Good business writing requires more than just good grammar.
When you write well you effectively communicate your message, which leads to more business opportunities, respect from your peers and customers, confidence in you and your teams’ abilities, and a reduction in costly mistakes. You must choose a business writing class that teaches you and your staff a structured approach to writing clear, effective, professional business documents, including email, memos, letters, and reports.
This guide explains how you can decide on the business writing class that is best for you. It explains five requirements you must consider when you choose a business-writing course:
- You must write business documents and receive coaching to revise them
- You must have choices based on your time and depth of training you want
- You must have your own instructor who has credentials as a writing trainer
- The training must occur over time with coaching and revisions
- You must have access to the training materials after the course is finished
You Must Write Several Business Documents and Receive Coaching to Revise Them
Adult learners must actually write sample emails, letters, reports, and other business-writing documents in an effective writing class. Watching a video about writing will not teach writing skills. Instead, you must write practice assignments and whole-documents your instructor evaluates to help you learn the skills taught in the lessons and identify other training you need. In a business writing skills course, your instructor will identify special training you need, such as learning grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, organization, style, and other skills that are in addition to standard writing composition.
A quality business writing course that will teach you the skills you need must include practice writing activities with feedback, writing examinations in which you write actual business documents, and coaching through revising your documents until they are high-quality documents that demonstrate your mastery of the skills.
You Must Have Choices of Writing Classes Depending on Your Time and the Depth of Training You Want
You must learn how to write clear, effective business documents over time. You cannot learn the skills in a three-day workshop or one-day Zoom workshop. Quality business writing comes from applying a range of skills that you must learn about and apply to your writing. You then must have a qualified instructor evaluate your use of the skills and help you with any skills you need that are unique to you. That takes time and repeated evaluations of your writing.
Time for a Standard Business-Writing Course
For a standard business-writing course, plan to spend time on your writing and revising based on your instructor’s comments. For example, the Business Writing Center’s
Business Writing Skills course requires around 16 to 20 hours of work that can be spread out over several weeks. That includes writing assignments and examinations your instructor will coach you through revising.
If You Want to Spend Less Time on a Business Writing Class
If you can spare only 10 or 12 hours of time for a writing class, look for a writing course that still contains the essentials of business writing without the less important skills and with fewer practice exercises and examinations. Enroll in a course that teaches the best practices without skimping on the range of skills you need. For example, the Business Writing Center’s
Business Writing Essentials course is designed to teach the essential skills a businessperson needs to produce quality business writing with fewer lessons and assignments. However it still includes the essential best practices, evaluations, and coaching in revising written documents.
If You Want to Have an In-Depth Writing Class Requiring More Time
If you are committed to learning business-writing skills at a highly proficient level by practicing and receiving coaching on a variety of business documents, the Business Writing Center’s
Explicit Business Writing with Additional Training course is the perfect choice. The Center’s faculty developed the course for an MBA program. It will require around 30 hours of work with additional time available if you want to devote it to the course. You will receive training thorough enough that you would be able to teach the skills if you wanted to.
You Must Have Your Own Trainer with Credentials as a Writing Trainer
Anyone can put up a writing course and promise to teach business writing skills. You must choose a course taught by an acknowledged instructor. For example, the Business Writing Center’s course in
Explicit Business Writing with Additional Training and
coaching courses are taught by
Dr. Robert Hogan, senior instructor with the Business Writing Center and formerly a professor in a college of business. The course uses his book.
You Must Have the Training Over Time with Coaching and Revisions
You must learn how to write clear, effective business documents over time. You cannot learn the skills in a three-day workshop or one-day Zoom workshop. Quality business writing comes from applying a range of skills that you must learn about and apply to your writing. You then must have a qualified instructor evaluate your use of the skills and help you with any skills you need that are unique to you. That takes time and repeated evaluations of your writing.
You must choose a training program that allows you to go at your own pace, working with your instructor as you can fit it into your schedule. You must have a generous amount of time so you can decide to finish the writing class quickly or over time. For example, the Business Writing Center allows up to four months to finish a business writing course.
You Must Access to the Training Materials After the Course Is Finished
The training during the writing class is the focused learning that will give you the basic skills you need. You must then have the training materials available so you can come back to them after the course is finished to continue your learning. The Business Writing Center’s materials remain available after the business person graduates.
To Learn More about Business Writing Center Courses
To learn more about the courses the Business Writing Center offers, go to this link:
Course catalog
