Workshop on Business Writing Skills for Administrators, Secretaries & Personal Assistants

Program overview:

Business writing includes memorandums, reports, proposals, emails, and other forms of writing used in organizations to communicate with internal or external audiences. Business writing is informative, instructive, persuasive, and transactional. The goal of business writing is to transmit information to a reader, so clear language is necessary to help a reader understand information easily.

Administrators, Secretaries and PAs are now often called upon to produce correspondence and documents. How well you communicate determines your own professional image as well as perceptions of your organization. It directly influences how others view your work performance, as well as your eligibility for career advancement. By attending this activity based program, you will be able to return to the workplace confident in your ability to prepare professional and effective documents; thus enabling you to raise their profile within your organization.

For whom:

This program is designed for Administrators, Secretaries and Personal Assistants. It will be beneficial to other staff and managers who want to be able to create professional and effective written work to communicate in a modern and efficient, yet professional manner.

Learning objectives:

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

*          improve their Basic English language skills;

*          plan and prepare their documents quickly and efficiently;

*          produce correct and effective minutes and reports;

*          avoid the pitfalls of written communications; and

*          produce persuasive communications to get better results in the workplace.

Course outline

Day 1: Business Writing Fundamentals

• The importance of written communications
• Barriers to good communication
• English grammar
• Proofreading skills
• Common mistakes
• Professional Written Communications
• Planning and preparation
• Structuring your work
• Guidelines for composing written communications
• Avoiding clichés
• Tone and style
• Layout and presentation

Day 2: Writing Minutes

• Improve your note-taking system
• Preparation
• Summarizing
• What to record
• Improving your relationship with the chair to enable effective minute writing 
• Report Writing
• Setting objectives
• Sorting information
• Writing the report
• Style and presentation

Day 3: Persuasive Communications

• Consider your audience
• Choosing the best words
• Phrases that work
• Avoiding biased, sexist and damaging language
• Delivering bad news

Training Methodology

Lectures, discussions, exercises, case studies, audio-visual aids will be used to reinforce these teachings/learning methods.