Thursday, September 08, 2005

Be Succinct!!

I am doing my FA2 readings. I am on section C3 of the Ethics Handbook, and have found the following excerpt (written by M. Bayles) to be most enlightening:

"Professionals should be honest with their clients. By definition, a dishonest professional is not worthy of a client's trust. Because the obligation of honesty is to the client, it does not directly require honesty toward others. Professionals can be honest with their clients and in acting in their behalf be dishonest with others. If so, they do not violate a responsibility to their client but one to others."

Okay, so what I take that to mean is this: "Professionals have an obligation to be honest with their clients, and a responsibility to be honest with others."

You see, all the repetition is what makes my current reading 45 pages long!

(And they made me take a Communications class to learn proper writing styles and how to be succinct. Well, perhaps the author of this section of the Ethics Handbook should have been made to take such a class.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. I hate sentences that begin with "because".

2. That paragraph is full of awkward phrasing (and so is this sentence, but that's okay)!

3. I empathise with your frustration. Eat some chocolate and tickle the baby; it will make you feel better.

Momma Trish said...

4. You don't act in a person's behalf; you act on that person's behalf or in his or her best interests. (It's not a typo either; it's duplicated throughout the entire reading, and it drives me mad every time I see it.)

I am off to buy chocolate now. Thx!

Nezbitt said...

That was a beautiful example of someone doing a lot of talking without saying anything.

Lemme guess; the author is the over-educated snob that thinks he/she will sound smarter if they use lots of big words.

*sigh*

Momma Trish said...

Seriously, couldn't he have just said "Be honest" and been done with it?

The author is a professor. And I imagine you are correct in your assessment.

I have just finished my 45 page reading. It drove me out of my mind! Must eat my chocolate now.

Anonymous said...

Yes, but did you tickle the baby? That's the important part!

Momma Trish said...

Well, I always tickle the baby. It is one of the most important parts of my day!