Writing For Impact and Influence

Summary

Learn the skills for drafting and writing clear and effective business communications for business or government environments e.g. reports, business cases, emails etc. Participants in this course are taught a proven and effective reader anchored communication model, strategies to remove or minimise barriers to effective communication, and tips to improve overall written communication effectiveness.
Central to learning in this course is a comprehensive case-study with practical application of the guidelines taught in the class. Participants begin by writing a document outline that describes how they will structure what they will write in their assignment, and then write a sample generic business case that includes key document sections: the background/problem statement, an analysis of options to solve the business problem, a recommendation, and an executive summary. The sample business case is then reviewed and critiqued by the instructor, and participants receive confidential individual written feedback on their work.

Prerequisites

Ability to read and write in English at the grade 12 level.

Duration

2 Days/Lecture & Lab

Audience

Anyone who wants to improve their written communication skills. Note: This class includes extensive practical application – participants are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop or tablet device if they prefer to type instead of write by hand.

Topics

• Introduction to the Course
• The Communication Process and Barriers to Effective Communication
• Know Your Audience
• Effective Business Document Structure
• Using Outlines to Structure and Organize Your Information
• Writing Style and Flow
• Effective Sentence Structure
• Enhancing Readability
• Using Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Other Specialized Words
• Writing Effective Paragraphs Using Accepted Principles of Business Paragraph Structure
• Combining Sentence and Paragraph Construction Techniques for Cohesiveness and Unity
• Document Layout and Design
• Workshop/Application
• Conclusion

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