What you learn from this business writing course
Section 1 – Objectives
Why you must think about your objectives as well as your reader.
Ways of writing your objectives.
Section 2 – Planning
Why it is important to write a plan.
A step by step guide to writing a plan; tips for deciding paragraph length.
Section 3 – Linking
Linking: why linking devices help your reader understand you.
Giving examples; giving additional information; giving a reason; giving results; contrasting ideas; sequencing ideas; summarising ideas; other referencing expressions.
Section 4 – Writing clearly
Guidelines for writing clearly and concisely.
Avoiding jargon.
Ten rules for writing easily understood English.
Section 5 – Style
Writing with the correct level of formality.
Style factors: Active or passive; contractions and pronouns; sentence length; punctuation and vocabulary.
How to choose vocabulary.
A list of formal / informal equivalents.
Keeping style consistent.
Using a range of vocabulary. Alternatives to common words used in business writing.
Avoiding style mistakes.
Assignment. Writing two texts in two different styles.
Section 6 – Tone
The importance of achieving the right "voice" with the reader.
Avoiding typical mistakes that make writing appear rude.
Why modal verbs are useful in achieving the right tone; using modals in specific contexts.
Other ways of achieving politeness and tips for writing politely.
Assignment – tone. Keeping polite under pressure: writing a series of assignments in which the tone changes.
Section 7 – Grammar
Adjectives and adverbs.
Using articles; much, many, a little and a few.
Referencing.
Conditionals. Common mistakes; usage notes for using the zero, first, second, third and mixed conditionals; using should, could, would and might.
Modal verbs: creating concise and diplomatic writing.
Usage and grammar notes for modal verbs: grammar rules; modals in the past.
The passive. Common mistakes; how and when to use the passive.
Prepositions of time.
Verbs and prepositions.
Adjectives and prepositions.
Nouns and prepositions / Miscellaneous. Differences between American and British use of prepositions; native speaker errors.
Relative clauses.
Tense and aspect: choosing the correct tense; how aspect combines with time.
Usage notes and examples for all tenses: present simple and continuous; state verbs that can be used in the continuous form; Past simple and continuous; Present perfect simple and continuous; Past perfect simple and continuous; Future forms.
Reported speech. Tense changes; reporting modals; reporting questions; other changes.
Gerunds. What gerunds are and when to use them.
Infinitives. The various types of infinitives and when they are used.
Verbs followed by gerunds and infinitives: verbs that can be followed by either – with or without a difference in meaning.
Other verb patterns; using suggest, propose and recommend.
Word order – position. Basic word order; word order of adverbs and referencing expressions; word order in passives; word order of questions.
Word order – focus. Referencing and explanatory phrases; new information.
Other grammatical problems. Usage notes for so / such; some / any; few / little; much / many; both / either / neither.
Section 8 – Punctuation
Common mistakes and usage notes for capital letters; comma; full stop; colon; semi-colon; apostrophe; hyphen; dash; bracket; quotation marks; question marks; exclamation marks; dots; slashes; ditto marks; underscores; the at sign; bullet points and asterisks.
Punctuation – sentence length. Avoiding over-long sentences.
Section 9 – Layout
Information layout and structure. Identifying and avoiding layout problems.
Structure of letters: standard layout in letters; writing the date.
Differences between letters and emails.
Structure of emails: standard layout; the different elements that an email might contain.
Planning reports: step-by-step advice.
Structure of reports – layout. Numbering and using bullet points.
The sections of a report.
Structure of a CV – format. What information to include and how to organise it; different CV styles.
Structure of a covering letter. Examples of what to include or not include in a covering letter.
Section 10 – Expressions
Conventions: correct salutations; punctuation and titles.
Starting correspondence: making reference to a previous contact or correspondence.
Stating your objective.
Different ways to end correspondence; usage notes on "look forward to", "recommend", "grateful" and "appreciate".
Other useful expressions for giving instructions, making offers, inviting, expressing importance etc; usage note on "likely".
Letter writing assignment. Assignment to write a letter on a given theme.
Language of emails. Conventions of writing emails: starting and finishing, punctuation and the use of abbreviations.
Language of emails – writing concisely.
Language of reports. Guidelines on writing clearly and objectively; useful verbs for writing in the third person.
Language of CVs: tailoriing a CV to the key words in a job advertisement.
Language of CVs – concise and powerful language. Keeping your CV brief and using words that emphasise achievement.
Your covering letter: the aim of a covering letter; using key words; language choice and style.
Guidelines for writing successful CVs and covering letters.
Assignment – CV. Assignment to write your own CV and covering letter.