Workshop on Effective Business Writing Skills

Program Overview:

Business Writing is a task the average business executive or professional spend approximately 20% of their time doing. Yet, writing is a skill few executives or professionals seek to improve once they enter the business environment. This program on Effective Business Writing Skills is designed with administrative, team leaders, supervisors, managers and executives in mind. Those who wish to create more professional, effective written communications will benefit greatly from this program.

 For whom:

This program is designed for anyone who needs to create professional and effective written business communication and those who wish to significantly improve their written communication and express themselves effectively in writing .Business Development Executives, Managers and other Senior Executives will highly benefit from this program.

 Learning objectives:

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

*             explain the three levels of communication;

*             apply the five-step pride method to create effective written communications;

*             write a clear purpose statement;

*             determine means to communicate effectively;

*             learn about behavioral styles and how they affect communication;

*             review important skills relating to grammar and composition;

*             practice new skills in reports, proposals, memos, e-mail, and letters;

*             choose the resources needed to deliver an effective message;

*             learn strategies for effective editing; and

*             critique their own writing style.

Course outline

 DAY 1: Introduction to Business Writing

• The Nature and Range of Business Writing
• Differences between written and oral communication
• Effective writing v/s efficient writing
• Target Audience: Identifying the aim of the business writing
• Analyzing and understanding the target audience and the readers’ needs
• Characteristics of Effective Writing
• Setting and meeting objectives and terms of reference
• Length of writing and the use of appendices, Layout and structure

DAY 2: Researching Information & Gathering Material

• Organizing and grouping your material
• Selection Material and Structuring Communication
• Criteria of Relevance – what to leave out and what to put in
• Developing logical sequencing, Using headings and sub-headings
• The role of introductions and conclusions
• The Writing Process
• Planning and drafting processes
• Editing, getting the best from spell and grammar checks, Proofreading
• Document Design
• Standard templates, Agree font style & size
• Use of BOLD and capital letters, Headings & subheadings
• Consistent use of lists and bullet points, tables, Diagrams, figures, and graphs
• Numbering, Footnotes, endnotes, and hyperlinks, Addendums

DAY 3: How to Make your Writing More Persuasive

• The 5 Ps of persuasion Using Examples of Different Types of Written Documents
• Work Instructions, Operating & Maintenance Procedures, Questionnaires
• Other Forms of Written Communication (Letters, E-mails & Minutes)
• Letter style, tone, and structures, E-mail style and purpose
• Meeting notes – purpose, structure and writing processes

DAY 4 – Improve Readability 

• Why is simplicity so important? Sentence length and paragraph structure

• Dimensions of writing style, Active v/s passive voice
• Improving language content and style, choosing your words, Confusing pronouns

• Punctuation and Grammar
• The language of grammar (a guide to grammatical terms and functions)

• Commas, full-stops, colons, semi-colons, dashes, brackets, etc.
• The apostrophe’s’, Hyphenating words
• Consistency in using capital letters for proper nouns

DAY 5 – Checking the Final Document

• Appendices & References
• Editing & Proof Reading, Scheduling into the preparation
• Developing the skills of a proofreader, developing a systematic approach

• Presenting the Document Verbally
• Selecting relevant information
• PowerPoint clarity rules, Presentation skills
• Course Review & Action Planning

Training Methodology

Lectures, discussions, exercises, and case studies will be used to reinforce these teaching/learning methods.