Business Writing Skills
Course Code: SO20
Course Objective
- Mastering the confusing rules of grammar and punctuation so the meaning is crystal clear rather than confusing
- Writing in English on paper and screen so audiences understand it the first time and believe
- Tailoring English language for online mediums where word count matters
- Applying English language in business documents such as letters, reports, presentations and speeches
- Crafting technical and non-technical reports that are clear, concise and coherent
Target Audience
- Finance professionals
- Budgeting and planning managers
- Commercial managers
- Division managers
- Business managers
Course Outline
Day 1
- Writing for Your Reader
- Mastering the perplexing rules of English grammar: from Traditional based on Latin to Modern based on actual usage
- The Art of Punctuation - the traffic signals of language: tells us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, or stop
- Practical tips to avoid overused business words, replacing them with language that creates rich variety for our audiences
- Writing in Plain English that is clear, easy to understand and elicits the response you want
Day 2
- Developing Advanced Proficiency
- 12 golden rules for successful writing that ensure people read what we write
- Inspiring, Influencing & Persuading through Storytelling: how to narrate experiences with enough detail and feeling so our audiences are engaged
- Newsworthy writing for external audiences that will grab interest and keep people reading to the end
- Accurate proof reading that picks up errors, confusion and potentially embarrassing mistakes
Day 3
- Writing for Online Audiences
- Email etiquette: creating emails that are well written and structured to people understand why they should pay attention and respond
- How to produce relevant online content for websites and social media, and improve usability and search engine optimisation
- Maximising the response to your posts, tweets, comments and other feeds
- Blogging for business impact in an authentic way
Day 4
- More Practical Applications
- Impactful Presentations: presenting messages clearly so audiences participate positively and remember our key points
- Writing speeches that grab attention: motivating and persuading audiences when developing and delivering both informal talks and more formal speeches
- Gold standard letter writing for business: how to structure letters so our recipients read, understand and act on what they read
Day 5
- Powerful Reports & Briefing Papers
- Structuring reports so readers can find their way around the different sections in reports
- Using images, diagrams, graphs and tables to illustrate key points in reports
- Best practices for layout and design – typefaces, colour, white space, margins, columns, numbering, page numbers, binding
- How to write reports for people who don’t have technical backgrounds
- Presenting complex processes, systems and other technical subjects in a clear, concise and coherent way
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