What’s my approach?
Almost everyone has to write reports
But so few people are taught how. The result is lots of badly written, long, waffly reports that no one reads – and a huge amount of money wasted.
This course is specialised
There are a lot of basic report-writing courses around. This one’s different because it’s specialised. It covers the good, solid, business writing foundations and then builds up your report-writing expertise.
If you’re writing long or complex reports, this training is for you. They could be technical, audit, management, status, council, or board reports.
Practical sessions where you get work done
With my strong practical focus, I’ll guide you through constructing a report for your own context. You’ll put all the training content into practice by writing your own report.
Doesn’t sound like fun?
Prepare to be proven wrong. I’m up for the challenge!
What the training covers
Day 1
Reader-centric tools
Focus on the reader for success
Putting yourself in the readers’ shoes
What all readers want to know
Bottom line up front
Plain language
What is plain language?
Who uses it?
Why use it? (the benefits)
Sample reports
View and deconstruct a range of sample reports
International trends in report writing
Plain language approaches
Speakable language
Sentence length
Active voice
First person – you and we
Day 2
Deciding what’s in and what’s out
Separating thinking and writing so you can write more efficiently
Identifying your report’s goal
Prioritising the needs of multiple readers
Filtering and ordering content
Creating informative, logical headings
The dreaded ‘level of detail’ dilemma
What goes in the body?
What goes into appendices?
What gets deleted?
Executive summaries
The never-fail formula
Write to the most influential reader
Eliminate detail, keep high-level specifics
Reviewing and editing
The editing process
Surviving the reviewing process!
The specifics
Who’s it for?
Up to 14 people who write reports at work
How long?
2 full days at your venue
How much?
All trainings are $8,000 + gst per day plus travel
What format?
In person or online, but not a mix of both
Before the training
You can give me report samples and your templates to use in the training (optional)
To bring on the day
Laptops
Your own reports to work on
Download the full course outlines
Plus the ROI information you need to make a strong business case for this training
Quick descriptions of courses
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Why is it so hard to get documents signed off? Why is it always a track-changes, version-control nightmare?
You recognise good when you see it but aren’t sure how to help people get their half-assed writing up to standard - and still be their friend. If any of that sounds familiar, this training’s for you!
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You know, you really should know how to write a report. (Read that in a whiny, snarky voice for full effect.)
Ahhhhmm, no, you shouldn’t. Because every report is different. There is no one right way. But I can give you the tools and the confidence to figure out how to write the right report, every time.
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This course helps anyone who writes at work to do it better, faster, and more effectively. We cover emails, reports, and literally any kind of writing from content-writing to legally-binding documents. Increase your confidence, learn the latest best ways to write, and save some time and sanity!
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Tell me your goals for your team's writing.
Give me samples of their writing.
I'll give you the workshop your team never knew they always needed.
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People sometimes ask me how to sound more professional in their writing. How to pad it out. How to use big words. But they’re crazy and you’re not. So you want to know the NUMBER ONE thing I get asked: How do I make my writing more clear and concise? Here’s how.
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We spend SO MUCH time writing emails. What if I told you a simple email formula could get you faster replies? Less to-ing and fro-ing? Get people to do the things you ask and do them fast? Get you more YESes? This shit really is some kind of magic (well it’s actually neuroscience, but, you know…).
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What even is technical writing? Well, if you’re communicating complex information, you’re doing it. And most of us do technical writing without any guidance or qualification. Take a couple of days to find out what you should be doing. What’s current industry best practice? A few powerful tools will make all the difference!
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Although it would be nice to do a Jerry Maguire and scream SHOW ME THE MONEY at the top of your lungs, that doesn’t seem to get the best results in a business setting. So here’s a training to teach you the art and skill of persuading (so people will show you the money).
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If you want to write policies to tick a box and sit on a shelf, find another course! Our focus here is to write policies that both work for your business AND get used by the people who need them. We’ll cover all the good foundational stuff of clear, modern business writing, then we’ll focus on the requirements of policy and procedural writing at a specialist level.