Effective Writing in the Workplace

Course Objectives

• Apply organization and logic to get your point across clearly.
• Write appropriately for your audience.
• Edit and revise your own work, as well as suggest edits to others’ work.
• Write with increased confidence.

What You Learn

• Common forms of business writing
• Difference between primary and secondary audiences
• Determining what you know about your audience and how that information will affect your writing
• Purpose of a piece of business writing
• How to critique others' writing
• Planning and organizing your writing
• Standard business reports
• Organizational strategies for business documents or sections of documents
• Difference between direct and indirect organization
• Headings and subheadings
• Writing and revising drafts
• The revision process: group revision, content and organization, paragraph and sentence structure
• Selection of active, concrete language
• Cutting out excess words, buzzwords and jargon
• Giving your writing the right tone through word choice
• Formatting, grammar, punctuation and spelling
• The proofreading process, including checking for correct formatting, identifying and fixing grammar and punctuation errors, and correcting spelling errors

How You Learn

• Lectures
• Reading assignments
• Writing assignments, including drafts of a memo or report, “3 questions” and proofreading
• Discussion participation and assignments