COURSE OVERVIEW:
Good writing skills in business have always been important, but in today’s age of technology, they are even more so. Being able to accurately and succinctly convey what you are trying to say is an invaluable skill, especially when your audience is busy and has limited time.
With endless resources available to us, making a simple spelling or grammar mistake can indicate much more than it did before the omnipresence of technology. Careless mistakes can give the impression that you don’t care enough to double check your writing—possibly even leading clients to wonder what else you have been cavalier with.
You need to be able to hold your reader’s interest with your writing. Most people aren’t willing to put in the time to sit down and read through a novel-length email, so whatever you write needs to grab their attention in the first couple lines. The challenge with making things more concise is preserving the clarity of the message that you are trying to convey.
But the most obvious reason that good business writing is important is that it will give your company credibility. If you lack good writing skills, you may seem less intelligent or less qualified than your competition, and if your writing has obvious mistakes, potential customers will not feel confident in paying money for your services.
Good business writing inspires confidence in you and your business. With impending deadlines and spellcheck, it is easy to get careless and make mistakes, but in order to establish credibility and trustworthiness, each piece of writing must be well-written.
This course provides a guide to the skills required for successful business writing. It is up to you, however, how you use them. You will constantly have to ask yourself questions. Is this the tone I wish to use? Is this point explained clearly? Is there a rule I should be following here?
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:
- Why you should think before you begin writing?
- What are you writing about?
- Who is the recipient?
- Why are you undertaking the task?
- What type of writing?
- The basic rules of business writing
- Using simple words when simple words will do
- Simple constructions and using self-contained sentences
- Why use a sentence for one main concept only?
- How to write in the active voice?
- When and how to use punctuation?
- When and how to use comma?
- When and how to use semi-colon?
- When and how to use colon?
- How to end a sentence?
- When and how to use parentheses?
- When and how to use the apostrophe?
- When and how to use the hyphen?
- When and how to use inverted commas (quotation marks)?
- When and how to use punctuation marks?
- When and how to use dashes?
- When and how to use ellipsis?
- When and how to use full points?
- When and how to use numbers in your text?
- How to edit your work?
- Sentence structure and order
- Why you should not always write as you think?
- Why you should use familiar and consistent patterns?
- How to check the word order ?
- How to check your clarity?
- When and how to use pronouns carefully?
- Why you should check your verbs?
- The importance of the choice of words?
- Why you should not use clichés, jargon or redundant words?
- Consequences of using meaningless descriptions
- Words and phrases that add nothing
- Repeated words and phrases
- Why reread and rewrite?
- The importance of proof reading
- What should a professional document look like?
- When and how to use lists?
- When and how to use bullet point lists?
- When and how to use numbered lists?
- The layout of your document
- How to develop your skills further?
- What do you want to achieve?
- How to pull your readers in?
- How people read?
- When and how to use headings?
- How to add style to your writing?
- When and how to use alliteration?
- When and how to use creative punctuation?
- When and how to use metaphor?
- When and how to use positive adjectives?
COURSE DURATION:
The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
You must have access to a computer or any mobile device with Adobe Acrobat Reader (free PDF Viewer) installed, to complete this course.
COURSE DELIVERY:
Purchase and download course content.
ASSESSMENT:
A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.
CERTIFICATION:
Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.