Who Should Attend:

• Professionals who use English for business and wish to develop key business communication skills
• National Fresh Graduates who will use English for business and wish to develop key business communication skills

Course Objectives

• Develop a writing style that will develop your career and the success of your company
• Learn concepts and tools to increase the clarity of your written communication
• Understand cultural and corporate differences to improve your communication
• Consider individual and cultural differences to better understand the writing of others
• Distinguish between professional and personal motivations in your writing
• Evaluate and overcome the hidden motives that can sabotage your writing goals
• Learn how to create your own templates for the communications you use at work
• Identify key strategies to correct common grammar, spelling and punctuation errors
• Learn proofreading tricks to avoid typical business writing mistakes
• Receive input on your individual project to enhance and direct future improvement
• Master report-writing techniques and tricks to produce high-impact results
• Learn how to develop effective presentations to convey your message
• Develop and practice techniques for handling counterproductive behaviour.

What will you gain?

• Become confident and faster in writing structured, refined and clear business documentation, emails, reports, etc.
• Exhibit better understanding of business written communication rules and techniques including the use of correct punctuation, spelling and grammar
• Know your personal and professional motivations behind writing and how to communicate them in a better way
• Organise and structure information in the report to be both logical and comprehensible to the reader
• Avoid time-consuming styles of reporting and easily write clear systematic reports that achieve results and objectives
• Use a ‘reader-friendly’ reporting style that enables understanding and maintains interest
• Treat proof-reading as a crucial part of the writing process and produce error-free professional documents and reports
• Draft professional emails that convey the message in a clear and  positive manner
• Develop clear, concise and effective presentations of written work
• Understand your audience and deliver high-impact presentations with increased confidence
• Adopt tried and tested techniques in correctly answering telephones and taking messages.

Course Content

• The 7Cs of Communication: The 7 Cs provide a checklist for making sure that emails, reports, meetings, presentations and phone calls are clear and well constructed
•  Business Writing Essentials: To write effectively in business one must be proficient in the use of the three building blocks of writing: words, sentences and paragraphs. Hence, this programme provides a review of the basic mechanics of English grammar, parts of speech, sentence structure, types of sentences, punctuation and capitaliation
• Writing Techniques: Many people find writing a rather difficult process. This could be largely due to a wrong approach to writing which results in confusion, enquiries for clarification, errors and complaints.  The programme aims at making this process easier and helping participants gain confidence in their writing.  It highlights the different stages involved in the writing process.

I. Prewriting Techniques

• Free writing
• Brainstorming
• Clustering or mapping
• Cubing
• Outlining
• Recursive process

II. Drafting

• Draft the body of the text
• Use the rhetorical triangle
• Determine voice, language level and tone
• Organise the ideas

III. Proofreading and Editing

• Focus on the whole as well as the parts
• Search for errors both grammatical and typographical
• Eliminate fluff words
• Get others involved
• Read text aloud
• Revise for cohesion

Writing For Your Audience    The programme highlights the importance of:

• Determining the target audience prior to the writing process
• Using language the target audience would understand
• Adopting a pleasant tone and creating a positive environment in the reader’s mind through the use of positive words
• Establishing rapport

Effective Email Writing     The programme develops participants confidence and ability to write emails on familiar work related topics that are clear, concise and effective. It enables participants to:

• Become aware of email etiquette
• Develop the use of key language
• Write with a positive tone and develop necessary written rapport building abilities
• Establish practical guidelines for writing emails including organisation of content and style

Reports That Work    The programme develops participants ability to write effective work related reports.  This section covers  the basic principles of report writing and focuses on  the language and skills needed for planning, structuring, writing and checking. In a few easy- to- learn steps the programme enables participants to:

• Overcome writers block
• Produce documents that enhance the image of both the writer and the organisation
• Identify the four stage method of report writing
• Plan and prepare more effective reports that meet their intended purpose
• Ensure reports are well structured, flow logically and look professional
• Write a condensed, yet effective summary of a report that highlights its importance and encourages further reading
• Proof read and edit reports effectively before submitting them to their intended audience

Reporting Documents    Reporting documents help teams keep track of progress and organisation of both the individual and team efforts across time. The programme establishes guidelines for selecting proper format and using  basic structure and key language in preparing:

• Meeting agendas
• Meeting minutes
• Meeting note-taking
• Memoranda

Writing for a Presentation    The programme develops participants ability to plan and deliver clear, concise and effective presentations of written work. It includes opportunities to practice short presentations in a relaxed, controlled learning environment. The programme establishes practical guidelines for:

• Determining and understanding target audience and context
• Planning and designing slides and visual support materials
• Using  clear effective  language, structure and tone in preparing and delivering presentations in order to achieve maximum impact

Communicating Via Telephone    Communicating via telephone can be a very difficult task for non-native English speakers. Hence, the programme highlights telephone tips that enable participants to:

• Understand the techniques associated with correct telephone answering
• Ask questions in order to acquire more information
• Get the message across clearly
• Take clear and accurate messages.

Testimonials

• "The course was very informative and constructive, while done in an enjoyable manner."
• “This course will help me a lot especially the application of the gained knowledge, skills and tips to my daily life.ʺ