Business Writing training

'How to identify and fix common writing mistakes that make you look unprofessional'

Do your senior managers waste time vetting the writing of junior staff before it goes out to clients?

Research shows customers distrust companies whose staff commit spelling or grammatical mistakes.  Poor writing diminishes your organisation's credibility. Brainpower Training works inside companies and organisations with groups of their staff, usually in a Facilitator-led workshop of around 10-16 people at a time, to develop their ability to communicate in writing clearly and concisely.

Here are some of the things your team will learn in the Brainpower Business Writing or Report Writing workshop:

Program content

• Themes - purpose, content, style, tone
• Goals - economy, clarity, empathy
• Readability index - calculate 'Fog Index' of own writing sample to find out how 'foggy' it is
• Refinement - editing tips - makeover of own writing sample
• Economy - brevity tricks, omit needless words, avoid qualifiers, active voice
• Make every word count - avoid repetition and redundancy
• Plain English - write the way you speak
• Clarity - be positive, avoid nominalisation, use bullets
• Empathy - tone and courtesy
• Standard Register - style, compare with formal and informal registers
• Tone - write with your reader in mind, 'You' vs. 'I', saving face, WIIFM
• Grammar - common grammar and punctuation mistakes, new usage rules
• Punctuation - commas, apostrophe, contractions
• Getting started - avoid writer's block using memory mapping, freewriting
• E-mail - formatting for readability, style and 'netiquette'
• Respect - vocabulary or gender, race and disability
• Readability - best fonts and layout for online and paper-based material
• Editing - Revise after time
• Where to from here? - style guides, Thesaurus
• Review - key concepts summary
  

Business Writing Outcomes

 

On completion of the program participants will be able to:

• Using our makeover checklist, proof read and edit their writing to improve readability
• Recognise and delete unnecessary words
• Eliminate repetition in writing
• Use Active Voice instead of Passive Voice
  
• Express themselves clearly using fewer words
• Write in Plain English with crystal clear clarity
• Increase rapport by writing with the reader in mind, using 'You' vs. 'I'
• Identify and correct common grammatical errors
  

Contact us now.

Now you can learn to write with greater economy, clarity and empathy with the Brainpower Business Writing course. You'll master the 20% of writing techniques and 'best practices' that improve your writing by 80%.

Using the techniques you'll learn about in this course, you and your team will be able to write...

• Letters that convey professionalism and warmth
• Proposals that persuade your reader to agree or buy
• Memos that convey your ideas with brevity and clarity
• Reports that present facts and opinions clearly and concisely.
• e-mails that communicate your ideas efficiently.

 The Brainpower Business Writing course covers the core techniques and skills your staff need to produce an immediate impact to the quality and clarity of their writing. Topics include:

• How readable is your writing? Find out using the Fog Index formula.
• How to refine and edit your writing, using your own writing sample
• Useful brevity tricks: using active voice, eliminating unnecessary words and avoiding qualifiers
• How to make every word count: avoiding repetition and redundancy
• Standard register: when to use formal and informal registers
• Plain English: avoiding complex language and reducing sentence length
• Style: How to improve your writing style using strong verbs and simple direct sentences. Write the way you speak.
• Clarity: Be positive; be specific; bullets; avoid idea gaps and blind spots.
• Tone: write with the reader in mind; 'I' vs. 'You'; saving face; WIIFM - What's In It For Me?
• Grammar: common grammar mistakes.
• Punctuation: How to use commas, apostrophes and contractions correctly.
• How to combat writer's block using freewriting, memory mapping and conversation
• E-mail: how to format your e-mails for readability, style and 'netiquette'
• Respect: vocabulary for gender, race and disability
• Readability: best fonts and layouts for online and paper-based material
• Further resources: style guide and thesaurus
• Makeover checklist: summary page to use from now on
  
  

By understanding and mastering each of these areas, your people will be able to compose more effective business documents in a variety of business situations. Click here to contact us.

For a pdf of our company brochure, click here.

 

Read a blog article by Nina Sunday . . . 

Business Writing: How to set up a simple e-mail template system for consistent frequently used responses.

Do you have more than one staff member e-mailing clients similar information yet using different wording?

Does your team waste time re-inventing the wheel, each starting a fresh e-mail every time they communicate?

