Write Away! Workshops

In every survey of business leaders to identify their concerns about employee skills, weak writing appears at or near the top. But too often training budgets do not reflect that concern. This is unfortunate because just a few eye-opening hours can enable employees to reset their writing priorities and discover lasting techniques for writing more effectively and more quickly.

Why do the workshops work?

They help overcome four reasons for weak writing in today's workplace:

1. Lack of understanding of email effectiveness. Our schooling didn't cover email fundamentals like the importance of a highly useful subject line, a courteous tone, or the need for white space. Just 75 minutes on Secrets of All-Star Emailing can change all that.
2. Failure to differentiate successful academic writing from successful workplace writing. As readers, most of us want messages that are clear, brief, and natural. Yet, as writers, many of us suppress natural expression and grind out pieces that are too long and stodgy because of leftover perspectives from school. The workshops focus on what we should retain from our school days and what we need to change.
3. Inadequate backgrounds. Business leaders and educators generally bemoan the poor writing skills of today's high school and college graduates. A society that once prided itself on literate letter-writing and precise knowledge of grammar is now failing to instill that know-how. Tips on the most common errors and misunderstandings immediately help writers reduce mistakes and gain credibility.
4. The premium on immediacy. Emailing and texting are revolutionary time-savers, but they create expectations about responding right away. Clarity, correctness, and confidence can easily fall victim to this rapid pace.

 
Popular Topics

These can be presented individually or in various combinations.

1. Secrets to All-Star Emailing. We didn't study emailing in school, but for most of us emails are the backbone of our workplace communications. What are a few secrets to composing high-impact emails? How can we use email more efficiently? When is email expedient, and when is it unproductive?
2. Honing Our Approach. Two failures in our writing can undermine the presentation of a great idea or valuable information: the failure to organize effectively or to use proper tone. This session covers both of those problems while illuminating the distinctions between successful writing in school and at work.
3. Brevity. While we recognize the virtue of conciseness, many of our emails, letters, proposals, and memos wind up longer than we expected. What are some mechanical methods for cutting the fat, and what are the psychological issues at play?
4. Clearly, Clarity Is Paramount. If our most fundamental objective in business writing is transmitting our ideas with clarity to our readers, what are the chief reasons we sometimes fall down on the job—and how can we overcome those pitfalls?
5. Picking the Right Word. What are some of the most commonly misused words in our language? This session reveals a number of surprises about correct usage in an entertaining way.
6. Reviewing the Fundamentals. Many of us feel unconfident handling certain grammar and punctuation situations—or we're not even aware of holes in our understanding. Not to worry. This session clears up a host of commonly misunderstood rules and invites your questions about whatever ails you.
7. Turning Drab into Dynamic. Routine messages can be more compelling than you might think. Enhancing mundane communications with strong verbs and precise vocabulary are just two of many paths to writing with more power and finesse.
8. Editing and Proofing Your Own Work. We can all relate to regrets about sending an email prematurely or mailing a letter we should have proofed one more time. Wouldn't a handy checklist to help us polish every important message be an invaluable writing aid?

 
Workshop Clients