Business Writing Skills

¨  Why Good Business Writing Matters

• Improving the bottom line
• Enhancing your professional image
• Increasing your business effectiveness

¨  The Business Writing Process

• Kick-starting with prewriting
        o Generating ideas with mind-mapping, brainstorming and other writing tools
        o Planning for your audience and purpose
• Drafting and revising
        o Overcoming writer's block
        o Organizing information
        o Choosing an appropriate style for your audience
        o Revising and improving your documents

¨  Building a Grammar Toolbox

• Applying the fundamentals
        o Identifying and preventing common writing pitfalls
        o Developing focused, coherent paragraphs
        o Employing consistent verb tense
• Adopting an appropriate style
        o Selecting words appropriate for your audience
        o Increasing understanding and effectiveness with direct, concrete language
        o Achieving the right nuance
        o Saying what you mean
        o Avoiding clichιs
• Writing Persuasively

¨  Identifying your audience's needs

        o Connecting requirements with value-added results
        o Anticipating and overcoming reader objections
• Establishing credibility
        o Stating your credentials
        o Avoiding logical fallacies
        o Appealing to intelligence and business sense

¨  Crafting Powerful Reports

• Framing the problem
        o Evaluating context, situation and goals
        o Triangulating your data for a comprehensive approach

¨  Crafting Powerful Reports

• Framing the problem
        o Evaluating context, situation and goals
        o Triangulating your data for a comprehensive approach
• Recommending a solution
        o Prioritizing solution alternatives
        o Making your case to solve the business problem

¨  Producing Winning Proposals

• Implementing a proposal development process
        o Organizing to meet customer requirements
        o Meeting deadlines with ease
• Ensuring your competitive edge
        o Spotlighting your technical strengths
        o Proofreading for outstanding presentation
        o Summarizing at the executive level

¨  Authoring a Solid Business Plan

• Writing mission statements that inspire excellence
        o Choosing words to create maximum impact
        o Grounding the mission statement in business realities
• Additional business plan elements
        o Writing to attract the right team and solid investors
        o Justifying the plan and managing risk

¨  Keeping Your Business on Track

• Team management communications
        o Composing performance appraisal notes
        o Summarizing assignments clearly
        o Imparting difficult news
• A positive approach to e-mail
        o Extinguishing flame wars
        o Practicing good netiquette
        o Crafting effective subject lines

¨  Collaborating on Business Documents

        o Achieving a unified voice
        o Synthesizing input from different sources and writers
        o Coalescing different thinking styles into a cohesive whole

Communication Skills