Is one writer's words friendlier in tone or clearer?

Here's an easy way to send consistent communication to clients every time.

In the Brainpower office, we set up template e-mails in Microsoft Outlook sub-folders, filed by category, as many as we need, in Outlook under Drafts. It's easy to use and update, and is as simple as re-using an e-mail already sent.

Here's how to set up a similar system:

1.  First, agree on ideal wording.

Perhaps you have samples from members of your team who are better at written expression, who write in Plain English using more effective phrases. Model your ideal responses based on those.  

For example, can you notice a difference in feel between:
'You are required to . . . ' and 'To comply with the GST Act, please . . . '?

2. Decide where to file it.  

Don't just save it as a draft e-mail in Drafts. Create a fresh sub-folder under Drafts, so it's archived and can't accidentally be sent and disappear.  

For example, a typical request from Accounts division might be to ask a client for their bank details.

The file path might be: 'Drafts / Accounts / Bank details request'

Include the date of this update, for example:
'Updated 15 June 10: Drafts / Accounts / Bank details request'

Write at the top of the e-mail in a contrasting colour (blue is good), this path to save.  

(Remember to delete this from the top each time you forward.)

3. Start subject line with 'E-MAIL TEMPLATE:'

This alerts recipients it is to be saved as a template. It also means they can locate all templates in their inbox by 'Subject' if multiple templates are received.

4. Send to your template distribution list.

Including the file path at top of the message body ensures recipients know the correct sub-folder to drag message to file for later forwarding.

Periodically the Team Leader checks each staff member's PC for:

- Are all templates moved from inbox to sub-folders?
- Has the previous template been deleted when a replacement is received?
- Has everyone used the same sub-folder category titles?

THINGS TO REMEMBER BEFORE FORWARDING

1. Delete 'FW: E-MAIL TEMPLATE:' from start of subject line.

2. Delete date and file path at top of message body.

3. Add name of recipient after 'Dear' or 'Hi' and change font to same colour as message body.

4. Personalise the message relevant to your needs.

5. Sign-off as yourself.

WHAT MAKES A CUSTOMER-FRIENDLY E-MAIL?

1. Open with a salutation: 'Dear' or 'Hi' and their name e.g. Dear < Name >, Hi < Name >.

Whichever form you use is part of branding, affects client perception and should be consistent throughout the organisation.

2. If it's possible to start with a thankyou, always start with a thankyou.
'Thank you for your invoice.'
'Thank you for your e-mail.'
'Thank you for your update.'

Starting with a thank you adds positive tone and enhances the client relationship.

3. Whenever any action is requested, embed 'please' in the question.

Does . . .
'Please amend the billing name on all future invoices.'

sound better than . . .
'Could the billing name be amended on all future invoices?'
where 'please' is missing?

4. In a template, it's ok to add generic fields such as <date>, <location>, < number >.

For example, here's the start of a Brainpower confirmation of booking template:

'UPDATED 28 MAY 10: DRAFTS / ONSITE / CONFIRMATION

Dear X X X

Thank you for confirming < Day Date > for your workshop in < Topic >.   
So we can take care of all the details, next step is for us to . . .'

5. Sign-off with a standard signature block or add generic fields to insert one's own, such as:
'Sincere regards'
< Name >
< Title >

You can make generic fields stand out as a reminder to complete by using a contrasting colour. Remember to change to black before sending.

YOUR BUSINESS VOICE

Your choice of words talks to your reader. It's called the writer's voice. In literature, Ernest Hemingway's voice is different to Patrick White which is different to James Joyce.

In the world of business, client e-mails have a voice too.

Every e-mail you send is a moment of truth, that is, customers make a decision about whether it's easy and pleasant to do business with you (or not).

No message is neutral. You are either enhancing your organisation's perception or detracting.

If it's too wordy, if there's no white space in the layout, if tone is too robotic and distant, it influences your client perception.

Consider the business voice in this opening of an e-mail in the Standard Style:

'We are in receipt of invoice number...'  

This style is what authors of 'The Cluetrain Manifesto' call 'robo-voice'.  Cluetrain authors urge us to write instead with a human voice.

On the bookshelf next to my copy of Cluetrain was an antiquarian book, 'The Companion Letter Writer' published by F. Warne & Co.  

