Our letter writing course is designed to give your staff the ability to prepare letters that communicate effectively and professionally.
The workshop covers all the essential skills for writing formal letters, including structuring, getting the tone right and using grammar accurately.
It also gives advice on writing specific types of letter, such as sales and marketing messages and responses to complaints. The focus can of course be adjusted to match your needs.
We would be pleased to review sample letters before the training, to identify areas for improvement and devise an appropriate programme.
Afterwards, a year of free support from the tutor will provide your staff with additional help whenever they need it.
Learning objectives
By the end of this course your staff will be able to:
write letters that are effective and professional
respond to complaints appropriately
prepare powerful sales letters
apply the conventions of business letter writing
structure letters to communicate clearly
select the best tone for the situation
write plainly and concisely
use proofreading techniques to pick up mistakes.
Morning session
Group discussion
What can go wrong in a letter?
What are the consequences of poorly written letters?
What can you do to ensure that your letters are professional?
The conventions
Layout of letters
Salutations and closes
Creating a clear and logical structure
Assembling your points
Getting key messages across early
Using a template
Useful models for structuring letters
Writing opening sentences
Discussion of various approaches
Suggested openings
Setting the tone
Why tone matters
Selecting the best tone for the situation
Matching your tone to your brand
Sticking to the point
Avoiding waffle
Keeping sentences short
Removing superfluous words and phrases
Being clear
Putting yourself in the reader’s position
Avoiding ambiguity
Choosing straightforward words
Correcting confused and misused words
Using bullet points well
Afternoon session
Using grammar with confidence
The importance of accurate grammar and punctuation
Common mistakes in letters
Writing closing sentences
Top tips for ending letters
How to test your endings
Responding to complaints
Understanding your reader
Clarifying what are they really saying or asking
Apologising appropriately
Sounding sincere, polite and helpful
Providing clear explanations
Avoiding clichés and stock statements
Responding fully
Promoting products and services
Key techniques for sales and marketing letters
Using a headline
Engaging the reader
Focusing on benefits
Highlighting your USPs
Anticipating questions
Including a call to action
Final checks
The importance of proofreading your letters
Key proofreading techniques
Further development
Reference sources
Post-course support
More information
The Letter Writing course is available as an in-house course, which we would run at your premises. For more information,
click here.
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“The feedback from our engineers has been excellent. They all said that the training exceeded their expectations.”
Richard Rouse Northern Regional Manager Innovation Group
“In a competitive industry, it is increasingly apparent that our commitment to giving our customers a first-class service will be what sets us apart from our competitors. The Stephen Lloyd Training courses help us by refocusing our attention on the importance of the written word.”
Shelly Mitchinson Customer Relations Manager Executive Liaison and Priority Services EDF Energy
“A great course. I enjoyed it and learnt a lot.”
Lynnette Bruynius Legal Secretary EMW Law
Running the Letter Writing course in-house
The Letter Writing course can be run as in-house training anywhere in the world. If you have a group of staff who need the same skills, this option is cost-effective and convenient.
Tailored to your needs
The length and content of this course can be tailored to match your needs. In addition to covering some
or all of the topics given in the
example programme, you may want to add topics that are particularly relevant to your
organisation.
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 it 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.
Our letter writing course is designed to give your staff the ability to prepare letters that communicate effectively and professionally.
Learning objectives
Group discussion