We are experienced in providing in-house writing-skills courses for government bodies, companies and councils. These organisations trust us to pitch courses at an appropriate level, to respect and develop the existing knowledge and skills of their staff, and to provide rational writing and editing methods.
Our courses are tailored to meet your writers’ needs, which we identify by discussion with you and by studying examples of their writing in advance. The style is informal and participative, with practical work, quizzes and group work. We often create courses on special topics, such as the writing of reports for government departments.
Topics
Our plain English courses teach the principles of clear, concise writing and how to use these for reports, brochures, case studies and more. We’ll email you typical programs on request, but the courses include:
- refresher on the basics: structure, sentence length, everyday English, powerful verbs, active and passive verbs, conciseness, accurate punctuation (including apostrophes, dashes and hyphens), essential grammar
- writing myths explained and exposed
- translating bureaucratic prose into plain English
Most of our courses go under the general title of Communication Skills, with subtitles to reflect their particular bias, for example:
- Advanced Writing Skills – usually covering letter and report writing
- Better Letters and Emails – a one-day course at various levels
- Effective Report Writing
- Grammar and Punctuation Workout
- Proofreading – one day
- Writing Minutes and Agendas – one day
- Editing for Clarity and Consistency – one or two days, covering essential editing skills
- Writing for the Web – one day
General aims of the courses
- to help your staff produce clear, well-punctuated and well-structured writing that fulfils its purpose
- to save staff time, particularly by improving their planning of written work
- to help staff identify good writing and rectify sub-standard work
- to help staff decide when writing is ‘fit to go’, and therefore when to avoid making unnecessary alterations
Number of participants, follow-up, one-to-one training
Courses cater for up to 12 participants. We offer an optional, tailor-made follow-up. One-to-one coaching is also available by special arrangement.
Materials that participants receive
To ensure the lessons are not forgotten, attendees take away our helpful Professional Writing Reference Booklet.
Assessments of our courses
‘It was refreshing to be taught by people who could take an independent look at our written work. Their comments and criticisms were constructive. I found them approachable and their enthusiasm motivating.’ Victor Sposito, Department of Primary Industries