One of its business letter-writer template responses started with 'We are in receipt of . . .'  

What year was it published?
Answer: 1866.

If your communication still uses 'We are in receipt of . . .', it's not last century, but in fact century-before-last.

Your correspondence is your organisation's image, branding and perception.

TIP

1. In Outlook, use SHIFT-ENTER instead of just ENTER at the end of each line while amending your template to ensure single-spaced lines rather than double-spaced.

ADVANCED TIPS

2. If font formatting goes awry, change to Plain Text, then amend. Once amendments are done, change back to HTML before sending.  It's an idea to keep HTML formatting in templates basic, so swapping to Plain Text, then back to HTML, is effortless.

[Here's an advanced HTML to Plain Text to HTML tip:

If one part of your HTML template is nicely formatted and does not need to be changed, cut that section [Control+X] before changing to Plain Text. 

Do your changes. 

Change back to HTML, then paste [Control+V] the nicely formatted section back in. Voila! It's done.]

ACTION SUMMARY

1. Don't reinvent the wheel by letting individuals write fresh e-mails each time for commonly used text.

2. Identify who has the best writing style and use their words as the basis for your templates.  Get the team involved drafting the final wording.  If you wouldn't say it like that over the phone, you wouldn't write it in an e-mail.  Write the way you speak (without becoming too informal.)

3. Set up the convention of a template having:
- First words of the subject line are 'E-MAIL TEMPLATE:', with the actual subject line to be used following, for example:
'E-MAIL TEMPLATE: Please send us your bank account details.'
- Date and file path to save

4. Continuously improve your wording and update the templates to your distribution list.

Copyright Nina Sunday 2010, Sydney, Australia.  All rights reserved. 

 

---

Does Brainpower offer public workshops for individuals to attend?

We do not schedule external workshops for individuals to attend.

Brainpower Training works inside companies and organisations with groups of their staff, usually in a workshop of around 10-16 people at a time.

Instead perhaps consider our training DVDs . . . more info

---

The Brainpower difference: How we present

We use brain-based, multi-sensory, Adult Learning methods to keep the workshop interactive, engaging and fun.  

Appealing to all learning styles, there'll be:    

• flipcharts created and coloured pens to use for Visual learners
• background music in the breaks for Auditory learners
• for Kinesthetic learners, as well as plasticene and pipe cleaners, brain-shaped squeeze balls with Brainpower logo to take-away.

Our facilitator adapts and
customises the presentation to suit the
specific needs of your team

Your people will be asked to bring a one page sample of their writing for makeover on the spot.  They'll walk out with their writing transformed. They'll also have a 100% self-correcting checklist to work with every time they write.

'Does the training include
any additional materials?'

Yes. All workshop participants receive a reader-friendly, illustrated workbook to refer to during and after the course. They'll also be presented with a Certificate of Achievement for successfully completing the course and a prompt card summarising the key concepts.

'But is it really worth it? How do I know this is a wise investment?'

Using the techniques you learn in the Brainpower Business Writing course, your people will increase the clarity, effectiveness and persuasiveness of every written communication they produce at work.

That’s a significant productivity boost, when you think about how much of the work day is devoted to writing or typing reports, proposals, instructions and e-mails.

Instructions will be expressed with greater clarity, using fewer words saving time and avoiding confusion and misunderstanding.

Proposals or sales documents will come across with more persuasive force.

E-mails will be handled quickly and professionally, which saves time and helps get more things done.

These improvements can add up to thousands of dollars worth of increased productivity in the course of a year. Your investment in a Business Writing course is easily justified.

'Act now to master the skills of clear, persuasive writing'

Don't wait to accelerate your organisation's success. Schedule a workshop now so they can start communicating more clearly and persuasively.

No Risk Guarantee

You have peace of mind knowing you are not only getting great value for money, but also results that positively impact performance.

Our guarantee is simply this:

If you are not 100% happy and delighted with your workshop, we will either refund the difference between what you paid to what you think it was worth or we'll continue to work with you for free until you achieve the outcomes you reasonably expected.

Call us on 1300 661 555. Our Support Team are happy to answer any questions you may have and discuss your options.

Any Questions?

You'll find the answers to most of your questions on the Frequently Asked Questions page.

If you can't find what you're looking for, please contact us and our Support Team will respond to your enquiry with priority.