US News and World Report ranks technical writing as one of the “Best Careers 2011.” People who undergo technical writing training will be able to write a DVR operator’s manual, an assembly manual for a coffee table, and a how-to guide for a smart phone, says US News. Technical writers are masters of breaking down complex information into layman’s terms. Many technical writers come from science, computer, law or engineering backgrounds. Technical writing training helps the science-minded get past industry rhetoric, connecting with the common man seeking common sense to understand something.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that technical writing positions will increase by at least 18 percent, adding 8,900 jobs by 2018. As the number of technological products increases, there will be a burgeoning demand for writers with technical writing training backgrounds. In 2009, the average salary for technical writers was $62,700, with the lowest writers making $37,000 and the highest writers making over $100,000.

Our technical writing training courses have been used by NASA, the Missile Defense Agency, and Fortune 500 companies. In two days, we present all the tools your business needs to create shorter summaries, more compelling tables, better formatting, and clearer instructions. Not only will we customize our examples to your company, but we’ll also provide six months of residual follow-up training to be sure all participants of our technical writing training course have indeed passed with flying colors.

Are you giving off the wrong impression to coworkers and clients? It’s our firm belief that business writing training can help every business writer, no matter where you are in your career.

One thing that’s hard to deny is that business writing etiquette has gone down the toilet over the years. Nothing shouts out unprofessionalism quite like seeing “lol” (short for “laugh out loud”) in a business email. Or how about this scenario: have you ever read an email that downright exhausted you with its inability to get to the point? We can’t even count how many corporate memos cost companies hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars in lost productivity from poorly worded instructions. We also come across business writers who are sending out direct mailers and want to learn the skillful art of captivation and persuasion. No matter what the case may be, business writing training will help you in all of these areas.

In our business writing training course, you’ll get two full classroom days, individual coaching, plus six months of residual training. You’ll learn persuasive strategies, tone techniques, secrets of sentence clarity, and methods of wiping-out wordiness. We’ve even got the scoop on effective templates that work (while saving time) and formatting that helps readers navigate your messages with ease. It’s time to become the best writer you can be, regardless of what others are doing, because business writing training is rapidly becoming the new standard.

Top-notch audit writing training is essential in today’s business world. Inefficient audit processes, time delays, errors, mistakes, and over-auditing translates to audit waste and lost money. Auditors must be clear-minded, motivated, and knowledgeable to perform quality audits. Each report must contain the appropriate tone, length, and implications. Unfortunately, there are fewer “natural born audit writers,” compared to fiction writers, poets, or creative muses. In fact, most audit writers are trained in technical or statistical analysis, rather than communication or English. Therefore, it’s safe to say that most audit writers could use audit writing training to hone their skills.

One crucial method of providing audit writing training is to look over precise applicable examples of good and bad audit prose. Every good audit writer could also use a manual of examples, exercises, and instructions. Checklists ensure excellent revision work, while templates quicken the process of precise audit report writing. Audit writing training will help authors delve right to the point of the report and focus on the exact details that executive managers really want to know. In addition, writers will be able to tone down the stiff, technical tone when necessary to make the report more user-friendly. With audit writing training, the main points of an audit will stand out. Businesses who hire audit writing training consultants are the businesses that get ahead in today’s competitive world. Better audits mean better results.

There are 84,900 Google results for the search term “business writing training,” with many of those being business writing training consultants such as ourselves. It can be confusing to sort through all the different package offerings, especially when so many consultants present themselves similarly. You’ll find words like “customization,” “hands-on training,” “professional” and “coaching” on countless websites. So how can you find the best business writing training for your enterprise?

We feel what sets us apart from the pack is our experience. We’ve been leaders in the business since 1985 (doing the math, that’s 25 years and counting). Our business writing training staff comes from strong academic tradition, but they have also worked hands-on as leaders in the business world at home and internationally. To date, our business writing training workshops have been hosted by prestigious clients like Ronald Reagan’s White House staff, NASA, Census Bureau, Coca-Cola, Missile Defense Agency, US Army Audit Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, Montgomery County School System and Federal Executive Institute – to name a few.

Writing Training

When you’re choosing the right business writing training for your enterprise, you want a team that has worked with the best agencies and companies. You want someone whose golden standards are widely accepted across multiple industries. There are many start-ups and consultants arising from the ashes of the recession, but it all boils down to: Who has the experience to deliver results?

There are countless errors uncovered during business writing training. Often employees look at us, bewildered by what might be wrong with a particular piece of business communication. We don’t just look at grammatical sentence structure, spelling and punctuation. We look at how the message is crafted and assembled to send a particular message. Here are some common errors:

1. Different information is mixed together in the same paragraph.

Remember the old rule, “One idea per paragraph?” This is especially true of business communication. You want to keep your paragraphs short, snappy and simple. You don’t want to muddle a bunch of directions into one jumbled mess. Our business writing training shows you several techniques to get around this.

2. The communication does not make use of helpful conventions.

Headings and bulleted lists are some of our favorite conventions to clean up drawn-out pages of text. Sometimes pictures, illustrations, tables or graphs can best summarize the information you’ve spent more than 100 words explaining. Refer to our business writing training manual each time you begin a piece to decide which conventions would work best for your situation.

