by Chris Savos | Apr 20, 2021 | Uncategorized
The ability to provide well-crafted, effectively delivered oral presentations is often a close second to being a strong analytic writer in the rank order of skills required to become a successful analyst. Unfortunately, being a great writer does not guarantee you’ll...
by Chris Savos | Nov 10, 2020 | Analysis, Writing
One of the most effective ways to overcome a potential customer’s skepticism about taking the time to read your analytic product is to purge your prose of unnecessary words. This mirrors my advice in an earlier post for analysts to be as concise and clear as possible....
by Chris Savos | Oct 27, 2020 | Analysis, Professional Development
I can sum up the idea behind the creation of Proficiency1, an online training community for national intelligence and risk assessment professionals, in one vignette from my career. While interviewing candidates for analyst positions at the CIA, a grad student asked me...
by Chris Savos | Oct 21, 2020 | Analysis
I remember when I started my analytic career being unpleasantly surprised to find policymakers were not the eager consumers of my products that I assumed they’d be. I was writing on interesting topics and providing what I thought were valuable insights, yet most...
by Trevor Thrall | Sep 23, 2020 | Professional Development, Two-Minute Drill, Writing
Anyone whose professional responsibilities include writing, from analytic reports to memos and even emails, could benefit by seeing what they write as reading assignments they give to their busy customers. In such cases, wordiness is a cardinal sin, as that customer’s...
