Business and Report Writing for Managers – Training Course Outline

Business-critical decisions are often based on reports that companies commission from the people who know their business best – their own management staff. It takes a lot of skill to communicate important financial, technical or business information efficiently and accurately at this level.

This course has been designed to build on the skills of senior managers who are required to write key documents which will support management reporting or decision-making.

What you will learn on this course

By the end of the course, you will know how to:

• Accurately assess the requirements arising from your brief—and what to do if you don’t receive a well-detailed one
• Target your audience and analyse their needs
• Set accurate terms of reference for staff providing data
• Gather your data and select the relevant information for your audience
• Structure your writing to maintain the readers’ attention
• Construct your arguments persuasively
• Write SMART recommendations
• Edit your draft for maximum impact and polish the final product
• Present your report clearly and effectively

Course Duration

As a private course, this can be run as a one-day intensive course or a two-day workshop.

As a two-day workshop, we cover all the modules listed below, and, additionally, you will have time to work on documents that you bring with you.

If you prefer a one-day course, two to three modules from the list below may be covered only briefly, and there may be less time to apply the principles to your own writing during the course.

If you attend a public one-day course, the trainer will discuss with the group at the beginning of the day which areas they most need to focus on.

For more information, give us a call on 01635 202013 or email

Course Contents

1. A framework for success

• The BASDELL business writing model – a model of the process to create effective business documents

2. Understanding your brief

• What’s the purpose of a business, technical or financial report?
• Assessing the issues and focusing on the essentials
• Setting a clear objective to save you time and effort
• Building on the skills you have and developing the skills of your staff

3. Analysing your audience

• Questions you need to ask yourself about your readers
• Producing a clear set of guidelines on what response you want from each reader
• Understanding different readers and giving them what they need—and in their preferred style and format

4. Designing your structure

• The benefits of structuring before you start writing
• Using techniques like mind mapping™ or Word™ Outline View to sequence and structure your material
• Ensuring your structure supports and delivers what you want from your audience
• Breaking the job down into manageable chunks

5. Developing your style

• Plain Words’ eight principles for clear writing
• How to keep sentences short and simple – even though the content is complex
• Writing to express not impress!
• How to write in terms your reader will relate to
• How to use variety in your writing without confusing your reader

6. Making your arguments persuasive

• What are the principles of persuasive writing?
• Explaining the problem to get readers on-side
• Anticipating and overcoming objections
• Subjective versus objective justifications—what’s best when?
• How can your overall structure support your arguments?

7. Writing SMART recommendations

• Why use SMART recommendations?
• Creating Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-framed recommendations

8. Crafting your executive summary

• What is the purpose of the executive summary?
• Why it’s the most important part of your report
• How to structure your executive summary
• What are the most important things to include?

9. Creating professional emails

• Plain Words’ seven principles to ensure your emails are professional
• Staying on top of your in box

10. Write winning bids

• Meeting customer requirements: analysing the ITT
• Making your bid a winner: understanding why people buy

11. Polishing your words

• A top-down approach to improving your text
• Ensuring that you achieve maximum impact – things to check when editing your draft
• Common mistakes you can avoid – sentence fragments and run-on sentences
• Merging different writing styles from contributors and ensuring a consistent voice

12. When words are not enough

• When and how to use graphics – pictures, screen shots, diagrams, flow charts, tables, graphs, etc.
• How to present numerical data
• Things to check when including illustrations

13. Crafting presentations that work

• Planning for your content and audience
• The best order for creating your presentation
• Notes, handouts and visual aids – what works, what doesn’t
• Different presentation styles – avoiding death by PowerPoint™

Book Now!

For details of timetabled courses, see the schedule. For prices, see the costs table.

To reserve your places you can either book on-line or call us on +44 (0)1635 202013/+44 (0)207 0960 749.