Advanced Business Writing Skills

Free 32-page book with exercises and printable resources

This course will teach you advanced techniques that can take your writing from good to great. Every day, we use words to persuade others to buy from us, to hire or promote us, to establish our credibility and reputation. We write to change the way people think, feel and act. It is essential that the words you choose and the way you use them are working for you as hard as they can.

Writing well is a vital part of any successful career or business. If you want to thrive at work you need to thrive at writing. By the end of this course, you will have developed advanced writing skills that will propel your career or business to the next level.

In this course, you will master advanced writing techniques. It's divided into five parts:

Part One - Good Writing: First, we’ll discuss what makes writing ‘good’. Why does something we read or hear stand out? Why do we enjoy it, trust it or understand it more than something else? In Part One, we’ll also examine word choice, the use of metaphor and humour, authenticity, and explore how playing with variety and rhythm in your language can bring your words to life.

Part Two - Structure: Structure is the road map that directs your reader from where they are to where you want them to be. In Part Two, we’ll show you why structure matters so much, the most common and effective structures, the best way to present an argument, and how you can use different structures in the writing you do every day.

Part Three - Storytelling: People love stories and learning to write good ones is one of the most potent tools in your writer’s toolkit. In Part Three, we’ll show you how they work, how to write them, and how to use stories in your everyday writing.

Part Four - Practicalities: In Part Four, we’ll look at some of the more practical aspects of writing and presenting your work, including the importance of research, formatting and advanced editing techniques. We’ll also address two of the biggest writing challenges that many of us face: writing for non-native English speakers, and writing within an organisation or company, where there are often tight constraints on what and how you write.

Part Five: Applying what you’ve learned: It’s now time to put everything together and apply these lessons to different types of documents. In Part Five, we’ll cover writing articles, LinkedIn posts, speeches, presentations and press releases. Even if you don't normally write this sort of thing, the lessons you will learn will help you with everything you write.

Throughout the course there will be short exercises and quizzes so you can check your understanding and hone your skills.

Advanced Business Writing Skills is written and presented by Mark Morris and Philip Fiske de Gouveia.

Mark is an award-winning professional speechwriter with more than fifteen years of experience writing for senior politicians in the United Kingdom and internationally – including for two former Prime Ministers. During his career, he’s written thousands of speeches to audiences across Europe and North America.

Mark has written countless debates in the British Parliament, as well as articles for newspapers including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, La Repubblica, El Pais, The Times and Die Welt, and for magazines including Wired and Newsweek. Mark even had the honour of writing an historic and award-winning speech to a joint meeting of the United States Congress.

Philip is a professional speechwriter, and has written for some of the world’s most senior business and political leaders. He is a former BBC journalist, reporting from all over the world, and has published articles in dozens of newspapers and magazines. He is also a playwright whose plays have been produced for stage and radio. Philip is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds.

In this course, Mark and Philip will give you the full benefit of their years of experience and expertise to set you on the path to writing success.

So enroll now and start your journey to writing excellence.