Advanced Business Writing Course + Coaching

Available for groups as a self-paced online course, instructor-led virtual or instructor-led onsite training, and for individuals as a self-paced online course.

Download the Outline

Course Overview

Every mid-to-senior level business position requires writing important, but challenging, documents — performance appraisals, annual division achievement reports, sales plans, business plans, product value propositions, regulatory reports, sales email templates, white papers, etc. Breakthrough any blocks and write an impressive, clear document that advances your career.

This course + coaching model is an ideal way to master a major document requirement, hone business writing skills, and receive individual business writing coaching. Coaching will be fully focused on the major document you need to write.

This training includes two virtual one-on-one coaching sessions to plan and review any document and ensure future writing is strong.

INDIVIDUALS

$1095

Online self-paced course available for individuals. Sign up today and write an excellent document with instructor support while becoming a stronger overall writer.

Enroll now

GROUPS

Online self-paced courses and instructor-led virtual and onsite training can all be customized to match your needs. Group discounts apply.

Customize for Groups

Once you finish the Advanced Business Writing Course + Coaching you will be able to:

Employ an efficient process for planning and organizing information and needs.
Eliminate "information dumping" in any document.
Understand how to tier information appropriately to match multiple audience needs, including both internal and external, as well as executive readers.
Ensure document content conveys information for business decisions, within a readily absorbed format.
Eliminate jargon and bloat to streamline information.
Write succinctly, using clear, engaging, and correct language.
Write an executive summary that tightly summarizes the “so what” message.

Who is this course for?

This course is a great fit for you or your organization if you or your team:

You're an individual who needs to write a career-advancing document.
You or your team often write custom, complex documents where high standards are required.
You work in an industry that involves complex or unique documents and reports.
You’re in charge of a group or division in your company and looking to improve your team's writing skills and ability to communicate complex information.

Course Certificate

After completing the course, you will earn a personalized certificate. You can display your certificate in the certification section of your LinkedIn profile, download it to print, or mention it in your résumé.

Enroll now

Individual written feedback and live coaching for every student

In this training, you will receive individual feedback from the instructor. To truly improve your writing skills, you need both course instruction and feedback on your actual writing.

During the course, you will apply what you are learning in sequential writing tasks that build to a final actual work document. After submitting each exercise, you will receive both subjective and objective feedback from your instructor that also resolves your specific blocks that impede your writing.

The course includes two live coaching sessions, one to address the unique aspects of the document you will write and one to review the final document at the end of the course.

Objective feedback:

Is the document based fully on reader need and perspective?
Is the document logically organized?
Does the reader have all the content needed (and none that is not needed) to achieve the business objective of the document?

Subjective feedback:

Is your tone too blunt or too timid?
Are your word choices clear and strong?
Can you cut any unnecessary words?
Are there any grammar errors?

Instructor-led onsite group feedback

Onsite training, shown on the left, is highly interactive, with many individual, peer, and group activities.

Our instructor-led virtual training is equally as engaging, with plenty of "aha!" moments and interactive exercises.

Learn more about our instructor-led training.

Our clients' feedback

I feel like I gained a lot of knowledge that will help me with writing more professionally while keeping my tone and personality. The feedback from the instructor was extremely helpful.

Program Support Assistant

Child Care Aware of Washington

Grace's comments were to the point and spot on. She gave me precise criticism. This gave me the perspective and knowledge I needed to write better.

Account Manager

Nouryon

The course provides amazing guidance when it comes to proper writing.

Consultant

Defense Trade Solutions

This course will minimize the time I spend when writing emails, reports, and letters. I spend hours each day reading and writing, so you’ve given me back the most valuable commodity – my time! Thank you.

Claims Representative

Liberty Mutual Insurance Group

In this advanced business writing course you will learn:

The optimal business writing process so you can save time and write better documents.
To extract and highlight significant information and differentiate this from background information.
Strategies to convey complex technical information to non-technical readers.
How to write a clear and meaningful executive summary.
How to optimize your specific document type with individual tips and resources.

What is included in this course?

This executive summary writing course is split into several detailed sections.

Getting Started

An Introduction and Self-Assessment

Share your specific course goals and tell us about the document you're writing.

Lesson 1

6-Steps to Effective Business Writing for any Document

Learn a practical framework for writing any business document. This six-step process helps you understand the strategies needed to write clearly and professionally. Spend 30% less time on every document you write.

This applies to all documents — white papers, reports, pitch documents, briefs, strategy presentations, performance reviews, etc.

Lesson 2

Document Planning and Coaching Session #1

Analyzing your audience frames everything about an advanced document, including content and organization.

We address the tools and best methodologies to generate information and plan documents to ensure the substantive information is accurate and well organized and to help you write most efficiently.

This lesson concludes with a live one-hour coaching session with your instructor to discuss the specific considerations of the document you will write in this course.

Lesson 3

Document Structure

Learn to organize any document logically.

This lesson focuses on how to organize and sequence information appropriately.

