About Our Courses – General Information
•
Why
Writing is Important
• How
You’ll Benefit
• A
List of Our Courses
• Our
Approach
• How
We Customize In-House Courses
• Course
Materials
• On-going
Support
Everyone writes. From
the executive offices to the front lines, people in most industries spend
a large part of every day writing.
Improving organizational writing skills enhances productivity and effectiveness:
skilled writers can produce more effective documents in less time. Better
letters and proposals mean stronger client relationships and better internal
reports mean more effective and efficient decision-making.
Our courses show you how to address the needs of your readers and teach
you how to write letters, emails, and reports that are clear, concise
and persuasive.
How You’ll Benefit
You'll learn how to
| • | Follow a reliable process when writing |
| • | Present your ideas persuasively |
| • | Organize documents for clarity |
| • | Compose in a concise, engaging style |
| • | Construct correct sentences |
| • | Structure the kinds of documents you write most often: letters, emails, and/or reports |
By using these skills you will
| • | Strengthen relationships – internal and external – by taking care of the reader's needs and using an engaging style |
| • | Maximize your effectiveness – get the results you want |
| • | Save time and improve productivity for you and your reader |
| • | Enhance your professional image and credibility by identifying and correcting grammatical mistakes |
A List of Our Courses
Effective Business Writing (2 days) – This is our most popular course. It's ideal for anyone who needs to write letters, short reports or emails that are clear, concise and persuasive. For a detailed list of topics covered in this course, please go to Detailed Course Outline.
Effective Business Writing in French – Rédactions
d’affaires efficaces
(1 1/2 days) – This is a one-and-a half-day version of Effective Business Writing. You can
read a course outline in either French
or English.
Email Writing for Results (1/2 day) – This practical 1/2 day course gives participants strategies for using email effectively. The half-day format makes it possible for your entire organization to attend.
Grammar and Proofreading (1 day) – This lively one-day course provides a review of grammar and punctuation rules. Participants practice repairing sentences and longer documents. It's ideal for anyone who writes simple emails or letters and who wants greater confidence with grammar.
Sales Writing (2 days) – This course helps sales people write persuasive letters and emails that engage readers and help build relationships. Participants also learn how to structure winning proposals.
Customer Service Writing (1 day) – If you correspond regularly with customers by letter or email, this course is perfect for you. Learn how to adopt a friendly, professional tone and use templates for structuring the most common kinds of messages.
Technical Writing (2 days) – If you communicate technical issues and procedures, this is the course for you. Learn how to demystify technical content for your non-technical readers.
Self-Study Course – This self-study version of our Effective Business Writing course is perfect for individuals who are unable to attend instructor-led training. It works well with email coaching.
Writing Basics (1 day) – This is a one-day version of Effective Business Writing. It provides participants with the essentials of the writer’s tool box.
Writing for the Web (1/2 day) – This course provides practical strategies for writing or adapting materials for your Internet or Intranet site.
Our Approach
All our courses are
interactive. We keep the lectures to a minimum, and make them interesting
by telling relevant anecdotes, asking and inviting questions, and presenting
interesting examples.
We use energizers and provide a variety of brainteasers to keep the energy
high throughout the day.
Participants have many opportunities to work in small groups. We find
this allows for a healthy sharing of ideas and knowledge.
We also like to play competitive team games, especially skill-based Jeopardy.
This provides an excellent review of grammar and punctuation. It's also
fun and entertaining. We use a form of this popular Jeopardy review in
all our two-day courses.
Adult learners are very sensitive about their writing skills. We make
sure they feel comfortable and safe throughout the course. We never put
anyone on the spot and we never embarrass anyone.
Participants also appreciate our delivery style. All our trainers are
consistently evaluated as being enthusiastic, articulate, patient and
knowledgeable.
How We Customize In-House Courses
Each participant completes
a pre-course survey and submits two writing samples. We then review the
writing samples and surveys to better understand your needs and tailor
the course content to best meet those needs.
Course Materials
Participants
tell us they like how our manuals are laid out. They find the consistent
hierarchical structure makes information easy to retrieve. Everyone appreciates
the quotations, which are chosen to inspire and entertain.
We provide laminated job aids that summarize the course and provide meaningful
quick reviews and refreshers for our graduates.
You’ll find the course manuals to be valuable reference guides long
after the course.
On-going Support
We offer all our graduates free reviews of their post-course writing. Also, we can provide a follow up session.
Participants are also invited to subscribe to our online newsletter, The Write Stuff. These popular newsletters have useful writing tips, quizzes and mini-lessons. We also publish a paper-based version. Take a look at The Write Stuff.
