Research Editors

If your editor has resigned out of the blue, it’s only natural to feel under pressure. With competing deadlines and large volumes of research to get through, the loss of an editor can cause major problems – including scheduling gaps that need to be quickly filled. In this piece, we look at the options available to you when an editor resigns. 1) Redistribute the work Redistributing the previous editor’s workload is the quickest and lowest-cost option. You don’t need to recruit anyone new and the problem is solved quickly. If you have the resources to cope with the workload, this is the most feasible option. However, this might affect your team. Given that most reports are time-sensitive, it could increase pressure on your other editors, especially in results season. If your team is already struggling to devote enough time and attention to their own work, the quality of the output overall could suffer. 2) Hire a new editor On paper, hiring a new editor sounds like the most sensible optio...

George Orwell’s six rules for good writing are often quoted . They contain good sense advice such as “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out” and “Never use a long word where a short one would do”. In investment research, which often has to appeal to diverse audiences, reminders to keep things simple and unpretentious are valuable. There is a seventh piece of advice in that same essay that is much less quoted . Orwell also said “correct grammar and syntax…are of no importance so long as one makes one’s meaning clear”. This might be blasphemy for some, but it is crucial as a reminder of what is important. A good piece of writing conveys its meaning as clearly and fluently as possible. Enforcing rules therefore is important if it helps that, but they shouldn’t necessarily be imposed for their own sake. It is crucial to remember what they are for – to provide a common framework for understanding. However, not only are they often rules of thumb that have morphed into hard a...