Business Writing for Today's Professionals (with Mitacs Training)

This session is being offered in collaboration with MITACS Training and the Graduate Pathways to Success Program. Mitacs Training provides professional development training to advanced degree graduates, supplementing their education and research experience with the tools necessary to succeed in today’s workforce.

No matter what field you’re working in, written communication is a critical part of your day-to-day duties. Regardless of your comfort or skill level, you can benefit from learning techniques to entice your readers and achieve your goals. This course will help all professionals hone their writing skills using proven techniques and processes. 

Course Objective

To provide opportunities for participants to build on their business writing knowledge and skills through a combination of self-directed activities and in-person, facilitated application. Participants will shape their approach to strategically creating clear written communication in a professional setting.

Learning Outcomes

• Gain practical written communication skills to improve engagement with various stakeholders
• Deepen your understanding of writing techniques to concisely grab a reader’s attention and get results
• Learn writing methods that can be applied immediately   
• Harness writing processes that maximize preparation and effective writing time

Key Topic Areas

Preparing to write

• Preparing to write: Gathering ideas , Organization, Scheduling
• Determine relevant information + Structure + Tools: Operational plan, Report, Template, Email
• Estimating + Scheduling + Defending writing time (email, letters, templates)

Actively Writing

• Reduction techniques: 1st write, 2nd write, 3rd write
• Report Writing: Top Tips + Samples review
• Tables: Using – how to, when to, + Tips
• Images vs. Words (when to visualize data)
• Organizing Content: Top-down vs. Bottom Up
• Duration estimating: How long will this really take up in my day?
• Call-To-Action: Defining, usage
• Assessing + Respecting audience reading / attention time

Self-Editing + Review

• Proofing techniques
• Grammar + Sentence Structure Top Tips
• Formatting tips + MS Word / MS Excel quick tips
• Improving Clarity, Tone

FACILITATOR

Rose Hastreiter

Each moment holds within it a choice to go beyond survival. Rose founded Leonty3C.com, a Canadian firm that helps people shift into thrive. Her industry background as an IT project management leader, instructor, speaker, and facilitator combined with her professional creative background as an internationally-recognized composer and vocalist, shares one mission: to inspire days-well-lived.

As the daughter of a WWII survivor, she began her career at a young age so to take care of herself and her elderly father who navigated the daily impacts of post-war trauma. By the age of 20, she was representing Canada as a speaker at international conferences while finishing her degree at UBC and developing her management consulting profession. Over 20 years later, her consulting cases span a variety of organizations, including for-profit, non-profit, government, and academic arenas. Her specialty is empowering project team functionality, action follow-through, and productivity. Her workshops boost quality of action through an integrated tactical and human approach.

Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, she has worked extensively through Canada and in 2009, moved her office and production studio to the spectacular Fundy Isles region in New Brunswick. She considers herself a citizen of the world, so when people ask where home is, she'll normally point out "wherever my feet are". She is known for her energy, authenticity, and powerful stage presence, speaking on topics of leadership, productivity, humanity and resilience. http://www.leonty3c.com

REGISTRATION

Registration in this session is required, and is now open. There are limited seats available in this session, and those successfully registered will receive an email within one week of the session date.

If you are a graduate student interested in attending this event, please register through the Graduate Pathways to Success Program.

NO-SHOW PENALTY: If you register and do not attend or cancel after 3pm on the day before the event, it may affect your eligibility to join future events. To avoid this no-show penalty, please cancel by at least 3pm the day before the event by e-mailing postdoctoral.fellows@ubc.ca.

Accessibility

If you have a disability or medical condition that may affect your full participation in the event, please email postdoctoral.fellows@ubc.ca in advance of the event.

DELIVERY FORMAT

Due to the ongoing situation surrounding COVID-19, this session will be delivered online via Zoom. The following suggestions may help to improve the online experience:

• Use headphones to reduce noise and avoid feedback between your mic and speaker.
• Ensure that you are in a quiet location so that the audio does not get polluted with unwanted noise.
• Keep your microphone on mute unless you are speaking during the session.
• In case of technical problems, time for plugin downloads, etc., please attempt to log into the Zoom meeting 10-15 minutes before the start. You will be placed in the waiting room until the official start time.