for Corporate Communications and Professional Image

Your team learns to plan and write attention-getting E-mail messages
- a necessary skill in this age of information overload.

2 Days - Intensive Programme

Dozens of Interactive Exercises & Impact Issues

Every letter, memo, report, Email or proposal you write makes a statement
about yourself and your organisation.

Re-inforce leadership competencies in executives, managers, supervisors, and rising stars in your company. They will learn to use writing to communicate strategies, manage change, and get results.

Introduction:

Your team gains a framework for planning and writing complex, research-driven documents efficiently and effectively. Learners will apply principles for presenting information hierarchically to create a compelling and logically structured argument.

Increase your market share by developing your team's writing skills - a vital component to any sales, marketing, and customer-service training. They'll learn to build and manage relationships using customer-focused messages and proposals powerful tools in the sales process.

This course is designed to emphasise on clarity, simplicity and coherence in business writing. It will increase awareness of your own writing technique and provide practical guidelines to sharpen and refine your writing.

Programme Objectives:

• The Principles of Effective Communication and the Planning Process.
• The skills needed in being able to explain or describe processes in a concise and professional manner.
• Choosing the right level of language
• Choosing the right style and tone

Key Benefits:

• Identify your Audience and Tailor your Message to them
• Eliminate excess phrases for clear and concise writing
• Organise your facts and ideas and decide what youre going to say to get the results you want
• Overcome the fear of the blank page and learn how to start and stop the flow of words
• Clarify your communication, using proper transitional phrases
• Cut through unintelligible jargon and use everyday words
• Say more with less to get your message across
• Set up a letter and edit it to perfection
• Hold interest by using appropriate punctuation, sentence length/structure and
• design techniques
• Create emails that clearly indicate your purpose
• Prepare reports that get results
• Effective emails that get read

Programme Outline:

Principles of Effective Communications

• The Components of Effective Communication
• Barriers to Communications

Verbal & Non-Verbal Communications

• The Power and use of Behaviour Psychology
• Communicating with Different Personalities and Situations
• Three Techniques to Improve Communication and to Build Rapport

The 4Cs of Writing

• Main Rules of Writing
• Using the Right Words
• Importance of Conciseness and Brevity
• Pompous Language
• Use of Jargon
• How to make the Tone of Writing Work for you
• Active / Passive Voice
• Using Appropriate Phrases
• Using the Right Style
• Avoiding ambiguity
• Choice and Arrangement of Words for Achieving Emphasis
• Sentence Position and Variation for Achieving Emphasis

Organisation & Structure:

• Characteristics of Good Paragraphs
• How to write Clear, Emphatic Sentences
• How to write Effective Paragraphs
• Purpose, Completeness, Unity, Order, Transitions
• Update your Grammar, Punctuation and Usage
• Put more Impact into your Sentence Structure

E-mail writing:

• How has Email Changed and what are the Trends
• Email Etiquette
• Tightening Your Message
• Flaming someone by email
• Handling emails
• Personalisation & Formats

Writing Exercises:

• Individual In-class Exercises
• Group In-class Exercises

Writing Clearly:

• Avoiding Inflated Language
• Trashing Trite Expressions
• Identify and Eliminate Common Sentence Cloggers

Writing Skills and Formats:

• Purpose of Business Email/Correspondence
• Writing Concretely and Concisely
• Involving the Reader in your Writing
• Routine Emails/Letters, Queries, Complaints
• Dealing with Good News & Bad News
• Dos and Donts of Business Emails
• Understand What Motivates People to Read
• Sound Sincere and Personal
• Be Positive in Your Approach

The Process of Composition:

• Principles and Importance of Effective Writing
• How to Plan your Writing
• Choosing the Structure for your Writing
• Writing the First Draft
• Revising & Proof-Reading
• Audience Analysis
• Write for Different Readers
• Choose the Right Level of Language
• Choose the Right Style and Tone
• Personalise your Writing

A Review of Basic Grammar:

• Avoid Multiple Negatives
• Transitional Devices (Connecting Words)
• Use Parallel Constructions
• Making Subjects and Verbs Agree
• Infinitives
• Some Common Errors to Avoid
• Avoid Excessive Punctuation!!!
• Why is Space Important?
• Does Appearance Really Matter?

Personal Action Plan

• Feedback Time
• Thanks and Closedown

Designed for:

Everyone who writes business letters, e-mail, reports or memos and wants to improve his or her writing skills will benefit from this program including line and staff supervisors, managers, executives and all business people.

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