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Writing WordShops

“Business writing is key to my company’s success. At this workshop, Barbara taught my whole staff to write more clearly–while entertaining us! We all became more confident of our choice of words and making our message more clear.”

Beth Vance, financial advisor in Tucson, AZ

Improve Your Business Writing Skills — But How?

STRENGTHEN Everything You Write WordShop/Webinar

Are you able to convey what you want to say in writing as succinctly and clearly as possible? What price will you pay if you don’t? At the least, you’ll look bad in the eyes of those you want to impress.

To strengthen your business writing skills with intention, join Barbara McNichol in this hands-on WordShop. Fun, interactive, and highly practical.

What does this Business Writing Skills WordShop include?

Part 1: Whack Wordiness gets you comfortable with getting rid of redundancies, wobbly words, and extraneous phrases. It discusses absolutes and gives you a chance to trim a one-page blog entry by one third. Participants come away with an acute awareness of how wordiness gets in the way of good writing—and what to do about it.

Barbara leading her Writing WordShop

Part 2: Top Techniques for Improving Your Writing touches on planning a process, grammar points (agreements, dangling participles, etc.) and ways to add cadence and rhythm to your writing. It features how to:

  • Write effective emails and subject lines for greater open rates
  • Plan your writing so you don’t waste time
  • Use active verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
  • Match the word with the meaning
  • Make your proofreading meaningful so you don’t make mistakes.

Guaranteed to add power to your pen and polish to your product.

Ask about editing of pre- or post-workshop writing samples

Every technique learned comes alive when you see it in your writing! Each participant may submit one actual writing sample (up to 600 words in length) to be professionally edited prior to the workshop. They will be returned with suggestions and revisions at the workshop. Ask about this option.

Organizations that have benefited:

Businesses and Government

  • Aetna Insurance – Coventry Workers’ Comp Services
  • Alden Torch Financial (Avante Leadership Group)
  • Ameriprise Financial Group Tucson
  • Carondelet Medical Group Tucson
  • City of Chandler
  • Lawrence Livermore National Labs (Avante Leadership Group)
  • Longview Systems (Avante Leadership Group)
  • Pima County Waste Management
  • Pinal County Courts
  • Lof Lopez & Associates Tucson
  • MindPlay Tucson
  • Nova Home Loans Tucson
  • The Heath Team Mortgage Lenders
  • Women Entrepreneurs’ Small Business Boot Camp

Associations

  • Tucson Festival of Books
  • National Speakers Association (NSA)
  • Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS)
  • NSA-Arizona /NSA-Colorado / NSA Northern California
  • Grant Professionals Association (GPA)
  • Project Management Institute (PMI)
  • Local First Arizona (LFA)
  • National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)
  • Association of Talent Development (ATD)
  • Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
  • Arizona Authors Association (AAA)
  • Scottsdale Women Writers
  • Society of Southwestern Authors (SSA)

Webinar clients

  • Direct Pay
  • SpeakerNet News (SNN)
  • On the Right Track Seminars
  • Local First Arizona (LFA)
  • Dudley Court Press
  • All Things Admin
  • Wheatmark Publishing
  • Williamson Media Group
  • Nonfiction Authors Association (NFAA)
  • Office Dynamics International (ODI)
  • International Assoc. of Administrative Professionals (IAAP)

Bring this WordShop into your organization or request a webinar. Call Barbara at 520-615-7910 for details.

Comments from attendees:

  • Reminder of less is better.
  • Hands-on exercises were fun.
  • Accessible, helpful, and plenty of examples.
  • Interactive and relevant to my work as a grant writer.
  • Common words/phrases explained and improved.
  • Learned to eliminate unnecessary words and write more clearly.
  • Good tips pulling out what we know – consciousness-raising!
  • More fun than a grammar lesson and full of tips I can use often.
  • Use active versus passive verbs in my writing.
  • How to find better words and use a parallel path in my writing.
  • Some words don’t mean what we want them to mean.
  • Allow time to walk away and look at emails again before sending them.
  • Short emails are better than long ones, and subject lines are everything!
  • How to get your message across with a minimum number of words, so you don’t bog down the message.
  • It was great practice learning to use similar words with different meaning in a sentence together. (Word Trippers!)
  • I will be able to eliminate a lot of unnecessary words and make my messages more clear and concise.
  • It was good to refresh the grammar rules I had forgotten as well as know the difference between colon and semicolon.
  • All the ideas were directly applicable to my administrative assistant activities and the wealth of examples were absolutely outstanding.

