Writing with impact – get your message across

A lot of writing in the EU policy environment is descriptive and flat. How can we achieve greater impact in our writing? Through planning effective messages and using techniques to draft persuasive arguments.

This course is for people who have to draft effective and persuasive texts which have financial and institutional context or implications but are intended for a wide range of readers. This is about being able to express important messages that carry a technical significance but in words that are more widely understood by readers.

We will discover techniques that professional communicators draw on to develop strong and persuasive messages that resonate with readers. The aim of this training is to graduate from the plain factual to writing that implores, rationalises and persuades readers.

Learning Aims

By the end of this course participants will be able to

  • Understand how to plan and structure effective communication messages
  • Take into consideration the background, knowledge and attitude of readers
  • Draft powerful messages which have impact and provide factual proof to support arguments
  • Edit and adapt texts for different audiences and purposes

The course content is divided into two modules:

Module 1 Writing with impact – developing arguments and opinions

  • Writing with impact – attention, interest, desire, action
  • Attention, interest, desire and action for readers (AIDA)
  • Communication objectives of our writing

Module 2 Writing style – how to capture the attention of readers

  • Writing to persuade – rhetoric
  • The readers – audience analysis (knowledge and perceptions)
  • Techniques for adding emphasis to texts
 What you take away – assessed written tasks

You send us a sample of your writing and we will assess and make tracked changes comments to help you understand the areas you need to work on. You take away a version of your text with notes that will help you to adjust your writing. This is the only way to learn and no other training company provides this level of support.

Format

This training requires a commitment from staff to attend sessions and complete writing, editing and grammar tasks. Our training format includes

  1. A review / assessment with tracked changes comments on a text your have written (a report, meeting notes, briefings, correspondence).
  2. Training sessions to review learning points and practice.
  3. Assessed writing tasks to edit review or reformat a piece.
  4. Follow up support (optional).
In-person and online

In- person: We bring people together in groups at your office.
Webinars and online coaching: We run webinars for groups and online follow up coaching for individuals.
Online learning: We provide learners with online reading materials, tasks and cheat sheets.

Follow up training

We can tailor a programme to include our more specialised writing courses – Writing for the Web, Writing for the Media and Writing Position Papers.

Many of our clients follow this up with Presentation skills training or Chairing Meetings.

For more details and a quote please contact us

Tel: +32 (0)473 39 18 90 or at info@formativecoms.com