How To Write Like Warren Buffett -- Or Not

Warren Buffett’s 2016 Shareholder Letter came out last week. It’s the year’s most awaited business publication and is probably read by more people than the average SEC pronouncement. It’s easy to read and enjoyable. In addition to providing an update on Berkshire Hathaway ’s business, the letter reads like a business school primer. Buffett is to business and finance what Carl Sagan was to astronomy and Albert Einstein was to everything; he makes complex ideas easy to understand.

Translating complicated material into simple language is not “dumbing down” your material. Any idiot can make something easy sound difficult. It takes a smart, conscientious writer to make something complex easy to understand. Buffett accomplishes that goal. What lessons can we learn from Buffett’s letter?

1. Make it personal. Your writing should sound like it’s coming from one human being and going to another human being. Create the impression of a conversation. Your writing will have more impact if you focus less on yourself and your content, and more on what the audience is trying to learn from your content. You’ll accomplish that goal if you write in a conversational style, where there are fewer barriers between you and the audience.

Watch on Forbes:

First, use personal pronouns. At the start of his 2016 letter, Buffett identifies who is in charge at Berkshire – he and Charlie Munger. Thereafter, it’s clear to whom “we” refers. His letter is written in the first person, referring to himself and his team as “I” and “we.” More importantly, he addresses the reader directly. He refers to “you,” “your,” or “yours,” more than 100 times.

Second, use rhetorical questions. Can rhetorical questions help? Absolutely. In both presentations and in your writing, rhetorical questions create the illusion of a dialogue. Your audience hears you responding to a question. It’s irrelevant, and often unnoticed by your audience, that you are the one who asked the question. All the audience hears is that you are engaging them rather than talking at them. Six times in his letter, Buffett uses rhetorical questions to link the conversation back to the reader.

2. Write the way you speak. Since all of us have a different style, your conversational voice in your writing will sound different that Buffett’s. He is a folksy, Midwestern, octogenarian, off-the-charts-successful business leader. You are you. Don’t try to be him; it won’t work. Buffett’s engaging, matter-of-fact writing style is consistent with his in-person persona. If you have ever seen him interviewed, you recognize the positive tone, the engaging voice and the intelligent banter as pure Buffett. You can almost “hear” his voice in his writing.

In the letter, Buffett confesses that he has made mistakes in some key business decisions, particularly in issuing shares to purchase a company. He even says that he’d “rather prep for a colonoscopy than issue Berkshire shares.” Not many business leaders would attempt that type of statement in a shareholder letter; that’s a good thing. Most people would not sound genuine being that frank in their discussions. If you have a more formal approach to communicating, if you aren’t as vivid or visual in your descriptions, don’t try to be so in your writing. It will be difficult for you to write, and likely awkward for the reader to read.  Once you’re done writing, read each sentence aloud. Could you actually imagine yourself saying that sentence to someone? If not, what would you say? Write that.

3. Keep it simple. Microsoft Word provides a ‘readability’ assessment for all documents. See below for how to activate that feature. After you run a spell check on your document, you can see some basic stats about your writing. It might be eye-opening for you. Based on the readability stats in Word, Buffett’s 2016 letter is written between a ninth and 10th grade reading level. That means that a typical 10th grader can read any paragraph in Buffett’s letter once and understand the meaning. It’s written for an audience of educated business investors, and yet it doesn’t require you to draw on everything you learned getting your MBA in order to access the information. He made it effortless to understand complex ideas.

Again based on the readability stats, Buffett’s letter averages 4.9 characters per word. That means his summary of Berkshire’s performance in 2016 is nothing but a bunch of four-letter words. He didn’t overcomplicate things. Furthermore, once sentences exceed 17 words, the reader will struggle to grasp the concept easily. Buffett’s average sentence length: 13.5 words.

Activate the readability stats in Word. Aim for a readability as low as possible.  If you write at a third or fourth grade reading level, you won’t sound like a third or fourth grader. You will sound like someone with such a solid command of her content that you can make things easy for others to understand. If your readability comes in over 10, see if you can break up your longer sentences into two sentences, or use shorter words where appropriate. Don’t force it. Just think about how to make it easy for your audience.

To Activate Readability Stats:

On Macs:

1. Click on “Word” at the top of your screen.

2. Click “Preferences.”

3. Click “Spelling and Grammar.”

4. Check the box next to “Show Readability Statistics.”

5. Spell check text.

On PCs:

1. File.

2. Options.

3. Proofing.

4. Check the box next to “Show Readability Statistics.”

5. Spell check text.