Home / Non-Accredited / Communication & Business Writing / Business Writing Skills for Function and Purpose (2 days)
Quick Look Course Summary:Business Writing Skills for Function and Purpose (2 days)
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Length: 2 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 10,326 EX VAT 3 Person R 7,594 EX VAT 10 Person R 5,537 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.
Business Writing – self-paced online, 6 months’ access: R750 per learner (ex VAT); teams of 10 or more pay less.
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Business Writing Skills for Function and Purpose (2 days)
Staff who write clear, correct business documents on their own – and produce long documents as a team without the usual rework.
Poorly written emails, letters and reports cost time: readers ask for clarification, decisions wait and clients judge the organisation by what lands in their inbox. In many South African workplaces staff also write in their second or third language, which makes a clear, simple standard even more valuable. This business writing skills training gives your staff that standard and the practice to apply it.
Day one covers individual writing: words, grammar and punctuation, sentences and paragraphs, and the structure of emails, meeting agendas, business letters, proposals and reports, finishing with a proofreading routine. Day two moves to documents that several people write together – reports, policies, training manuals and handbooks. Delegates learn to plan them with an outline, agree a house style, split the work and manage reviews so the final version reads as one voice.
Delegates bring real documents from their own work and rewrite them during the course, so every exercise produces something they can use the following week.
Watch a short introduction
Why this course
For your organisation
- Emails, letters and reports that need fewer rounds of correction
- A consistent house style across teams and departments
- Shared documents such as policies, manuals and reports finished on time and in one voice
- A more professional impression on clients, suppliers and regulators
For your delegates
- A personal checklist of the grammar and spelling points you get wrong most often
- Clear structures for emails, letters, agendas, proposals and reports
- A method for planning and dividing a team document
- Your own documents reworked with facilitator feedback
What delegates will be able to do
- Apply correct grammar, spelling and punctuation in everyday business documents
- Build clear sentences and well-organised paragraphs for the reader in front of you
- Structure emails, meeting agendas and business letters in a professional format
- Plan and write a short proposal or report with an executive summary
- Proofread and edit your own work and give useful feedback on a colleague's
- Plan a team-written document with an outline, clear roles and a timeline
- Agree and apply a simple style guide so that shared documents read consistently
- Manage reviews and revisions so a shared document reaches a final, approved version
Who should attend
Administrators, PAs, secretaries, officers, supervisors, team leaders, specialists and managers who write emails, letters, proposals and reports as part of their job – and teams that produce shared documents such as policies, procedure manuals, board packs, tenders or annual reports. It suits staff writing in a second or third language as well as first-language English speakers who want to write more clearly.
Course outline
Day 1 – Writing clearly on your own
Words, grammar and spelling
- The grammar errors seen most often in workplace writing
- Words that sound alike and are easily confused
- South African and British spelling versus American spelling
- Building a personal quick-reference sheet for your own recurring errors
- Plain words instead of jargon and long phrases
- Using the spell checker without trusting it blindly
Sentences and paragraphs
- What makes a complete sentence, and keeping sentences short
- Punctuation that changes meaning: commas, apostrophes, colons and semicolons
- Statements, questions, instructions and exclamations – choosing the right form
- Active and passive voice
- Topic sentences and building a paragraph around one point
- Ordering paragraphs by time, importance or problem and solution
Emails and meeting agendas
- Subject lines that tell the reader what to do
- To, cc and bcc – writing to the right people
- Greetings, sign-offs, tone and acronyms in email
- Structuring an agenda: items, owners and times
- Agenda formats for formal and informal meetings
Business letters
- Standard layout of a business letter
- Opening, body and closing paragraphs
- Formal and less formal letter formats
- Letters that decline, request action or confirm an agreement
Proposals and reports – the essentials
- The standard structure of a business proposal
- The standard structure of a short report
- Executive summaries, business cases and projections
- Responding to a request for proposal (RFP)
Proofreading and finishing
- A proofreading routine for your own work
- Asking a colleague to review your document
- Headings, formatting and layout for easy reading
- Final checks before printing or sending
Day 2 – Writing as a team
How teams write together
- Why shared documents go wrong: duplication, gaps and clashing styles
- Dividing the work by section, by draft or by stage
- Writing in sequence versus writing in parallel
- Choosing the right approach for the document in front of you
- Case study: a team report that missed its deadline
Roles in a writing team
- The team lead and the chief editor
- Subject experts, writers and reviewers
- What makes a good team writer
- Agreeing deadlines and who signs off
Planning the document
- Agreeing the purpose and the reader before anyone writes
- Outlines and storyboards
- Assigning sections and supporting tasks
- Shared files, version control and track changes
A house style guide
- Voice and person: we, you and the organisation
- Headings, numbering and document format
- Consistent spelling of company, product and technical terms
- When to write numbers in words and when in figures
- Dates, currency and abbreviations
Reviewing, revising and resolving disagreements
- Revising together without rewriting each other's work
- Giving and receiving feedback on writing
- Settling disagreements on content and style
- Overcoming information hoarding and silo thinking
Team writing workshop
- Team exercise: plan and draft a short report, manual section or handbook page
- Edit the draft to one voice using the style guide
- Facilitator feedback on the final version
- Personal action plan
How it is delivered
Two days, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20. Workbook, document templates and a style-guide starter included; delegates are asked to bring two or three of their own documents to rework. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.
What our clients say
“The training was well executed and of a high quality … We would like to recommend BOTI for future trainings.”
“They were very professional, and they never failed us at any point during the process. They have met our expectations with both trainings.”
“BOTi has consistently and expertly delivered quality training services in respect of our Soft Skills requirements. We feel confident in recommending BOTI as a training services provider par excellence.”
Frequently asked questions
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa; we can also host it at a BOTI venue or deliver it live online.
How many people can attend?
From one delegate to groups of about 20. The price per delegate drops as the group grows – see the price table, or ask us for a quote.
Is it accredited?
No – it is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
Can you work with our own documents and house style?
Yes. Send us a few sample documents and your style guide, if you have one, and the facilitator builds them into the exercises.
How is this different from the one-day and three-day writing courses?
The one-day course covers individual business writing only. This two-day course adds a full day on writing shared documents as a team. The three-day Business Writing Skills for Function and Purpose course adds proposal writing as well.
Can you run this course in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban?
Yes. We train on site at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and across South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online so a team spread over several offices can attend together.
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Get your price – the more delegates, the less each pays
Change the options to see your price per person, then email yourself the quote and course outline.
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Monday to Friday, 08:00–17:00. After hours, we reply on the next working day – or call 011 882 8853.