Better Business Writing - How to Write Right

Good leaders walk the talk, but they also “write right”. They know how to say in a few words what needs to be said in crisp, clear language. The road to bad communication is paved with good intentions but poor construction. Readers know when subjects and verbs don’t agree, when punctuation misses the point, when words don’t fit, and content is confusing. During this Course, learn how a few basic rules on grammar, punctuation, and usage can improve business written communications with clearer, more succinct content.

Business writing is best when it is spare and clear, precise and concise. This Course is designed to give practical and useful advice and tips on how to tighten up language and organize the content into a logical, convincing read. Attendees don’t have to be English majors or literature students. The aim is to improve the readability of your written words.

Why You Should Attend:

Good writing takes practice, and many schools have reduced the time spent on formal writing, especially practical grammar, proficient spelling, appropriate punctuation, logical development, etc. This course can’t fill that kind of educational vacuum, but it can help participants improve on the skills they do have.

So this is a webinar useful to many areas of your organization—not just lenders and credit approvers, not just credit analysts and loan reviewers, but also auditors, loan administrators, marketing, retail, operations—anyone who has to explain or convince others that what they are saying makes sense.

Course Objectives:

• Eliminate puffy and ambiguous words and phrases and replace them with sharper, clearer alternatives
• Understand how to use punctuation to tighten writing into a more readable and understandable documentation
• Build stronger, easy-to-understand explanations and recommendations with more focus on sequential, logical constructions—less is usually more
• Support these objectives with appropriate before-and-after examples

Course Outline:

• Techniques for writing clearly and concisely
  • Clear writing
    • Specific words vs. generalities
    • Active vs. passive voice
  • Unnecessary words & phrases
    • Doublets & redundancies
    • Wordy habit phrases
    • Wordy dependent clauses
    • Unneeded connecting words
    • Wordy “due ti” explanations
• Techniques for writing well-organized, logical arguments
  • Introductions & summaries to integrated argument
  • Avoiding elevator analysis
  • Bringing order to facts, interpretations & evaluations
  • Making words count right
  • Some extra readability writing tips—rounding numbers, acronyms, “of” and parenthesis eradication

Who Will Benefit-- Anyone who writes memos, reports, analyses, etc. :

• Credit Analysts
• Credit Managers
• Loan review officers
• Work-out officers
• Commercial lenders
• Credit Risk Managers
• Chief Credit Officers
• Senior Lenders
• Senior Lending Officer
• Bank Director
• Chief Executive Officer
• President
• Board Chairman

*This program does NOT qualify, nor meet the National Standard for NASBA accreditation.