Fundamentals of Business Writing

• Managers, supervisors, and administrative officers
• Technical personnel, program officers, and information officers
• Professionals who are expected to produce clearly written text—including e-mails
• Anyone wanting to learn how professional writers approach business writing, or seeking to refresh their writing skills

• Increase your productivity by eliminating “writer's block” and other time-wasting barriers.
• Improve readability: in your own writing and other people’s, through editing techniques that most professional writers use
• Update your grammar, punctuation and usage: many rules have changed, but this workshop will show you what's acceptable now—and why

The Elements of “good writing”

• Four characteristics of “good” business writing
• How to analyze your writing samples to see if they meet these characteristics

Getting Started

• “Quick-fix” techniques to use every day on all your writing
• How to break out of writer’s block
• Four editing techniques that are easy to learn and will improve anybody’s writing

Now the Basics

• Two questions that every writer must answer before beginning to write:
• What’s my purpose?
• Who is the target audience?

Mastering the greatest enemy of clear writing: inappropriate use of the passive voice

• What is the passive voice and what’s wrong with it?
• Why do writers use it so frequently?
• Learn to use it appropriately

Keeping to the point: harder than you think

• Eliminate unnecessary words and phrases
• “Gobbledygook and jargon”
• Artful punctuation techniques

The Final Touches

• Learn to use formatting to catch reader interest:
• How to use subheads to guide your reader
• Using “pull-quotes” to emphasize points
• Dealing with background
• Developing templates

Develop and Apply Checklists

• Eliminate embarrassing errors by developing editing checklists that you automatically apply to each piece you send out

• You'll eliminate embarrassing errors by developing editing checklists that you automatically apply to each piece you send out.
• You will be exposed to writing examples that demonstrate the points under discussion
• Group size is limited to 18
• Participants will receive a Global Knowledge Certificate of Completion