After Barbara’s WordShop, I came back to my desk to edit an important email that I had intended to send out later that day. I immediately realized that it did not convey what I meant to say. When I rewrote it using what we’d learn, it had a lot more impact. I felt proud I could apply the writing techniques quickly, and now I use them every day. My team does, too. We do live group editing and coach each other on the tips such as using active voice, removing one-third of the words, and catching things that don’t make sense. The WordShop was totally worthwhile and wasn’t painful from a cost perspective!– Amy Buttery, Manager, Learning and Performance, Coventry Workers’ Comp Services, Aetna Insurance

This course has me looking at the flow, meaning, and understanding of what I write and how I bring my messages to others.– Christine Hazen Molina, coach

Great tool, even for seasoned writers. We all get tripped up on words.– Morleen Novitt, ad copywriter

How to Boost Your Business  IQ

Q: What is the best way to waste valuable time, squander resources, and miss out on time-sensitive opportunities?

A: Allow poorly written emails, proposals, and other written communications to get through. When they do, recipients get confused and senders fail to close the communication loop. Mistakes and embarrassment often follow.

Don’t pay the high-stakes price of unclear communications. Instead, learn to convey EVERYTHING you write with clarity, precision, and intention. Attend this Business Writing Skills WordShop that gets results. The interactive content applies to:

  • Business professionals
  • English language learners
  • Admin assistants and VAs
  • Court reporters, bloggers, journalist
  • Authors, speakers, entrepreneurs
  • Anyone who communicates in writing!

By the end of this 3.5-hour session, you will know how to:

  • Avoid mistakes that can cost time and money
  • Save readers’ time by reducing wordiness and repetition
  • Plan written pieces before composing the first sentence
  • Select the right tone to fit the audience, purpose, and topic
  • Match the words to the meaning through Word Trippers Tips
  • Punctuate and proofread with fresh eyes
  • Eliminate errors that create confusion and damage reputations

Note: Because of its modular format, this WordShop can be adapted to a variety of time and content requirements as well as a webinar.

Call Barbara to schedule a WordShop/Webinar.
520-615-7910

Tell Your Story Powerfully on the Stage and on the Page

Tell Your Story from the Page

Andrea Beaulieu

Entrepreneurs and leaders of organizations can’t rely on simply conveying facts to call people to action. People act when they feel moved, when they “get” your message deep in their bones. Otherwise, why would they invest their precious resources on what you offer?

Whether you’re speaking to a single person or a roomful—or writing web copy or articles—a strong emotional appeal strengthens your chances to inspire your audience.

But how can you achieve this? Through this program co-presented with expert presentation coach Andrea Beaulieu.

By bringing information to life through exercises, you’ll see how to tell your story with skill, persuasion, and confidence. You’ll also explore ways to personalize stories and share from the heart—both on the stage and on the page.

As you hone your stories in fresh ways, discover how to:

  • Inject emotional connections and theatrical techniques into their stories

  • Clarify, organize, and refine messages to reflect specific goals

  • Learn ways to adapt stories told on the stage for the page

Come away with a story you can leverage for multiple uses: website, email, articles, marketing materials, and more.

Being able to brainstorm at this session with fellow participants was extremely helpful. I’m now able to share more clearly why I am passionate about ending domestic violence and how the services my agency offers help to accomplish that.

– Lindsay Simmons, AFP State Conference

Call Barbara to schedule a WordShop/Webinar.

520-615-7910 or  Email us today »

 

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Word Trippers Tips

American English language resource

Find the perfect word every time—a new Word Tripper every week!

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From Our Blog

2020 Word of the Year – What is YOUR Word?

by Barbara McNichol Every year, Dictionary.com selects a word to describe the year coming to a close. About the … Read more »

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Barbara McNichol Editorial
5090 N. Camino de la Cumbre
Tucson, AZ 85750

Phone: 520-615-7910

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