Effective Business Writing

Writing Winning Proposals and Reports is designed to provide you with the critical business writing and communication skills that will reinforce the impact of your written message.

Course Overview

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This course can also be delivered in-house and tailored to meet the specific needs of your organisation. Click here for more information.

During this intensive and practical course, you will acquire the critical writing skills that will help you reinforce the impact of your message and learn how you can adapt these skills to a variety of written communications. As a result you will be able to tailor your approach to meet the specific demands of each situation, whether you are constructing powerful sales and business proposals or jargon-free technical reports.

You will also focus on how you should plan and structure your messages to achieve your desired results. By the end of the course you will be able to develop and adapt your personal style of convincing written communications to reflect the nature of your audience in order to achieve interest, involvement and buy-in to your own objectives.

THIS COURSE WILL ENABLE YOU TO:

Enhance your proposals and promote your competitive advantage
Produce effective professional reports
Reinforce your argument and convey your point of view succinctly and persuasively
Speed up the writing process and develop your own personal style
Master new techniques which can be easily adapted for all types of written communications

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

All managers who have to produce reports, proposals and other written communications. Business development managers and others involved in pitching for new business and growing existing clients Those involved in business-to-business, corporate or internal communications. Researchers, managers or experts who provide written communications in technical or jargon-filled professions. Financial, operations and other managers who report to senior management board

Booking Information

To have a customised version of this course delivered In-House please call Tom Gooderham on +44 (0)20 7017 7195.

This course will be held on the above listed dates in central London. For more information about venue please click here.

Programme Details

Priorities for course objectives

selecting highest priorities
determining areas for greatest emphasis

Highlighting Strengths, Weaknesses and Suitability of Selected Reports and Proposals

reviewing real-life examples of reports and proposals; their strengths, weaknesses and suitability of purposes the ABC rules of business writing
recognising grammatical errors
suggesting improvements in structure
evaluating different writing styles and communication tools
Practical exercise: critiquing real-life examples of business English

Setting Objectives and Gaining Readership Empathy

the purpose and characteristics of a good aim or objective
targeting your audience to achieve the outcome you want
matching the expectations of your audience
catering for layered, and varied readerships
Practical exercise: writing a clear one sentence objective

Organising content

six creative brainstorming methods
vertical and horizontal content patterns
organising your message for maximum clarity and conviction
Practical exercise: organising random material into logical groups

Building a Logical Structure

essential elements of any written report
additional "nice-to-haves" for longer reports
signposting and use of templates
the four "p"s for proposals
the journalists' triangle, and structures that sell
the pyramid principle

Summaries and introductions

why these are the most difficult to write
conciseness as a tool for building rapport with readers
three tips for introductions
two tips for summaries
Practical exercise: writing an executive summary

Day 2

Review of day 1

checking recall and understanding
answering any questions that have arisen overnight

Doing it for Yourself
(This session is entirely practical. It reinforces yesterday's learning points, and builds on them)

choosing a subject for the rest of today
writing objective and describing readers
brainstorming content
selecting a suitable structure
Tutor help and feedback throughout

Using Language to your Advantage

the six "c"s of excellent prose
a fast review of good punctuation
gauging the readability of your writing using the fog index
avoid boring your readers at a single stroke
writing to sell and customer centred writing
Practical exercises: many of the above points include a short practical exercise

Writing for Real

writing a short report in an hour
applying the three step approach to beating writer's block
Tutor help and feedback throughout

Advanced Techniques for Error-Free Writing

the final "read-through"
the key to picking up every mistake
a few pointers that most writers miss
Practical exercise: reviewing and proofreading own and colleagues' reports, giving and receiving feedback

Designing the Presentation of your Information for Maximum Effect

the dos and don'ts of charts and graphs
using them to enhance your reports and proposals
using layout, headings and white space

Your Personal Action Plan

Exercises: Throughout the course delegates will participate in hands-on exercises and will have the opportunity to receive individual feedback from the course tutor.

Course Leader

This course will be led by Chris Skelton. Chris is a management training professional with a strong grounding in line management in a variety of industries. He has an MBA from INSEAD, specialising in Organisational Behaviour and has since held senior international sales positions with Lucas Industries and Midland Bank before moving into management and training positions with Olivetti and Reuters.

Chris now specialises in organisational communication and leadership skills. He has conducted recent consultancy and training assignments in the UK and Europe for Redland, Olivetti, Cellnet, Reuters, Instinet (UK), ICO Global Communications and McKinsey & Co. He has in-depth experience delivering writing skills training to audiences as diverse as foreign correspondents, PAs and sales and line managers.