Home / Non-Accredited / Communication & Business Writing / Business Writing Skills for Function and Purpose (3 days)
Quick Look Course Summary:Business Writing Skills for Function and Purpose (3 days)
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Length: 3 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 14,997 EX VAT 3 Person R 11,205 EX VAT 10 Person R 8,120 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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Training Advice
Business Writing Skills for Function and Purpose (3 days)
Your staff write clear, correct business documents for any purpose – on their own, as a team, and when a proposal has to win the work.
Poor writing costs time and credibility. An unclear email triggers three follow-up calls, a report without a clear recommendation sits unread, and a proposal written by five people in five different styles loses to a tidier competitor. This three-day business writing skills training deals with all three problems: it builds the core writing skills every employee needs, then shows teams how to produce shared documents and persuasive proposals.
Day one covers the foundations – grammar, punctuation, plain language, tone and the structure of emails, letters, agendas and short reports. Day two moves to collaborative writing: planning a document as a team, splitting the work, agreeing a house style and editing many contributions into one voice. Day three is a full proposal-writing workshop, from reading the client's request to a proofread, professional final package.
The course is practical throughout. Delegates bring real documents from their own work, rewrite them during the sessions and leave with checklists, templates and a one-page style guide they can use the next morning.
Why this course
For your organisation
- Fewer misunderstandings, follow-up emails and rework
- A consistent house style across departments
- Team documents that read as one voice and arrive on time
- Stronger proposals and tender responses
- Correspondence that protects the organisation's professional image
For your delegates
- A simple method for planning any business document
- Confidence with grammar, punctuation and plain language
- Templates for emails, letters, reports and proposals
- Practice on your own workplace documents, with feedback
What delegates will be able to do
- Plan a document around its purpose, its reader and the action the reader must take
- Write correct, concise sentences and paragraphs in plain language
- Choose the right format and tone for emails, letters, agendas and short reports
- Proofread and edit their own and colleagues' work for accuracy, clarity and layout
- Plan a shared writing task and divide it sensibly across a team
- Apply a house style guide so that team documents stay consistent
- Analyse a client's request and write a needs-based, persuasive proposal
- Check readability and produce a professional final document ready to submit
Who should attend
Administrators, officers, supervisors, managers, specialists and project teams who write emails, letters, reports and proposals as part of their job – especially where documents are drafted by several people and still have to read as one. Delegates need a working command of English; no advanced writing background is required.
Course outline
Day 1 – Business writing foundations
Writing with a purpose
- Who the reader is and what they must do after reading
- Purpose, key message and supporting detail
- Plain language: familiar words, short sentences, active voice
- Tone and register for colleagues, clients and senior readers
- Avoiding jargon, clichés and language that excludes or offends
Grammar, punctuation and spelling that matter
- The errors that damage credibility most often
- How a sentence is built and the main sentence types
- Commas, apostrophes, colons and semicolons in practice
- British and South African spelling conventions
- Building a personal list of words you tend to get wrong
Paragraphs and logical flow
- Opening each paragraph with its main point
- Ordering information: most important first, chronological, problem and solution
- Headings, numbered lists and white space
- Presenting the same facts differently for different readers
Everyday business documents
- Emails with clear subject lines and a clear request
- Business letters: layout, salutations and closings
- Meeting notices and agendas
- Memos and short reports
- Executive summaries and a one-page business case
Checking before you send
- A proofreading routine that catches what spell-check misses
- Checking names, dates, figures and facts
- Asking a colleague for a useful second read
- Final layout and formatting for screen and print
Day 2 – Writing as a team
Why team writing is different
- Documents that need several authors: reports, manuals, handbooks and policies
- Agreeing the objective and the reader before anyone writes
- What goes wrong when nobody owns the whole document
- Case study: a team report that missed its deadline
Ways to build a shared document
- Each author drafts a section at the same time
- Authors draft in turn, each building on the last
- One lead writer drafts while the team contributes and reviews
- Choosing the approach that suits the deadline and the team
Roles in a writing team
- The team leader and the chief editor
- What makes a reliable contributor
- Assigning sections, deadlines and review duties
- Keeping the team working well together under pressure
Outlines, tools and version control
- An outline or storyboard that everyone writes from
- Shared files, tracked changes and comments
- Version control and file naming
- Planned review rounds instead of endless edits
Agreeing a house style
- Voice, person and tense
- Headings, numbering and list formats
- Spelling company names, products and industry terms the same way
- Numbers, dates and abbreviations
- Drafting a one-page style guide for your team
Barriers and disagreements
- Late contributions and information that is not shared
- Disagreements about content and wording
- Keeping comments on the text rather than the writer
- Practical: a team writes and edits a short handbook section
Day 3 – Writing proposals that win
Understanding proposals
- What a proposal must achieve
- Sales, technical, cost and professional-service proposals
- Invited and uninvited proposals
- Reading a request for proposal or tender document carefully
- Mandatory requirements and returnable documents
Planning the proposal
- Identifying the evaluator and the final decision-maker
- Analysing what the client really needs
- Writing a one-sentence goal statement
- Gathering facts and organising your evidence
Structuring the proposal
- Cover letter, executive summary and contents page
- Problem, proposed solution, approach and timeline
- Pricing section and stated assumptions
- Annexures and supporting documents
Writing to persuade
- Benefits versus features
- Explaining your approach so the evaluator can score it
- Answering likely competitor strengths without naming competitors
- Using tables, diagrams and short case examples
Readability, editing and the final package
- Reading the proposal as the evaluator will
- Readability checks and cutting length
- Fact-checking and peer review
- Professional layout and a final pre-submission checklist
Proposal workshop and action plan
- Drafting key sections for a real or case-study request
- Peer and facilitator feedback
- Personal writing action plan
How it is delivered
Three 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, a sample style guide and a proposal checklist included; delegates are encouraged to bring their own documents to work on. 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.”
“The course was efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by both the quality of training and the Facilitators.”
“We have been very impressed with their service and rollout of the training.”
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. Team writing works best when the people who write documents together attend together.
Is it accredited?
No – it is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
Can we use our own documents and templates?
Yes. Send us samples of your emails, reports or proposals beforehand and the facilitator uses them in the exercises, so delegates practise on the documents they actually write.
Is there a shorter version?
Yes. The one-day course covers the business writing foundations only. The two-day course adds the team writing day. This three-day course adds a full day of proposal writing.
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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