2017-18 Business Writing

Continuing Professional Education (CPE)

Duration: Half-day or Full-day

Course Description: Professional writing is audience specific, organized, clear, concise, and free of grammar and spelling errors. Poorly written communication or documentation inhibits the operation of an organization and the success of employee collaboration. This course teaches participants how to write effectively in a professional setting, by discussing elements of successful writing, providing techniques to improve writing competency, and teaching professional correspondence etiquette. Additionally, this course reviews common grammar and spelling mistakes found in unsuccessful writing, and offers tips for effective proofreading. This learning experience may be customized to address business writing samples specific to your company, such as reports, forms, contracts, documents, and policies. This course can be presented over two or more half days to incorporate newly-acquired writing tools into the business environment and enhance the retention of course content. Audience: Any individual looking to improve their writing proficiency. Optimum class size 8-15.

Course Outline:

• What Makes Writing Effective? o Knowing Your Audience o Organization o Clarity and Concision o Correct Grammar and Spelling

• Writing Professionally o Formality o Word Choice o Objectivity

• Clarity and Concision o Unnecessary Words List o Practice Problems

• Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation o Verb Tense o Comma Rules o Capitalization rules o Common Errors

• Writing Emails and Reports o Sentence Structure o Organization o Proofreading

Course Objective: Participants will gain knowledge necessary to create professional and effective written correspondence and documentation. They will also understand how important it is to consider their audience first; clearly state objective(s); promote response; correct spelling errors and grammar; and proofread everything before releasing.