Business & technical writing
Effective business and technical writing is about making life easy for the reader
Business writing essentials
1 full day
This course is relevant for anyone who writes at work. It teaches participants to write clearly, concisely and efficiently. It takes writers back to the first principles of written communication and gives them all the skills they need to create accessible, persuasive and effective documentation based on plain English principles. This is everything you didn’t get at school or university.
Plain English fundamentals and the PADS Principle
Writing styles - tone and register
Active and passive voice
Succinct and clear writing
Parallel structure
Audience-appropriate writing
Front-loading information
Technical writing essentials
2 full days
This course is aimed at technical people (such as engineers, developers, analysts and technical writers) who create technical documentation (such as training, user guides, instructions, requirements, reports, release notes etc). It covers instructional writing, grammar and punctuation, and sentence and paragraph structure. It provides a solid foundation for Simplified Technical English (STE) training.
Everything covered in Business writing essentials course
Grammar refresher (parts of speech, sentence parsing, common problems)
Punctuation refresher (key punctuation marks and common problems)
Sentence and paragraph structure (length, construction, tips)
Writing procedures/instructions
Writers’ block and the different ‘writing brains’
Short courses
Writing emails
4 hours
Emails take time to write, read, action, track and file. They overwhelm our inboxes and distract us from our primary tasks. Sadly, it’s faster to write a bad email than a good one. Improving the way your team writes email is the single biggest way to save time and improve productivity.
Common writing errors
4 hours
Writing and language errors are distracting. Some people skim over them, but many will falter and some will judge. This course covers grammar, punctuation and general phrases that frequently trip people up. We go back to basics and cover the most common writing mistakes.
Writing summaries
4 hours
Being able to write a good summary is a valuable business skill. It helps you share important information quickly and it allows the reader to decide if they want to read further. This is often the only thing that your senior stakeholders will read, so make it good.
Getting reviews right
4 hours
There is an art to both giving and receiving feedback. People can get tired, defensive and frustrated on both sides. We teach you how to get the most out of your reviews by explaining techniques and conventions for reviewing as well as the best way to give and receive feedback.
Writing procedures
4 hours
Procedures can be hard to write when you don’t know what conventions to use. And they are confusing to read when they’re not well written. Yet increasingly those being asked to write procedures are not professional technical writers. Give your team the skills they need to write clear procedures.
Writing concisely
4 hours
Most people want to read clear and concise emails and documents. But writing succinctly is hard. So where should the burden lie - with the writer or the reader? This course helps people understand and avoid the most common traps that lead to long-winded writing.
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
- Benjamin Franklin