Ever wondered what exactly a daypart is or when to use the term “front of house”?
A new website, www.fiwords.com, will tell you just this – at a price, of course.
Fiwords.com, the “Financial Writer’s Stylebook,” offers subscribers – who pay just $12 a year – a simple way to decode terms from the foodservice, business, and finance industries and a guide on when to use them.
“It’s a reference site of value to financial writers, copyeditors, public relations personnel in the business field, anyone who needs knowledge of business terms,” says Bill Cloud, one of the site’s editors and advisors.
The concept emerged from Chris Roush’s book, “The Financial Writer’s Stylebook.” Roush, who teaches business reporting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, knew the need and demand for this kind of reference tool. The book’s publisher suggested that Roush expand the book into a website, where the scope of the content could be greatly extended.
While the site primarily focuses on the finance industry, it offers solid guidance for those in the hospitality industry, whether they are foodservice journalists or public relations specialists looking to promote their brands.
Blair Chancey, editor of QSR magazine acts as an advisor for the site’s restaurant section.
“Like most industries, the hospitality industry has its own language,” Chancey says. “I was happy to act as advisor to fiwords.com because I saw it as a way of improving the reporting on the entire restaurant industry.”
“She’s really helpful,” Cloud says of Chancey’s contributions to the site. “I’ve supplied her with a list of quick-service terms that come up in the quick-service field and ask her to expand on that and offer comments on how best to define the terms.
“She’s been very helpful in that respect, making sure our definitions are accurate and fit the needs of people who use the site,” Cloud says.
Chancey appreciates the guidance, consistency, and accuracy that the site provides to those writing for the business and finance world.
“Some people may think of trade publishing as light reporting, but we take our accuracy very seriously at QSR,” Chancey says. “Being an advisor to fiwords.com means we can extend that accuracy to other news organizations, both trade and consumer news sources alike.”
Cloud says that the site could be very useful for public relations or marketing personnel in the foodservice industry because “they’re often trying to write for the media and I think being able to see our rating system and see how we use the terms would help them provide better content for the media.”
“I think what’s good about [the site] is two things: No. 1, you can find everything in one location,” Cloud says. “No. 2, and probably most important, we offer advice on how and when to use the words.
“For example, we have a rating system, which is also in the book, that helps guide people as to when they should explain the term and when they can just present the term and are under the assumption that readers just know it,” he says. “The rating system depends on what kind of publication you’re working for. The more sophisticated the publication, the fewer words you have to define.”
By Mary Avant
