Business Writing is a 6-week class, which includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants a refresher. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
For companies interested in our Business Writing program, see this brochure or visit our Corporate Classes page.
In business, your writing counts. It’s a projection of yourself (and your company) just as much as what you wear or how you conduct yourself in a meeting. Good writing skills will enhance your image, increase your confidence, boost your productivity, and help you achieve your objectives on a daily basis.
Here you will learn the basic principles of good business writing, which you can immediately put into action—on anything from simple emails to complex documents. You’ll also be surprised at how entertaining the course is, and by how much “personality” can play a part in your business writing.
Whether you seek to pick up the basics or polish your skills, you’ll soon be writing with less stress and more success.
Notes
- This course touches on grammar and style points, but these things are covered more fully in Grammar 1 and Grammar 2.
- This is not an English-as-second-language course. It’s fine if English is not your first language, but you must speak and write it fluently.
This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of effective business writing, and lets you experiment with various communication techniques. Course components:
- Lectures
- Writing exercises
Online classes
- Week 1
- You and the Audience: The value of good business writing. You—knowing how to present yourself. Audience—know your audience, picture yourself in their shoes. You and your audience—know your point, understand the situation, ways to connect. Integrity. Grammar tip—what is a sentence?
- Week 2
- Tone: Tuning your tone—word choice, situation. Tone killers and sweeteners. Meta-message. Openings and closings. Emotion. Style tip—what is a paragraph?
- Week 3
- Structure/Process: Structure—choosing between the “straight-on” or “ramp-up” approach, pyramid/sandwich/feature structures, visual design. Process—planning/first draft/revising, professionalism. Patience and practice. Grammar tip—the he/she conundrum.
- Week 4
- Strong Writing: Be clear—clarity checklist, avoid “business-speak” and “know-it-all-speak.” Be concise—concise checklist, cutting with a machete and with surgical scissors. Be specific. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Style tip—active vs. passive voice.
- Week 5
- Engaging Writing: Be conversational—naturalness, levels of formality. Be colorful—what is colorful and when to use it. Conversational and colorful techniques—sentence tips, strong verbs, sparing with modifiers, avoid clichés, figurative language, sound, story, humor. Social grace. Style tip—parallel structure.
- Week 6
- Email and Other Forms: Email protocol—tips, traps, and etiquette. Tour of other business writing forms—letters, memos, reports, proposals, white papers, press releases, brochures, websites, blogs/newsletters, social media. Opportunity. Grammar tip—punctuation primer.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
About
- The Online classes bring students from all over the globe to Gotham—New York City’s most famous writing school.
- The Online classes happen asynchronously—not in “real time.” You can participate in class any time, day or night, but the classes advance week-by-week, and certain things should be accomplished within that week-long session.
- You can take an Online writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Online students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available.
- Aside from the convenience of time and location, you have a record of everything that transpires in class, which you can print out and keep for future reference. (The material is text and image, not video.)
