Effective Business Writing – Training Course Outline

Most people write emails or letters on a daily basis as well as occasional reports, meeting summaries, minutes or other business correspondence. Learn how to create business documents that say what you mean and achieve the results you want. This course not only covers the basics of how to improve your writing skills but also how to achieve the right result from your written correspondence.

What you will learn on this course

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

• Structure your business documents effectively
• Avoid common grammatical mistakes
• Write in a clear, concise style
• Get your message across convincingly
• Give your business documents that final polish before you send them

What our customers say

“I was very impressed with Giulia. She was very knowledgeable and presented in a friendly yet precise style. The course content was excellent.”

KA, George Wimpey Plc.

“Very useful and excellent documentation.”

SR, Accenture

“The course was interactive and the examples were relevant. The module on passive vs active was particularly helpful.”

RB, Tenon Group plc

Course Duration

You can choose to run this as a one-day, intensive course or as a two-day, interactive workshop. The one-day course consists of the core content described below. The two-day workshop includes supplementary content and additionally gives you the opportunity of working on real documents you bring to the workshop. Delegates practise writing effective business correspondence, learning the techniques through group discussion and exercises.

Follow up session

Get the most from a staff training day and make sure valuable ideas aren't forgotten by booking a follow-up session. Our trainer will visit you again a month to six weeks after your course to give delegates the chance to:

• discuss how they implemented what they learnt
• go over points from the course
• practise their skills by working on their own writing with the trainer’s help

Course Contents

Core content you will cover on a one-day intensive course

1. General principles of writing

• Clarifying your objective – know where you’re going and you’ll know when you’ve arrived
• Quick and clear messages – six questions to clarify your thinking
• Who is going to read your document? Knowing your reader helps you pitch your message
• Apply our eight principles of good business writing to work you bring with you, with advice from the course presenter

2. Good writing techniques for business correspondence

• The best sequence of delivery reflects your contents
• Structuring your text – layouts to support content and draw the reader in
• British Vs American English
• How to ask for things without starting a long sequence of replies to replies
• How to give bad news – being up-front and empathising
• Responding to complaints – when you are at fault; when you wish to make a concession; standing firm; what to avoid
• Writing letters of complaint – useful phrases

3. Writing emails

• Why have email etiquette?
• Email etiquette for header fields – subject lines, content, forward and reply
• Technical issues – signature files, attachments, elaborate fonts can work for or against you
• Choosing the right structure for your content and objective
• Email style counts – it still represents your business!
• Sending the right message – what your email could be saying about you
• How to minimise flaming by recognising ambiguous content and knowing when to use the phone instead

4. Writing reports

• Organising your content for easy comprehension
• Some useful techniques for longer documents
• Structuring your report – standard elements and variations
• Checklist for structure – does it support your content?
• Avoiding writer’s block: the mindset for drafting

5. Writing agendas, minutes or meeting summaries

• Benefits of good minute taking
• Agenda – layout and contents to facilitate minute taking
• Layout and style of minutes
• Preparation to take the stress out
• Recognising facts from chatter
• Knowing what to include

6. Editing your work

• A top-down approach to improving text – edit like a reader
• Effective transitions – holding the flow of thought
• Tips to maximise impact
• Polishing the words – poppycock and commonly-confused words
• Polishing your grammar and punctuation – common mistakes and things that make some people go mad
• Spelling – using the tools
• Infinitives
• Proofing your work – tricks to help you see what’s really there

Supplementary content you will cover on a two-day interactive workshop

1. General principles of writing

• The BASDELL business writing model – an easy to remember formula that covers the main elements to consider when writing business documents

2. Managing emails

• Is it your in-box or your total filing system?
• Analysing and processing your email
• Staying on top

3. Gathering and sifting information

• The four main sources of data and the benefits and risks of each
• Gathering information and how to get input from others efficiently

4. Writing letters

• Layouts for letters – address, contact details, salutation
• Main part of letter – structure, tone, style
• Closures and enclosures – standard forms

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.