Ep 280: Why Passive Voice Is Hurting Your Audit Reports w/ Sara I. James (Radical Reporting)

This week, Sara I. James, author of Radical Reporting: Writing Better Audit, Risk, Compliance, and Information Security Reports (Second Edition), joins the show.   Sara shares what's new in the second edition of her book, including a deeper focus on critical thinking and the role of large language models in report writing. She explains why strong writing about more than grammar and how language, logic, and professional courage all work together in effective audit communication.   Finally, Sara talks through key themes from the book, including active versus passive voice, why so many audit findings become harder to follow than they need to be, and how auditors can write more clearly, think more critically, and avoid over relying on AI in their work.   Be sure to connect with Sara on LinkedIn. Check out her website.   6:02 - Best Advice 5:53 – Sara's Book: Radical Reporting 8:40 – Importance of Critical Thinking 17:45 – Active Versus Passive Voice 22:50 – Active Audit Report Writing 28:57 – Why LLMs Aren't Enough 31:36 – Why the 5 C's don't hold up 36:00 – Using LLMs for Report Writing 44:30 – Final Thoughts   Be sure to connect with Mark on LinkedIn. Also, be sure to follow us on our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.   Also be sure to sign up for The Audit Podcast newsletter and to check the full video interview on The Audit Podcast YouTube channel.   This podcast is brought to you by Greenskies Analytics, the services firm that helps auditors leap-frog up the analytics maturity model. Their approach for launching audit analytics programs with a series of proven quick-win analytics will guarantee the results worthy of the analytics hype.    Whether your audit team needs a data strategy, methodology, governance, literacy, or anything else related to audit and analytics, schedule time with Greenskies Analytics.