Training your team

>> Writing is a surprisingly simple business and most people can do it well, if they can overcome their anxieties. My courses cover all the ground rules of competent writing and, more importantly, give your staff the confidence and enthusiasm to produce lively, readable copy.

Here's some of the ground I cover in a typical session. The courses are tailored to suit your needs and can run for full or half days.

>> How good is your existing material? We might start with a group discussion about your current web content, press releases, brochures and other marketing material. What elements of it work best? What bits make us cringe? How many typos can we spot? Is this material doing the job we want it to?

>> What writing do we admire? Let's discuss some examples of good writing. Not just works of literature, but advertising copy, headlines ... maybe even blogs. It doesn't matter if it's The Economist or Heat: we're surrounded by professional writing, and there are plenty of tips we can pick up for free.

Understanding your audience is vital and assumptions are risky. For example, this little lad is a CEO of a Nasdaq company and is proof-reading his accounts.

>> The essential toolkit. Before we worry about getting creative, we need to ensure we have a working knowledge of the tools of of the writing trade. Punctuation and grammar set the professionals apart from the amateurs and you don't need a degree in English to avoid the commonest pitfalls. Believe it or not, this is one of the most enjoyable parts of the course and there are crib sheets to take away in case anyone forgets the difference between a hyphen and a dash.

>> A crash course in journalism. We go through the basics of how to write news stories, features and opinion pieces. Even if you don't have Fleet Street ambitions, an understanding of how reporters construct their work is useful for anyone who wants to write something that grabs the attention of the reader, and keeps it right the way to the final paragraph.

>> The art of the press release. The group studies good and bad examples of media release, and learns the key principles of writing for news organisations.

>> Getting our hands dirty. Armed with our newly-acquired knowledge, we work through a series of exercises – not only correcting other people's work, but preparing some original copy of our own. This will cover the subject matter most relevant to the client and could focus on advertising copy, web-based work, writing for in-house magazines ... whatever is most important. Prizes will be awarded for the best efforts.

Everyone attending one of my courses is encouraged to participate in the session and express their opinions. No, really!