Week 1

ABC Controlling Redundancy

Professional writing needs to be clear and concise. In this lesson, we examine different forms of redundancy in language, including "opening fillers". I introduce the key concept of "Positioning." By the end of this lesson you will be able to recognise redundancies and know when and why (not) to use them.

 
Week 2

 
ABC Controlling Sentence Length

Sentence length must be a strategic decision, not an accident. How long should your sentences be? When and why would we use shorter and longer sentences? How do we achieve the ideal balance to maximise clarity and conciseness? By the end of this lesson you will be able to edit long sentences to improve readability.
 

Week 3

 
ABC Structure and Layout

We establish a standard structure for working correspondence. This reflects the basis of most written communications. We shall look in detail at salutations, introductions, conclusions, and sign-offs. I shall give you a collection of paragraphs, and ask you to put them together into emails. This will pave the way for writing coherent paragraphs (later lesson).

Week 4

 
ABC Controlling Readability

What does "difficult" really mean? How can we measure the difficulty of a written message? What are Readability Scales and how can we use them? And, most importantly, how can we improve readability to facilitate the task of our readers? By the end of this lesson you will know how to calculate and interpret readability scores.

Week 5

ABC Direct and Indirect Approaches

Having understood the correct layout of written communications, we now come back to the key concept of positioning. In this lesson, I shall explain when and how to use the two major writing strategies: Direct and Indirect. By the end of this lesson you will be able to use both strategies with confidence.

Week 6

ABC Levels of Formality

Email replaces not only letters and memos, but also phone calls and even face-to-face meetings. This means we need to have good control over the level of formality when we write. At the end of this lesson you will be able to identify the four different levels of formality, and know when and how to use each.

Week 7

ABC Writing Coherent Paragraphs

Having mastered key "sentence-level" and "message-level" techniques, we now move on to the "unit of meaning" in written communication: the paragraph. I will show you how to classify sentences according to their functions, and then to apply the concept of "positioning" to situate sentence-types within paragraphs. Once you have mastered this technique, your writing will be more effective and powerful.

Week 8

ABC Review and Consolidation
A review of writing skills we have learned in this short training experience, to be sure we can use them in practice in the working context. This will serve as a useful preparation for the ABC Exit Examination.