3. The main message or call-to-action isn’t readily apparent until the end.

Why bury the whole point of your communications? This information needs to be at the beginning and also at the end. Your readers need to know what action is expected of them right away. Business writing training grooms employees on how to clearly and effectively sell your point and prompt immediate action.

There are many subtleties to technical writing training. We feel the best way to truly develop the skills is to look at samples from your own unique industry and your own communications history. Over the past few decades, we’ve seen all types of errors – some are serious, expensive errors, while others may simply miss an opportunity to get the point across efficiently and dynamically. Here are three of the most common errors we see.

1. Organization doesn’t support clarity.
In the beginning of a report or memo, it’s important to succinctly state the purpose of your writing. After filling out your standard “To” section, you should also include a “Subject” line, as you would an email. Use bullet points and headlines for optimal organizational structure that is quickly scanned and digestible.

2. Most important details are buried.
Far too often, the purpose of the message is reserved for the end. While the end is undoubtedly a great opportunity to re-cap, you should always begin with the most important statements to capture the readers’ attention and clearly demonstrate why they must read on.

3. Jargon bogs down readers.
It can be tricky to know when to use full definitions and when to use abbreviated acronyms. Our In our technical writing training will show you how to determine the best way to summarize, without confusing readers by your ambiguity or bogging them down with too much writing.

Learn motivational techniques with business writing training. Perhaps you’ve just needed a few cups of coffee, loud music and a brainstorming exercise to help you along during those afternoons where you feel you’ve wasted hours of corporate time. You’ll come to learn that reading often is critical to your success – even if it’s just a fiction novel. The more exposure you have to excellent writing, the better equipped you’ll be to do your own.

Learn how to write to your audience with business writing training. Figure out the proper length to captivate your readers’ attention. Identify what their wants and needs are. Incorporate elements from English, Humanities and Sociology to get in touch with the inner humans, rather than bombarding audiences with calloused sales pitches.

Writing Training

Learn how to edit with business writing training. Make it a habit to triple-check all facts and figures in your reports for accuracy. Keep a checklist of frequent errors by your side to double-check before you submit. Hone your writer’s intuition, but also receive tools to consult when the going gets tough. Identify and correct bloated sentences for better clarity and conciseness. Rewrite with punctuation, grammar and spelling in mind, but develop your own personal style by understanding how tone, sentence structure and pacing come into play.

Very few writers go to college saying, “I’m going to be a great professional technical writer one day!” While the position promises to pay handsomely, especially by writers’ standards, most people who are naturally inclined to write prefer fiction, short stories, poetry, newspaper or magazine articles. Some are even driven by emerging writing formats like blogging or social networking dialogue. More than likely, the people taking technical writing training courses in college are business, economics and engineering students. Yet, they may be able to graduate without taking any such course. Before you know, they’ve graduated and find themselves having to follow basic corporate guidelines to create internal communications.

Writing Training

It’s a situation many people find themselves in. They become technical writers by default, rather than by choice. They follow manuals, guidelines and checklists to meet the minimal standards. However, this approach can produce copy that is dull, uninspired, incoherent, or unfocused. Technical writing training breathes life into staff members by giving them the necessary tools they need for success, thus driving increased job satisfaction and motivation to continually improve. Even though technical writing training costs an initial investment, the money such instruction saves far outweighs the small pittance you pay to develop staff in a meaningful way.

Convoluted English fills our inboxes. It elicits eye rolls from staff members who should be more respectful but can’t quite help themselves. It costs huge misunderstandings and even costlier mistakes. It wastes more time than a flag on a football field. Poor business writing has long been the scourge of existence, whether you work for a Fortune 500 company, a government agency, or a nonprofit. Business writing training emerged in the eighties to begin reversing the inevitable dumbing-down of our offices that only got worse once computer-speak began infiltrating the workplace.

“For whatever reason, we are finding the business writing skill-set to be missing,” Southern Methodist University business professor Paula Hill-Strasser tells MSNBC. She said even the brightest students struggle through business writing training more than they used to. She blames electronic distractions like text messages and IMs, in part, as students seem to have greater challenges with multi-tasking.

Business writing

However, most business writing training consultants feel the problem is more with lack of knowledge in formal business conventions and, in some cases, sheer laziness. A good formal business writing training program aims to tackle both of these areas by instructing staff on common mistakes, practical practices, and effective writing techniques, while also motivating staff to develop an avid interest in crafting creative messages.

The internal audit report is some of the toughest writing out there. These reports need to be clear, concise, factual, and yet user-friendly. You need to present cause and effect, build in responsibility and accountability for set groups of individuals, and present solutions that others have missed. Most auditors are finance/business wizards, not formally trained writers. Most managers and supervisors are also not skilled writers first and foremost, so they may miss writing skill ineptitude at first glance. The only way to truly ensure your writing caliber is top-notch is to spend a little time on audit writing training – whether it’s your first course or an annual refresher.

Audit Writing

An audit writing training course will cover a wide range of report samples from numerous anonymous company authors. A team of professional audit report writers will analyze key facets of the reports and teach lessons on identifying and correcting ineffectual writing. Audit writing training workshops focus on nitty-gritty topics like grammar, punctuation, usage and formatting – if necessary. If your writing is fairly up to snuff, the lessons will focus on advanced level recommendations like identifying causes, writing winning executive summaries and the best ways to communicate test results so readers can understand. In the end, all writing is selling something. For audit writing training, class participants will learn how to sell actionable change.