Context

Every written communication involves the writer, the reader and the message itself.  In order for the message to be understood the writer must clarify his or her ideas, order the information, select the right words and present it in a way which is understandable.  The reader’s role is to read, to check understanding, to provide feedback and to act on the results.  As a result it should be clear that the most important person in this relationship is the reader.  The message must be geared to the needs of the reader(s).  This high impact workshop will focus on providing a useful guide to report writing and a checklist to use for every report.  It is designed for everyone in business who communicates using the written word – it is informative and practical.

Programme Objectives

• To advise participants on the key principles for effective writing
• Discover the difficulties of writing business correspondence, both personally and within the organisation
• Enable participants to plan reader-focussed business correspondence including reports
• Develop information structures to meet reader requirements
• Identify common grammatical errors and overcome the  common flaws in business writing
• Create a Planning Template that can be used for all your future writing requirements.
• Achieve a reader-friendly writing style and make your ideas attractive to your readers
• Review your Writing using a professional check list

This workshop will provide training in the following areas

1)      Business writing: characteristics of effective documents.  Using positive language, the 5cs of effective writing: conciseness, completeness, courtesy, clarity and correctness

2)      Understanding the 5 stages for writing a report and examining in depth the stages:

3)  Understanding the Brief:

•  The purpose of the report

• Its scope

• Whether you are to make recommendations

• Who is going to read it

• The deadline for completion

• What degree of formality is required

4)  Understanding the Brief

• Consulting records

• Talking to the people involved

• Carrying out your own research/observation/tests

• Contacting other organisations

5)  Organising the information

• Grouping   material

• Rejecting unnecessary date

• Identifying  the main points

• Arranging the information in a logical order

6)  Compose the rough draft

• Using standard layout format so that information is easy to follow and important considerations are not omitted

• Presenting your findings factually and objectively

• Justifying statements with facts and figures

• Checking that your conclusions and recommendations are logical and practicable

• Organising your points so that information is set out in the order of importance

• Using headings, indenting and numbering to help your readers follow complex material

7)  Preparing the final draft

• Choosing format is appropriate- i.e. short report or formal report

• Including all necessary headings

• Using appropriate style and register  and  presenting the information objectively

•  Meeting your deadline

Methodology

Formal Tuition, Group Work and individual tasks.  This workshop is a high quality learning experience, a concentrated programme of practical knowledge that can have immediate application in the workplace.  We provide practical tools, methods and ideas and workshop handbooks carefully compiled for the target audience.