Accountancy isn’t just about punching in numbers; you’ve got to explain complicated concepts, such as accruals, or why profit isn’t the same as cash.

As with all technical subjects, this can be intimidating to the non accountants whom you deal with on a daily basis. Especially when dealing with time-poor individuals, you need to be able to get to the point quickly and clearly when it comes to your writing.

These are the nine points to follow to master good writing. Some are our own, but the last five come from George Orwell, the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm.

George Orwell’s writing rules may date back to 1946, but they still ring true today, no matter what you’re writing.

1. Practise, practise, practise

You may or may not be intimidated when it comes to report-writing but, no matter what your writing ability, the truth is that, as with any skill, you’ll get better the more you do it.

Make time to write, and review your work to see how you might be able to improve it.

2. Make a draft

Use Word (or whichever software you have) to write a draft before putting together your final report. This allows you to constantly edit and rewrite.

It really helps with spelling and grammar too.

3. Speak as you write

Read your words in your head and imagine saying them out loud.

4. Mention the obvious

Assume your reader doesn’t know anything. Write clearly so that anybody can understand you.

5. Avoid clichés

Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech that you are used to seeing in print. They clutter up your writing, and are overused to the point of being boring.

6. Keep it snappy

Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always do so.

7. Keep it ‘active’

Never use the passive voice where you can use the active – so ‘he beat’ (active) rather than ‘he was beaten’ (passive). This will make your writing clearer.

8. Ditch the jargon

Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or jargon if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

9. Break the rules

Orwell said: “Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.” What he meant is that no rules are hard and fast in writing. Ignore the rules if doing so makes what you’re writing easier for the reader to understand.

These tips were written by AAT tutors Gill Myers and Cath Littler.

A positive mental attitude is one of the most important skills for learners and professionals to cultivate.

Intrusive, recurring negative thoughts are something everyone deals with at some stage, but with the right techniques, anyone can overcome them.

Kate Wilde, managing director at business mentoring consultancy Engage with Business, specialises in helping CEOs and company leaders motivate themselves to succeed. We asked for her top tips when it comes to staying on track, banishing negative thoughts and building confidence.

Avoid making excuses

“It might be that you don’t have enough time, you have children to look after, or you don’t have the money,” says Wilde. “Any of those things can easily become excuses if you allow them to be.”

It’s easy to let circumstances get in the way of taking action. Moving beyond that, and achieving the positive mindset that’s going to propel you forward, is a matter of setting aside excuses, and simply getting on with it.

Socialise

Isolation is one of the most common challenges faced by self-motivated workers and learners. Lack of human interaction can have a negative effect on mental health, according to research from the Mental Health Foundation, so take every opportunity you can to engage with people. If this isn’t an option for you, though, all is not lost.

“There are so many books you can read, podcasts you can listen to and YouTube videos you can watch to inspire you,” says Wilde. “If you can fill your head with positive thoughts, then it’s more difficult for negative energy to creep in.”

If you easily compare yourself to others take some time off from social media: “It’s always people’s highlights; too much time looking at all the wonderful things that other people are doing can actually have a negative impact on how you’re feeling about yourself.”

Set clear goals

Clearly defined goals are an integral part of self-motivation. Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, rewarding and time-based. You need to know immediately whether you’ve succeeded or failed so that you can move on and learn from your experiences.

“Don’t set fluffy, vague goals. Set SMART ones that are very specific in terms of what you want to achieve,” advises Wilde. “Make sure they’re timed. Make sure you know how you’re going to achieve them. It’s easy to say ‘I’m going to earn £50,000 in the next year’, but how are you going to do it?”.

Keep track of your successes

There’s no better motivator than the sense of achievement you get after a job well done. When things get difficult, it can be harnessed to work for you.

“Make a note of all of your achievements,” says Wilde. “Every little positive result you accomplish, every small win, because they do build up. Success breeds success.”

Rather than putting them out of your mind, use your past victories to fuel your future ones. Focusing on the work you’ve already done can be an extremely powerful tool for transforming a negative mindset into a positive one.

Learn from your failures

Failure is one of the most challenging obstacles that anyone faces in life. Confidence and willpower are surprisingly fragile things, and it only takes one mishap to imperil all your positive work. But failure can also be an opportunity.

“How you deal with it is entirely up to you,” says Wilde. “You can look at it as a chance to take stock. What have you learned? What could you do next time? Or you can go and bury your head and say ‘I’m such a failure’. How you choose to deal with it is all about mindset.”

Wear red underwear

Self-confidence is about the way you carry yourself, how you dress, how you walk. Faking confidence is often the best way to achieve it. Even wearing particular colours can have a noticeable effect. Studies show that wearing red, for instance, can make you feel more assertive. Wilde has a quirky trick to try out.

