid the most common mistakes in analytic writing
- The picky elements of writing that can destroy your credibility with your customer if you get them wrong
Course Content
Introduction
- Opening Video (1:56)
- Establishing the Proper Mindset for Analytic Writing (6:59)
Unit 1 – Purge Your Prose (6:15)
Unit 2 – Use Strong Topic Sentences (3:42)
Unit 3 – Link the Title, Executive Summary, and Body (3:02)
Unit 4 – Use Evidence Effectively (9:41)
Unit 5 – Avoid Pronoun Confusion (2:35)
Unit 6 – Use Commas Properly (7:22)
Unit 7 – Make the Proper Word Choice (6:13)
Unit 8 – Avoid Unit Modifier Mayhem (4:58)
Unit 9 – Avoid Squishy Terms (6:01)
Unit 10 – Self-Edit Like a Boss (4:29)
Conclusion
- Closing Video (:53)
- Tip Sheet
- Course Evaluation
Your Instructor: Dr. Chris Savos
Dr. Chris Savos, the Director of Proficiency1, is dedicated to helping analysts everywhere build great careers. In addition to running and developing courses for Proficinecy1, he designs and delivers unique in-person leadership, analytic, and professional skills training programs to a range of clients in the Intelligence Community and the private sector.
Chris knows what makes analytic products work, what causes them to fail, and how to teach analysts to improve their writing. He has reviewed thousands of products as a leader of analytic units at the CIA and many more as an analytic writing instructor since leaving the Agency.
Chris has extensive experience as an executive manager, leader, and analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where he worked for 22 years and earned the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the Agency’s highest award for career service. Chris successfully led analytical units that covered sensitive issues the Middle East and South and East Asia. He was also the CIA’s first Lead Talent Officer for the Directorate of Analysis and oversaw talent management and development programs for the Agency’s analytic workforce.
Chris earned a BA in government from Dartmouth College and a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You can learn more about him at www.chrissavos.com
Sharpen your analytical writing
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