Instructor-Led Training
Business Writing and Grammar Skills Made Easy and Fun!
Gain dozens of field-tested strategies relied on by today’s most effective business writers. Learn how to present your ideas clearly and persuasively…select words that fit your meaning…spot misused verbs, pronouns and punctuation…avoid communication misfires…and much, much more.
Course Outcomes
- Master core writing, grammar and punctuation essentials
- Apply proven methods to create effective, persuasive messages
- Avoid common sentence and spelling errors
- Utilize checklists and techniques to enhance overall clarity
- Edit and proofread to produce polished, mistake-free business documents
Course Agenda
Instructor-Led Training
Session 1: Get Started: Transform a Blank Page Into a Bold Message
Session 2: Perfect Your Grammar and Usage Skills
Session 3: Avoid Embarrassing Mistakes
Session 4: Grab Your Reader’s Attention and Convince Them to Act
Session 5: Project Credibility and Professionalism
Session 6: Edit and Proofread Like the Pros
Session 7: Bonus Content
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Business Writing and Grammar Skills Made Easy and Fun!
Gain dozens of field-tested strategies relied on by today’s most effective business writers. Learn how to present your ideas clearly and persuasively…select words that fit your meaning…spot misused verbs, pronouns and punctuation…avoid communication misfires…and much, much more.
Session 1: Get Started: Transform a Blank Page Into a Bold Message
- Take the confidential Writer’s Discovery Analysis to identify areas you want to polish
- Understand how business writing is uniquely different from other types of writing
- Freewriting: What it is and how to use it to produce a great first draft in half the time
- How to “do your homework” — you’ll be amazed at how effortlessly the words flow after that
- Are your paragraphs in a confusing, illogical order? Find out how to fix the problem
- Great words and phrases for linking paragraphs together so your readers don’t have to stumble through your document
- Put the “Know Thy Reader” commandment into practice and double the impact of your message
- How to guard against the deadly mistake of leaving important points out because you’re so focused on the little stuff
Session 2: Perfect Your Grammar and Usage Skills
- When a personal, casual style is important — never underestimate the power of contractions
- A concise refresher on how to correctly use verb tenses, subject-verb patterns and pronouns and their antecedents
- The “best-of-the-best” desktop references you’ll want at your fingertips for quick answers
- Ensure or insure? Affect or effect? Making the right choice between confusing words like these just became a whole lot easier!
- When it’s okay to bend the “rules” to make your point clearly
- Are abbreviations and acronyms really proper in business writing? This insight will shed light on the issue
- The unwritten rules about the appropriate and inappropriate use of jargon
- BONUS: A handy reference list of conjugations for 120 irregular verbs!
Session 3: Avoid Embarrassing Mistakes
- Can’t remember if the punctuation goes inside or outside the quotation marks? Here’s how to avoid this pitfall
- Follow this widely accepted guideline for when to spell out numbers and when to use figures
- Avoid these blunders when using apostrophes — they scream “Rookie!”
- When adding hyphens, dashes and other marks for emphasis…know when you’ve gone overboard
- To capitalize or not to capitalize? These tips will eliminate any question
- A refreshing overview of how to use punctuation marks correctly every time
- Intriguing spelling techniques that many national spelling champs secretly rely on
- Prefixes and suffixes made easy
- DANGER: If you think your spell-checker takes the place of the human eye, you’re asking for trouble
Session 4: Grab Your Reader’s Attention and Convince Them to Act
- How to write openings that reel readers in
- Tough but necessary questions to ask yourself after you’ve written the opening paragraph
- Super techniques that give you powerful psychological leverage over your reader
- The proven connection between the use of personal pronouns and the results your business writing gets
- How to construct a closing so action-oriented it’s like a shot of adrenaline to your reader
Session 5: Project Credibility and Professionalism
- The 12 most damaging blunders in business writing — sidestep these at all costs
- How to curb the use of worn-out business clichés and what to say instead
- The latest, most professional business writing formats…for letters, memos, proposals, reports and more
- How to write effective email that today’s busy professional can digest in 60 seconds or less
- Field-tested letter-writing techniques that pay off in 3 big ways
- Straight from the mouths of direct mail pros: Creating sales letters that bring in the orders
- The art of writing crisp, clear instructions
- Get a firm grip on how to deliver bad news in writing — without a doubt, you will need this someday
Session 6: Edit and Proofread Like the Pros
- 4 amazing proofreading secrets that will automatically push your accuracy rate to 99% — or higher
- Editing and proofreading symbols the pros use to simplify and speed up the revision process
- How to shut out phones, voices and other distractions when proofing in a busy office (It’s like sitting in an airtight bubble!)
- A proofreader’s checklist that ensures perfection down to the very last detail
- How to do a final “sanity check” before your document goes out the door so you can sleep like a baby that night
- Editing techniques that will work miracles on your document
Session 7: Bonus Content
- Usage tips for the most troublesome words found in many business documents
- A checklist of the most frequently misspelled words
- A handy reference list of conjugations for 120 irregular verbs