Effective Writing for Business and Government Professionals

1 Day, 9:00-4:00

Course Overview

Good writing is a skill you need to cultivate. You can learn to write well with the help of a few guiding principles. This course is designed to help business and government professionals create good business documents quickly and easily. Your success depends on the writing you produce and its effect on readers.

Course Objectives

Learn the writing process and elements of effective writing
Learn to organize and express main points clearly and motivate readers to act
Improve grammar and punctuation mechanics
Use a systematic approach to review, revise, edit and proofread documents
View before and after examples to show methods in action
Avoid ambiguous documents that result in corrective communication to clear up misunderstandings or lead to poor decision-making

Course Outline

Deliver the Goods Quickly

The writing process and successful documents
Know the purpose and objective
Understand your readers
Divide the writing process into four separate tasks
Jot down your main points in complete sentences
Write in full, rapidly
Improve and edit what you have written
Use graphics to illustrate and clarify

Develop Better Skills

Use plain-language writing
Be relentlessly clear and concise
Learn to summarize accurately
Waste no words
Use chronology when giving factual account
Be a stickler for continuity
Learn the basics of grammar
Get feedback on drafts from colleagues

Steps to Reviewing and Editing

Review outline
Paragraph review
Sentence and word review
Spelling and grammar check
Rewrite sentences
Final document review
Tips on reviewing other people's writing

Avoid Turning Off Readers

Don't anesthetize your readers
Watch your tone

Work with Various Forms of Business Writing

Emails
Letters
Memos and Reports
Performance Appraisals

Tools and Checklists

Checklist for the four stages of writing
Dozens of grammatical rules you need to know
Dozens of punctuation rules you need to know
Common usage gaffes
Do's and Don'ts of writing etiquette
Primer of good usage

Courseware:

Editing For Business & Government Professionals by Robert B. Rice

Cost/Investment

Public Course at Softek	Private Course at Your Office	Private Course at Softek
This class is only	$2800 flat fee up to 12 students	$2950 flat fee up to 12 students
offered for private groups	$3500 flat fee up to 18 students	$3650 flat fee up to 18 students

Private Group Training

Private group courses are cost effective when you have a group of students who need the same course. Pricing is based on the maximum number of students anticipated per day per course. Volume discounts of 5% to 20% are available when five or more training days are scheduled. For classes conducted at your office, you are responsible for the classroom setup, including student computers, instructor station, LCD projector, and software installation. For courses conducted at Softek, we take care of classroom setup.

Customization

Softek can easily customize a training course that covers the specific topics you require and integrate examples relevant to your work environment. Course customization is billed at $125 per hour and covers time needed to meet, discuss, prepare, and incorporate any specific examples into the training program. Once we have a better idea of what you have in mind, we will be glad to provide a specific price quote for the customization. There is a 2-hour minimum fee for customization.

Why Choose Softek?

Live, in-person training
Instructors with 10+ years of experience
Detailed training guide
Certificate of completion
Money-back guarantee