Overview

This Writing and Grammar Skills Training class is for business professionals who may be intimidated by writing because they are unsure of their grammar, punctuation, and spelling skills as well as overall basic writing skills. This class is designed to take the mystery out of writing and help business people apply proper writing styles to their written business communication.

Goals

Understand the importance of proper writing and grammar.
Recognize and use correct grammar and punctuation.
Avoid common grammatical and word usage errors.
Understand which words should be capitalized.
Use the appropriate person and tense.
Structure sentences correctly.
Use the words you intend.
Use the correct style and tone for your intended audience.
Avoid biased language.
Create documents that are free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Outline

Why Proper Writing and Correct Grammar Are Essential for Successful Business Writing
1. Exercise: Why Proper Writing and Correct Grammar Are Essential for Successful Business Writing
Basic Grammar Rules
1. Parts of Speech
  1. Nouns
  2. Pronouns
  3. Verbs
  4. Adjectives
  5. Adverbs
  6. Prepositions
  7. Conjunctions
  8. Interjections
2. Exercise: Parts of Speech
3. Subject-verb Agreement
4. Exercise: Subject-verb Agreement
5. Parallel Construction
6. Exercise: Parallel Construction
7. Complete versus Run-on Sentences
8. Exercise: Complete versus Run-on Sentences
9. Hypercorrection
  1. Common Hypercorrections
  2. When It Is Okay to Use "Me"
  3. When It Is Okay to Use "Myself"
10. Exercise: Hypercorrection
Punctuation
1. Periods
2. Exercise: Periods
3. Commas
4. Exercise: Commas
5. Colons and Semicolons
6. Exercise: Colons and Semicolons
7. Apostrophes, Single Quotation Marks, and Double Quotation Marks
8. Exercise: Apostrophes, Single Quotation Marks, and Double Quotation Marks
9. Question Marks and Exclamation Points
10. Exercise: Question Marks and Exclamation Points
11. Dashes and Hyphens
12. Exercise: Dashes and Hyphens
13. Parenthetical Elements
  1. Parentheses
  2. Brackets
14. Exercise: Parenthetical Elements
Word Usage
1. Assessing Tone and Jargon in Your Writing
  1. What Is the Appropriate Tone for the Document: Formal or Informal?
  2. How Familiar Is Your Audience with the Language (Jargon) of the industry?
  3. Does Your Audience Need to Be Persuaded, or Is It Already on Board with the Topic?
  4. What Do You Want the Audience to Do after Reading the Document?
2. Exercise: Assessing Tone and Jargon
3. Look It Up: Using a Dictionary for Proper Spelling and Usage
4. Exercise: Using a Dictionary for Proper Spelling and Usage
5. Commonly Confused Words
6. Exercise: Commonly Confused Words
Capitalization
1. Words That Are Always Capitalized
2. Exercise: Words That Are Always Capitalized
3. Words That Are Never Capitalized
4. Exercise: Words That Are Never Capitalized
5. Headings and Titles
6. Exercise: Headings and Titles
Choosing the Correct "Person" and "Tense"
1. Three Types of "Persons"
2. When to Write in the First Person
3. Exercise: When to Write in the First Person
4. When to Write in the Second Person
5. Exercise: When to Write in the Second Person
6. When to Write in the Third Person
7. Exercise: When to Write in the Third Person
8. Using Correct Tenses in Business Writing
  1. How to Use the Past Tense in Business Writing
9. Exercise: How to Use the Past Tense in Business Writing
10. How to Use the Present Tense in Business Writing
11. Exercise: How to Use the Present Tense in Business Writing
12. How to Use the Future Tense in Business Writing
13. Exercise: How to Use the Future Tense in Business Writing
Sentence Structure
1. Simple Sentences
2. Exercise: Simple Sentences
3. Compound Sentences
4. Exercise: Compound Sentences
5. Complex Sentences
6. Exercise: Complex Sentences
7. Compound-Complex Sentences
8. Exercise: Compound-Complex Sentences
Proofreading Your Work
1. Ensuring Your Writing Is Error Free
2. Reviewing and Proofreading
3. Exercise: Ensuring Your Writing Is Error Free
4. Ensuring Consistency in Your Writing
5. Exercise: Ensuring Consistency in Your Writing
6. Exercise: Proofreading a Document
7. Using Spell Checkers
8. Exercise: Using Spell Checkers
9. Using Grammar Checkers
10. Exercise: Using Grammar Checkers
Writing Styles and Tone
1. Formal Business Writing
2. Exercise: Formal Business Writing
3. Informal Business Writing
4. Exercise: Informal Business Writing
5. Diction
6. Exercise: Diction
Writing Clearly and Concisely
1. All-inclusive Language
  1. Salutations in Letters
  2. Pronouns
  3. Names and Titles
  4. Gender-free Language
2. Including Everyone for the Sake of Gaining Buy-in
3. Exercise: All-inclusive Language
4. Getting to the Heart of the Message
5. Exercise: Getting to the Heart of the Message
6. Omitting Unnecessary Words
7. Exercise: Omitting Unnecessary Words
8. Jargon
9. Exercise: Avoiding Meaningless Phrases
10. Using Paragraphs Correctly
  1. Expository Paragraph
  2. Persuasive Paragraph
  3. Descriptive Paragraph
  4. Narrative Paragraph
  5. Paragraph Length
11. Exercise: Using Paragraphs Correctly

Class Materials

Each student in our Live Online and our Onsite classes receives a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all the class examples.

Writing and Grammar Skills Training

Customized Onsite Training

Live Online Training

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