Scope
This course is designed to provide a clear process for writing any report, with or without a template or required outline. The result is the ability to produce a better report and to make far better use of the time available.
The emphasis is on planning, reader analysis, structuring the message and writing clearly. This is not a grammar and punctuation course, although examples of work submitted in advance will be reviewed by the tutor and comments on use of English will be made as appropriate.
Suitability
This course is designed for people who write reports, proposals and business cases. Participants find that it helps them to use their time efficiently, organise their thinking, plan the content of their documents, target the intended readership correctly and write in a concise and professional way. Scientists, IT managers, Finance specialists, HR professionals and many others needing a practical process that makes writing long documents easier will find this course beneficial. It may be modified to run in-house within client companies.
Learning Outcomes
The course is highly interactive with comments, personal anecdotes and questions encouraged throughout. By the end of the course you will:
- Be able to set a clear objective for your report
- Understand how to target your readership
- Be able to use a variety of thinking tools to organise your material before you start writing
- Be familiar with a range of structures and know how to select the best one for your purpose
- Be able to relate templates in use in your organisation to the structures discussed in the course
- Have some guidelines for checking that your writing is readable and consistent
- Know how to check thoroughly that your report is fit for purpose before you send it to anyone
