Business Writing Training
A Program to Strengthen Business Writing Skills

Skills for Success
I cannot “teach” you how to write. I help you develop a critical eye toward your work. From brainstorming to proofreading, people cultivate their skills as I rely heavily on the Socratic method to create an atmosphere of learning. This is not training in which you can sit back and absorb a lecture. It requires participation and a commitment toward the written word.

Transform Your Communications
The needs of your company determine the sessions. They could involve simply a brush-up in grammar and punctuation or something that exposes trainees to any number of written venues, including direct mail, letters, brochures, corporate folders, speeches, proposals, e-mail, memos, and resumes. You could learn about copywriting and hyperbole, buffers and bad news messages, and how to write a sales pitch, an effective speech and a proposal with impact. I do not teach theory; I teach application. One learns by doing.

WriteVentures Business Writing Training helps employees master the skills of workplace writing, the kind of writing that articulates a change in program or policy, yields funding for a project, adds a new client, or cultivates the good will of the public. Here are some of the skills you could master:

• Analyzing an audience and targeting a message for the audience’s specific needs and interests
• Arguing for ideas and initiatives
• Structuring a message so that readers grasp it
• Using stylistic and visual devices to make information readable and interesting
• Improving the ability to edit one’s own writing as well as the work of peers/colleagues
• Working collaboratively with other writers.

A Program to Strengthen Business Writing Skills

Overcoming Writer’s Block
• Tips for dealing with anxiety
• Brainstorming—cultivating ideas through free association
• Organizing your thoughts and information
• Knowing where you want to go

Using Punctuation Precisely
• No-brainer commas
• Semi-colons for transitions
• Colons & dashes for emphasis
• Quotation marks on the mark

Grammar Made Easy
• Recognizing dangling modifiers (your 7th grade teacher was right)
• Ensuring agreement between the subject and verb
• The proper use of clauses
• Proofreading—catching errors before they leave your desk

Plain Language for Clarity
• Why the passive voice can obscure a message
• To be or not to be: cutting away the fat
• Eliminating redundancy—saying it right the first time
• Trimming unnecessary adverbs, prepositions and adjectives
• Developing a critical eye
• The Hemingway rule

E-mail in the Workplace
• Etiquette and what’s not
• Privacy issues
• Style that fits the medium

Effective Letters
• Formatting, salutations and closings
• Capturing attention in the first sentence
• Retaining good will while giving bad news
• Client correspondence—get to the point
• Responding to complaints gracefully
• Sales letters that are on target

Memos, Reports & Proposals
• Audience analysis—developing the “you” approach
• Capturing attention and keeping it
• How to get the desired response
• Winning formulas
• Avoiding illogical statements, personal assumptions and hasty generalizations

Copywriting
• Distinguishing between benefit and feature
• Attention, Interest, Desire, Action—Direct mail that works
• Emotional vs. logical appeals—getting the right balance
• Headlines that draw you in

Writing for the Web
• Breaking the rules in cyberspace—how writing for the Web differs from print
• Words and graphics—getting the right balance

Presentations
• Memorable openings
• Organizing your information
• Techniques to free you from the text
• Speaking to the audience
• Stories, quotes, and humor to spice up a talk
• The speechwriter’s secret
• PowerPoint tips

Resumes, Cover Letters & Interviews
• Cover letters that capture the reader’s interest
• Resumes that land interviews
• Interview preparation—how to separate yourself from the competition

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