Irena Kohn’s Top 11 Tips for Planners
Irena Kohn’s Top 11 Tips for Planners
All her best!
Irena Kohn is editor-extraordinaire of Novae Res Urbis (Toronto and Greater Toronto Area), the weekly go-to newsletter for both Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area on planning, development and real estate, now in its 25th year. I love working with Irena. She’s brilliant, hilarious, and knows more about city politics, and editing, than most people I know. Here are her best writing and editing tips for planners, based on our recent interview.
Irena holds degrees from the University of Toronto (B.A., in Literary Studies and English; B.Ed; PhD in Education) and Queen’s University (M.A. in English). She can usually be found trying to figure out how to do things with words.
1. Be aware when you're reproducing names, terms, or concepts.
Don't just assume, “Okay, well, this is what they [a random source] called it, it must be right”. Misspelling people's names, misusing terms … Do everything in your power not to repeat other people’s errors. For spelling names, check with a reputable source (maybe even the person themselves or their website) that you have it right. And be wary of using clichés in your writing. It may be tempting to use expressions that you hear ‘out there’ all the time because you feel like it will spark instant recognition for your reader. When you use well-worn phrases for convenience, the danger is that the reader is also more likely to gloss over the specificity of what you are really trying to say. You have to make a concept your own. You can reference some of the language that is commonly used elsewhere, but try to be thoughtful about how you translate a concept, don’t just repeat what you have seen elsewhere without working to unpack the term.
Some terms, like “missing middle” or other concepts, we think we know what they mean, but they don't necessarily mean the same thing to all who use it. When you're writing, you have to indicate what it means to you, what you are talking about, because the term is not a static thing out there in the world – it's a tool for thinking about planning concepts. And if you don't say how you're using that term, then you've missed an opportunity to really shape someone's thinking. And if you're not giving your reader an opportunity to think or think differently when you're writing something, then why are you bothering?
2. When quoting from a report, don’t repeat every word, and don’t be redundant.
If someone has written about a submission to approve an application for 67 residential dwelling units, you don’t need to repeat “residential dwelling units”. It has a nice rhythm to it, but “residential” and “dwelling” capture the same concept. It’s redundant to use both. Use one word or the other. When you repeat the same words over and over again, they tend to lose power. It can be a form of mental laziness to use the same words repeatedly, and a great way to lose your reader’s attention. And if you're not working hard to earn your reader’s attention, you risk losing your reader. If you haven't had your coffee yet, and you can't think of another word, check a thesaurus – not as tasty as coffee, but when used properly, at least equally effective.
3. Passive voice versus active voice.
Consider this sentence: “An application was received by the City to build 400 residential units.” Best to spare your reader the mental gymnastics of having to determine the agent of your sentence. Better to note what occurred in this order: (Who?) X submitted (what?) an application (to whom?) to the City. Otherwise, you are messing with your reader’s patience and making her work too hard to get basic information. Whenever possible in a report: subject, verb, object. Avoid the passive voice wherever possible! Your reader will appreciate it.
4. Subject-verb agreement.
This is another one of those errors that I see a lot, everywhere. People write or say: “a flock of seagulls were visible on the horizon.” But, that is incorrect. The subject of the sentence is “a flock” and it is singular. One should write “a flock of seagulls was visible on the horizon.” It is tempting to make your verb agree with the word closest to it, but the closest word is not necessarily the subject of the sentence. This error occurs so frequently that it may eventually become common usage. People see it written incorrectly so often now that it ends up looking awkward when it's written correctly. I suppose that's how language evolves, but I can't reconcile myself to accepting it and I encourage resistance.
5. There's not one Indigenous community, there are always Indigenous communities.
Communities of every kind are diverse. And if the fact of someone's ethnicity and cultural background is important to reference, then do note it to explain where the person is coming from, but don't assume that all members of a community speak with one voice or hold all of the same beliefs and perspectives. No community is a monolith. Always remember that the people who speak to you are individuals representing their own point of view (unless named as a spokesperson), even when their perspective has been shaped by their ethnicity and cultural background.
6. Count versus non-count nouns.
When people say, “the amount of people who have come to me this week…”… If someone says it in an interview, that’s fine, because (verbal) speech is more colloquial and often the speed of expression is more important than strict accuracy. But written language should be more precise. In writing, better to say “the number of people who have come to me this week”. You can count people – “people” is a count noun, so it's the number of people. Water is a non-count noun. You would never say “the number of water I have used this week …” Water is a non-count noun. You can't count water, so you say (in speech or in formal writing) “the amount of water I have used this week …” Technically, people will understand when you say the amount of people, but for writing, which is a more formal use of language than speech, it’s a bit sloppy and not really correct.