“A lot of people wear red underwear,” Wilde says. “Red is such a powerful colour, it exudes confidence, but sometimes you’ve got to be a bit more discreet. Red underwear can still have that effect. It’s widely used by more people than you’d think!”

Ultimately, banishing negative thoughts is about building confidence. The things that appear to be holding you back are far less powerful than they seem. You simply have to act, make decisions, learn from your mistakes and build on your successes.

Always give yourself every advantage you can, whether that’s surrounding yourself with like-minded people or wearing the right colours.

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So, what are the best ways to retain information when learning – and what’s the practical advice from the experts?

“Understanding your own learning style is crucial when trying to retain information,” says Teresa Folkes, Associate Director, Professional Development at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

“This means whether you engage visually, logically, aurally or verbally. It can help you to link your knowledge to practical application rather than just memorising,” Folkes explains.

Understanding your learning style

“When you’re learning new material, it can be overwhelming when you think about how much time you need to truly understand it all”; knowing whether you’re a written or a visual learner helps you absorb more and saves time.

Studying in chunked sessions can help this, Folkes adds. “It’s often the case that people learning need to study less, but study smart. If you can engage with a learning style that works for you, and set aside specific amounts of time in which to learn, this can help when recalling the information at a later date.”

Find the technique that works best

“Make a story out of it,” says Dan Kelsall, Founder at Vonkel, a digital recruitment app. “This helps you remember how seemingly disparate things sit well together. It’s hard to store tiny bits of information; you only have so much capacity. So remembering what links things together is more important.” You can be imaginative with this, says Kelsall; “create a storyboard. This can literally be a whiteboard that you put pieces of information onto and turn into a narrative.”

It will help you “see” information – “you don’t have to remember the minute details, but you will remember the story.”

Justin O’Brien is Co-Director of Student Experience at Royal Holloway, University of London. Based in the School of Management, O’Brien agrees on the power of storytelling.

“Brian Eno, one of the music industry’s most creative artists, uses playing cards to encourage his collaborators to look at challenges in a different way.”

For O’Brien, “extending this into a kind of ‘forced recombination’ – finding a narrative that links two random ideas or elements, e.g. shampoo and bald man – can be both entertaining and powerful.” You might prefer to do this in your imagination rather than on pieces of paper – “try linking ideas to objects in rooms of a ‘house’ that you walk through in your head.”

Other suggestions

“Mind-mapping is very useful,” O’Brien says. Developed by psychology author Tony Buzan, this involves creating a branch diagram that is designed to use all cognitive parts of the brain.

The key is to find the tool that works for you. “You could record yourself and listen to it – make the information into a rap or song. And perhaps tap into bath time or travel time to stimulate subliminal learning.” Another tip is “to try teaching someone else. The master-apprentice relationship is widely heralded as powerful.”

Many of these techniques are variations on mnemonics. Mnemonics are simply devices you might have for remembering a sequence, like “Every Good Boy Deserves Football” for example when being taught music at school. In finance, we use similar phrases – “SWOT” for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats”. You can create your own, to help you retain particular pieces of knowledge.

Using the information effectively

Having learnt techniques for retaining information, it’s how you use this retained information that’s important – to do well at synoptic assessments, you need to turn information into insights.

“Whilst being able to identify and extract useful data is an undeniably useful skill, it is not the only important talent business professionals need to acquire,” says Folkes. “In today’s world, employees must have the capability to process and understand data in order to extract value from it. Indeed, professionals handling data should also be on the lookout for exceptions rather than rules, when it comes to large volumes of analytics.”

Information that is out of place can often be the most useful,” Folkes adds. “Those using data should also be clear in knowing whether they are viewing the information from a problem-solving or research perspective, as this can aid their interpretation of the data.”

Memory retention: top tips

1.Build a narrative around what you’re learning.

“Make clear connections between your knowledge. If you find something uninteresting to you, link it to something you care about,” suggests Teresa Folkes.

2. Take regular breaks.

“It’s counter-effective to believe you have to press on all day without pause,” says Dan Kelsall. Research shows that we can only concentrate to full capacity for around four hours, “so you need to completely take your mind away from the work for a while. Do a few hours, and then do something different. Consider how if you get away from the work for a while, the answer that’s been eluding you can pop into your head the next morning – this is not a coincidence.”

3. Have a structure to your learning.

“Set key times to recall information to test your retention,” Folkes says. “Switch your focus every so often to something new, and don’t force yourself to remember new information quickly. Stay attentive and change your surroundings if your focus slips.”

4. Make sure the data is turned to insight.

‘The importance given to rote learning and recall testing in our society is diminishing over time,’ says Justin O’Brien.

“Many institutions are gradually moving away from handwritten examinations and towards more practically oriented coursework, encouraging students to engage more deeply in their own research-led learning.” By moving away from memory downloading and towards more vocationally useful assessment techniques, “we have the potential to address the long-standing graduate employability skills gap.”

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