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DESIGN YOUR OWN WRITING WORKSHOP:
You can customize your own writing workshop. In the workshops, participants are introduced to the practical aspects of writing clearly and concisely; however, theory and critical thinking provide the underpinning for the course. The list below will help you choose which topics you want to include in your workshop.

Click any topic below for more information:

The Writing Process

• Developing a Rhetorical Strategy
• Audience analysis
• Purpose analysis
• Message context
• Organizational contexts
• Audience Analysis
• Primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences
• Determining audience needs and use
• Defining the issue
• Stating the issue clearly and concisely
• Understanding reader's goal(s)
• Meshing reader's and writer's goals
• Eliminating "noise"
• Writing for the Lay versus Technical Audience
• Determining audience needs and use
• Understanding purpose
• Using language appropriately
• Understanding sentence and paragraph complexity
• Getting Started in the Writing Process
• Brainstorming
• Freewriting
• Incubation
• Critical thinking
• Tips for Procrastinators
• Drafting
• Planning
• Holistic outlines
• Problem-solving
• Creating timelines

Approaches to Writing Documents

• Supporting Ideas and Formulating Messages
• Patterns for longer and shorter messages
• Creating useful topic sentences
• Emphasizing the appropriate information
• Showing relationships
• Organizational Strategies
• Organization on the sentence level
• Organization on the paragraph level
• Appropriate organization for lay audiences
• Organization to enhance understanding
• Accessibility to Enhance Comprehension/Readability
• Signaling readers
• Cueing
• Chunking information
• Using white space; bulleting and bolding
• Sentence and Paragraph Length and Complexity
• Reader expectations
• How readers read
• Sentences and paragraphs that reflect the appropriate message
• How to emphasize important information
• How to create positive reader reactions

Writing Various Documents

• Building the Argument of the Report
• Using logic to persuade readers
• Structuring the argument
• Organizing
• The components of a successful argument
• Writing the Components of Reports
• Developing a rhetorical strategy
• Writing abstracts Descriptive and informative
• Writing summaries
• Front and back matter
• Writing an effective Introduction
• Creating a walk-away message
• Understanding how report function determines reader action
• Ensuring reader comprehension
• Creating and Using Effective Tables, Charts, and Graphs
• Common problems
• Determining the kind of graphic to use
• Labeling, titling, numbering
• Discussing in text
• Ensuring clarity
• Presentation Skills
• "Hooking" your audience
• Using visuals
• Meeting listeners' needs
• Being concise but thorough
• Strategies to ensure effectiveness
• Editing Based On Reader Expectations, Needs, and Use
• "Holistic editing
• Understanding editing and proofreading processes
• Editing and proofreading as separate processes
• Editing based on readability studies
• Editing for style, tone, clarity

Grammar and Language are Your Friends!

• Writing Clearly and Concisely
• Using active/passive voice
• Avoiding expletives
• Using the "real" verb
• Avoiding superfluous language
• Using concrete versus abstract language
• Avoiding lazy pronouns
• Ensuring subject/verb agreement
• Creating grammatical parallelism
• Avoiding jargon
• Avoiding wordiness
• Understanding repetition
• Using punctuation correctly
• Emphasizing agents
• Avoiding nominalizations
• Showing the relationships between and among ideas

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About the workshops

• Learning Objectives and Outcomes
• Create strategies to write more effective reports
• Understand the various processes of audience and purpose analysis
• Discuss the communication process
• Understand how readers read
• Develop effective writing strategies
• Discuss various editing processes
• Understand the function of the components of the report
• Understand how to use language more effectively
• Discuss the role of organization in facilitating reading
• Identify how lay readers understand and make sense of written information
• Use strategies to write more quickly, efficiently, and effectively
• Course Format
• Brief lectures
• Interactive activities
• Large group discussions and collaboration
• Personal skill assessment
• In-class examples and exercises
• What's Included
• Necessary interviews of supervisors and other interested personnel to help determine course content
• All instructional materials for participants including workbook binders
• All instructor materials including slides, transparencies, and workbooks

Contact us today to learn more about the possibility of developing a completely custom on-site writing course to fit your needs!