7. There is no such thing as “comprised of”.
I see people everywhere saying and writing ‘comprised of’, but there is no such thing as ‘comprised of’. The correct usage is “comprising”. Comprising means ‘made up of’. It is correct to say “composed of” or “made up of”, but not correct to say “comprised of.” I get it, it kind of has a nice sound to it, and it sounds like it should work, but the correct usage is comprising.
8. Respect your reader.
Respect your reader and understand that the easier you make their job, the more they're going to like you. Make your writing clear and easy to read so your reader doesn’t have to stop and wonder “What in the world is she talking about?” If your reader can get through a document as quickly as they want to, and have clarity about what you were trying to communicate, then you've won something right away. Part of what you've won is respect. And part of the reason you've won it is because you’ve respected your reader. If you want to get your readers to their destination (presumably, to the end of your document), willingly and fairly happily, don’t make the journey a nightmare. Make it as clear, logical, and orderly as possible. Make them want to stick with you!
9. Syntax and syntactic ambiguity.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, syntax is “the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses and phrases”. Syntax has a colossal impact on clarity. If you're writing a big sentence, and your subject is separated from your verb, or you've got six subjects in there, and there is no orderly arrangement of your clauses, you will frustrate your reader. Report writing is a form of denotative language use. You are trying to point to something specific, to hone in on the features of a concept. It is generally the opposite of what you might try to accomplish with poetry. Poetry is a connotative use of language, where you are trying to open up and multiply possible meanings. Part of the power of the poet e.e. cummings comes from his use of syntactic ambiguity: he put words next to one another to open up, multiply, the potential meaning of a phrase or sentence (e.g., “Anyone lived in a pretty how town with up so floating many bells down”). This works brilliantly for poetry or for creative forms of writing. But when you're doing reporting, or you're trying to make an argument, you want to do the opposite. You don't want to open the range of possible meanings. Your reader does not want poetic ambiguity. They want to know what you mean.
You’ve got to understand that for the kind of writing that you're doing as a planner, the way that you write and the order in which you write your words matters deeply. And the more precise you can be, the more respectful you're being as a writer. This does not mean your writing needs to be boring or unimaginative. It means you need to know where you want to take your readers and that you will work hard to get them where they need to be as seamlessly as possible. You work hard as a writer to convey what you mean so that your reader does not have to work so hard that they give up on you. You can always make poetry your side hustle.
10. Connect the dots.
When we spend as much time as we do as solitary thinkers or among groups of people who share the same points of reference as we do, we forget that some of the concepts that seem ‘obvious’ to us are not obvious to all groups of people. Readers aren't mind readers. Concepts that may seem obvious to you are not necessarily obvious to someone else. Take care not to assume that your reader has the same background that you do. Make your logic in moving from one concept to another as transparent as possible. Why is ‘x’ a good solution to ‘y’? Connect the dots. The reader is relying on you to take them through these concepts, this argument, or line of logic. Take that seriously. Your readers will thank you for it.
11. Costs of bad writing.
Remember that there are costs to writing without clarity. It is not only about the ‘social’ cost of losing your reader. For planning, there is money involved. For planners writing a proposal, the people reading it will have to decide whether or not to award you a project, or how to budget project money, so you want to be precise. Be mindful of the hours, the costs, and resources that go into reading, reviewing, and understanding submitted proposals. There is money on the line for everyone. When you submit a clear, logical, well thought out, well-organized and well-written document, you save your readers time and energy and you make their jobs easier. And that is half the battle!
In other news…
Next week will be my last post of the year. It will mark 27 straight weeks of content! But, I’ll be spending some of the time recharging and planning for 2024. Let me know what you want to learn more about!
One more thing:
The end of 2023 is just around the corner, and I’ve been busy with a lot of small group training with municipal and private-sector planners. Thanks to all of you have taken a course with me this year! I love the energy and the ideas – some of which make their way into this newsletter.
That being said, I’m booking up for next year, so let me know if you’re curious about bringing me in to work with your team.
Last thing (truly!): Next week will also mark the end of the discounted group subscription rate. Sign up now (and did you know you can write it off as a business expense?)!