Business Writing – Reports & Proposals
Learn how to make your reports clear and concise, and your proposals bring their points across and sway opinions.
Course Code/ID: CRS-N-0043302
Writing reports and proposals are integral to most jobs. Yet, writing technical findings and statistical results in a way that everyone can understand, vital to all reports, is a challenge for many. Just as challenging is the ability to use the language of persuasion required in proposals that are designed to get decision-makers to agree to projects.
Learn how to make your reports clear, comprehensible yet concise; and how to make your proposals bring home their points and sway opinions.
After the workshop, you will be able to:
- appreciate the 3 components of writing to better identify personal writing challenges
- sort through research to include only the relevant material
- structure writing for clarity
- understand what is required of the different components of a report
- adapt your writing to suit the purposes and audience
- differentiate between reports and proposals
- present events and facts objectively and clearly
- shape arguments with paragraphs and transition words
- understand the language of reports
- use the language of persuasion for proposals
- employ visuals aids to enhance clarity
- have proofreading and reviewing skills
Outline
- Understand the Writing Process
– Invent
– Compose
– Revise - Planning Your Content
– The art of research
– The importance of recording accurate information
– Checking information
– Pre-writing checklist
– Organising your content - Structuring Your Writing
– 2 types of clarity
– Headers & Lists for visual clarity
– Key components in a report - Types of Reports
– Types of reports and their purposes & audience
– Reports vs Proposals – What’s the Difference? - 7 properties of a good sentence
– Short
– Simple
– Concise
– Precise
– Plain
– Write as You Talk
– Cut Down on Jargon and Acronyms - 7 strategies for writing good sentences
– Cut out information
– Cut up information
– Cut out the Deadwood
– Drop Redundancies
– Order your Sentence
– Use First Person
– Choice of Voice - The Language of Reports
– Presenting technical terms for the layman
– Presenting numbers and statistics that can be easily understood - The Language of Persuasion for Proposals
- Grammar & Vocabulary
– Grammar pitfalls – tenses and subject-verb agreement
– Prepositions
– Dos and don’ts of choosing words
– The power of paragraphs
– Linking words - Using Visual Aids
– Types of visuals aids
– When and how to use them - Proofreading & Review Techniques
– Proofreading techniques
– Reviewing techniques
– Checklist for reviewing
Who should attend?
Manager and supervisors who have to submit and vet reports and proposals.
Methodology
Participants are guided through the strategies with practical steps and a combination of theory as well as both group and individual practice sessions, and personalised coaching from the trainer.
Trainer
Mrs Christine Leow is a passionate and dynamic trainer with nearly two decades of experience in the media industry who specialises in oral and written communication, public presentation, interview skills, and managing the media. Some of her clients include National Junior College, Hwa Chong Institute, Singapore of the Arts Singapore (SOTA), Republic of Singapore Navy, Land Transport Authority, National Environment Agency, Ministry of Education, and Maritime Port Authority.
She is currently a writer with clients that include Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations; NTUC; SingHealth; Science Centre Singapore; OOH Media; OKTO; Channel NewsAsia; CapitaLand; The Ascott Limited; The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands; the ArtScience Museum; and Singapore Tourism Board.
Having spent her entire career writing for various platforms and varied genres, Christine has developed strategies to adapt her writing for different audience. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English Language from the National University of Singapore.