Lesson 4

Summarizing and Extracting Complex Information

The executive summary is the most important section that conveys the core findings and implications of many important documents. It allows a busy executive to absorb lots of information easily and make an informed decision.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to tightly extract and summarize the most important implications of your document type.

Executives often tell us that they highly value an employee’s ability to write a clear, well-extracted synthesis statement, which is the core of a good executive summary. This skill will help you write strong summaries and go far in your career!

Lesson 5

Document Examples Using Various Tools

Advanced, complex documents can feel overwhelming because there are so many variations. This lesson will present examples of documents using the most common format and tools.

This lesson also looks at important considerations when writing documents from a template.

This section focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of example documents. We use extensive examples to ensure we cover a variety of document types and applications. This ensures you understand how to apply the tactics in previous modules in different types of documents.

Lesson 6

Persuasion

Learn to weave in at-a-glance hooks to persuade and engage your reader. Titles, sub-titles, data presentation, and other areas can become much more compelling with skilled persuasive techniques applied.

Persuasion, done well, will highlight reader engagement and your credibility.

Lesson 7

Format Considerations

Most major documents are dense or lengthy. Learn formatting techniques to create a visually appealing, easy-to-scan document that helps your reader easily understand complex information.

Headings, white space, typography, visual structure, and the best graphical representation of data are addressed.

Lesson 8

Clarity and Word Choice

Ensure your document is a pleasure to read with concise and clear language that presents your information competently and confidently. This lesson ensures that your sentences are accurate, easy to reach, and engaging.

Lesson 9

Grammar and Syntax

Learn proofreading tactics to avoid embarrassing grammar and spelling mistakes. These go beyond simple tips and tricks. These are proven grammar and syntax strategies that will make all your writing more professional.

Lesson 10

Final Document and Coaching Session #2

The course concludes with a second live one-on-one coaching session with your instructor.

During this time you can ask any questions and review your final document. The live coaching call acts to solidify the information learned during the course so you can apply your new knowledge to future documents and to provide detailed feedback on the document you wrote in the course.

Key skills you will learn in this course:

Employ an efficient process for planning and organizing information and needs.
Synthesize complex information.
Write an executive summary that tightly summarizes the “so what” message.
Understand how to tier information appropriately in various document types to match audience needs.

Ensure document content conveys information for business decisions, within a readily absorbed format.
Eliminate "information dumping."
Eliminate jargon and bloat to streamline information or messaging.
Reduce the amount of time required to write and read any document.

Includes individual feedback on your writing

This course includes award-winning instructor coaching and feedback and ongoing support.

Advanced Business Writing Course + Coaching Instructors

Grace Cuddy

Grace supports Instructional Solutions' online courses and also works with individuals and groups from several multinational companies across Europe as a business writing coach.

She is bilingual in English and Spanish and has traveled extensively, providing a keen sensitivity to global writing. She has a strong background in corporate communication and management and successfully developed cross-functional writing and communication processes in a large corporate team. She is also a successful blogger and has received rave reviews from her writing critiques and coaching for our work with DuPont, Liberty Mutual, and many other groups.

She is bilingual in English and Spanish. She enjoys yoga, travel, and dance. She splits her time between New York City and Madrid.

Lisa Nelles

Lisa is an experienced technical writer and editor specializing in process and procedure documentation. She made her mark in aviation by developing and writing technical manuals that supported successful new programs for airlines of all sizes and set new standards for manuals in the industry.

She has also taught and tutored academic and technical writing for university students in a variety of fields. She loves helping people improve their writing to improve their careers.

She holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Waldorf University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

In her free time, she enjoys writing creatively, crafting, and outdoor adventuring with her husband and twin boys. She splits her time between Iowa and Alaska.

Elisabeth O'Quinn

Elisabeth has a unique combination of business and business writing acumen, with extensive background in writing, editing, and content marketing management.

She has supported a variety of businesses, writing blog articles, reports, presentations, and editing business documents. She has supported many of our clients with rave reviews of her writing feedback.

Elisabeth lives in Georgia with her cat and rescue pup. In addition to writing, she loves traveling with her twin sister, learning German, and creating watercolor prints.

Katie Almeida Spencer

Katie is an experienced Business Writing and English as a Second Language instructor, business writing coach, and teacher trainer. She taught Business Writing, Non-Native Writing, and Academic Writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

She is very skilled at evaluating both the substance and language of business documents. Her writing critiques, instruction, and coaching have received stellar evaluations from our clients at Chartis Consulting, DuPont, Shell, Southern Middlesex Opportunity Council, and the World Wildlife Fund.

She holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Rhode Island and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Katie lives in Rhode Island with her husband, toddler, and very old dog. When not teaching or creating courses, she can be found doing something (anything!) outside with her little family.

Become a more advanced business writer.

Sign up today or schedule a discussion to become a stronger, clearer writer.

INDIVIDUALS

$1095

Enroll now

GROUPS

We offer customized online, virtual, and onsite courses, workshops, and trainings that match your organization's needs.

Schedule a call