Writing
- What is the single goal of the essay?
- If it is to persuade, don’t merely describe or report what was done
- Can I write more emotionally rather than rationally?
- Can I start with a descriptive (but also relevant) story?
- Can I include personal anecdotes? (The Price We Pay, I Decided to Live As Me, and Morgan Housel’s writings are good examples.)
- Can I go straight to the content or don’t spend too many words preempting the content? (Risky Business is a bad example.)
- When making assertions, substantiate with data (unless it is very obviously the case, which is rare). E.g. “most people don’t know why they need insurance” - Is that even true?
- Link to primary sources
- What is the appropriate tone? A personal story can be more casual and humorous while an industry write up should be more professional and authoritative.
- Instead of using percentages to present data, use stories and actual numbers (Jane paid $500 for her health insurance three years ago and $1000 this year) or comparisons (all the profits of greedy health insurance companies would pay for four days of healthcare for all Americans).
- Be specific. Three days ago, not a few days ago.
- Leave it for 3 days before the final edit