Professional Communication Afternoon Workshop - Oct. 20, 2022

 

Professional Communication -- Writing in the Workplace

  

FOUNDATIONS OF WRITING AT WORK

  • How is writing professional vs. informal? What are the differences?
  • Why is it important? What can happen if we mix professional and informal? 
  • What types of written communication do we use at work? Internal vs external? 
  • Key considerations
    • Audience
    • Purpose 

 

HARD SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE WRITING

  • Grammar
    • spelling and punctuation
    • commonly misspelled words
      • There, they're, their
      • to, too, two
      • It's, its
    • contractions, possessive, plural 
    • dates, abbreviations, acronyms
       
  • Language Choice 
    • clear & concise
    • specific
    • strong  
    • Practice! 
      • I'll get back to you with more info.
      • I need more details to complete the project.
      • Thats not a good time for me.
      • When will you have the work done? 
      • Who wants to do what for this project?
  • Sentence & Paragraph Structure
    • short paragraphs
    • topic sentence
    • active vs passive voice - WHO is completing the action?
      • Greta completed the 3rd quarter progress report on Oct. 19.
      • The report was completed yesterday.
         
  •  Practice! 
  • There was an accident with one of the work trucks. 
  • The problem kept me from finishing the project. 
  •  Errors were found and the accountant corrected them.


EMAILS

  • Formatting 
  • Settings
    • Signature line
    • Auto/ vacation responder
  • One & Done

Workplace scenarios


 1. You received this email this morning. Write an email to Liz responding...

Dear Jones Construction,

John was at my house on Tuesday to bid out my new patio. He told me I would have an estimate by the end of the day. I have not received anything from you. I would like to move forward with this project and want to know if you are even interested in having my business.

Liz Onufer


2. You need to send an email to a customer with overdue invoices. Write an email with the information and requesting payment. (Role play that Liz is the overdue customer.)

 

BUSINESS LETTERS

  • Formatting
    • heading
    • dates
    • salutation
    • body
    • closing 
  • File naming

Workplace Scenario

Write a "welcome letter" to send out to new clients / customers. Think about what details and information a new client would like to know. Consider the culture of your business and how this will influence the tone of your letter.

 

WRAPPING UP

  1. What are your top three writing tips from this afternoon? 
  2. What can you start to use immediately?  
  3. What would you like to learn more about and/or practice? 

 

  • Climb Resources 
  • Workshops next week!

 

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