The Grammar at Work course is designed for anyone who needs to write in a clear and professional manner but finds that they have gaps in their understanding of English grammar and punctuation.
Knowing how to use grammar and punctuation accurately is vital to success at work. Mistakes are embarrassing and make a poor impression on colleagues and customers. This course will fill the holes in your knowledge and boost your confidence.
It’s more fun than it sounds! It reviews the rules with the minimum of jargon, so you really won’t feel as though you are back at school. Examples from business documents, websites and newspapers will help you to see why grammar and punctuation matter and how they apply to your everyday work.
Like all our courses, this one comes with a year of free support from the tutor, giving you someone to turn to in moments of doubt.
Learning objectives
By the end of this course you will be able to:
use grammar and punctuation accurately and confidently
write in a clear and professional way
feel comfortable with terms such as noun, verb, adjective and pronoun
use sentences and paragraphs appropriately
understand apostrophes
use colons, semicolons, dashes and commas with confidence
identify commonly misused and misspelt words
spot mistakes and correct them.
Morning session
Introduction
Why grammar and punctuation matter
Why so many people are unsure of the rules
Grammar - group discussion
Is grammar 'difficult'?
What is myth and what matters?
Changes in a living language - modern practice
Revision of key terms
Nouns
Pronouns
Adjectives
Verbs
Adverbs
Conjunctions
Common confusions with easy answers
Collective nouns
Subject and verb agreement
Pronoun problems
Misused comparisons
Misused modifiers
Faulty tense shifts
Misused capital letters
‘That’ and ‘which’
‘I’ and ‘me’
‘Who’ and ‘whom’
Some myths
Hanging prepositions
Split infinitives
Afternoon session
Troublesome words
Commonly misused words
Commonly misspelt words
Words with alternative spelling
American v British spelling and usage
Removing unnecessary words and phrases
Punctuation - group discussion
The role of punctuation
How punctuation affects clarity
Differentiating errors from personal style
The pitfalls of primary-school rules
Punctuation before ‘and’ and ‘but’
The breathing comma
Single and double quotation marks
Other examples
A review of punctuation marks
Full stops, sentences and paragraphs
Commas
Colons and semicolons
Question marks
Exclamation marks
Apostrophes
Quotation marks
Hyphens and other dashes
Parentheses and brackets
Punctuating lists and bullet points
Further development
Reference sources
Post-course support
More information
The Grammar at Work course is available as an in-house course, which can be run face-to-face at your premises or virtually over Zoom. For more information,
click here.
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“I found the whole course really useful. It will make a huge difference to my work.”
Clare Davenport Account Director Shelter
“All the areas I needed help with were covered. I liked everything about this course.”
Beatrice Ostad Receptionist Betfair
“The small group and the easy-to-understand format helped a lot.”
Emma Bretton Assistant Product Manager Engage Mutual Assurance
Running the Grammar at Work course in-house
The Grammar at Work course can be run as in-house training anywhere in the world, either at your premises or virtually over Zoom. If you have a group of staff who need the same skills, this option is convenient and cost-effective. It is powerful too, because we can provide a course that is specifically designed to achieve your objectives.
Tailored to your needs
The standard programme is available as in-house training, but you may prefer us to tailor it to match the needs of your staff and your organisation. Tailoring can include:
adjusting the length of the programme
adding or removing topics
using your documents as examples and exercises
taking account of your style guide and tone of voice.
Flexibility
An in-house course is fully flexible. Tell us what you want to achieve and we will work with you to design a course to match. Tell us when you would like to run the course and we will find a date that suits you.
Free support
Every course we run comes with a year of free support for each participant. We recognise that people do not think of every question on the day of the training. Our support service gives them the opportunity to ask their tutor an unlimited number of questions in the year following the course. In this way they continue to build their skills and confidence.
Ask us for a quotation
The cost of an in-house course depends on a number of things, including its length, its location and how much preparation we need to do. We can readily give you a quotation, so please contact us to discuss your needs.
The Grammar at Work course is designed for anyone who needs to write in a clear and professional manner but finds that they have gaps in their understanding of English grammar and punctuation.
Learning objectives
Introduction