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In-house courses

We offer our range of courses as an in-house course, where we come to your offices. The course can be run as a one-day or two-day event.

Offices

The course programme is flexible and can be adapted to your own specific needs. Some of the sessions cover plain-English techniques, and others concentrate on your own documents or practical case studies we provide. If possible, we like to use your own material to reinforce the techniques.

The course is designed to allow the delegates to contribute as much as possible. It uses a mixture of group and individual work. We actively encourage discussion and questions. We leave the size of the group to you, but the larger the group, the less opportunity there is for delegates to express their views. We do not try to produce ‘clones’ who will slavishly follow a perception of correct language. That is exactly what we are trying to escape from. Our aim is to make the language we use in public life as clear as possible.

The first half of most courses teaches plain-English techniques. The rest of the course can then be structured however you prefer.

A typical timetable of a one-day plain English course is as follows.

Morning

9.30 Introduction to the course
10.10 Is the information as clear as possible?
10.30 Is the style appropriate for the audience?
10.45 Coffee
11.00 Shortening sentences
11.20 Writing style - what do readers think?
11.45 Suggestions for clear writing
12.00 Being active about passives
12.45 Lunch

Afternoon

1.45 Righting some writing wrongs
2.35 Revealing hidden verbs
3.00 Tea
3.15 Setting out and organising good letters
3.30 Planning and drafting a complete letter
5.00 Summary and close

If you would like more information, please e-mail us and we will send you details and a booking form.