Writing and Editing Skills

Effective business writing helps you get your job done by showing you how to communicate effectively and appropriately. You will learn how to organize your thoughts, use appropriate wording, target your communication, and write clearly. Good business writing brings results, so it’s worth learning how to do it well. This advanced business writing course will help you become a better communicator. That means you will be able to work more effectively and make life easier for your associates. Everyone will appreciate the effort you put into writing appropriately. This workshop will include lecture, practice exercises, and discussion. Those taking this course will be provided with a workbook of notes, exercises and references.

Minutes should serve as more than a record of who said what at a meeting. They should help organizations advance their goals and objectives and provide accountabilities. Building on PMC’s course Minute Taking for Better Meetings this day-long seminar provides participants with opportunities to craft minutes that focus on clear, concise writing designed to reach its intended audience — colleagues, board members, decision makers. Workshop participants will take notes in several mock meetings and write minutes in a variety of styles suitable for the audience. Active learning takes place in a relaxed and fun environment. Course participants will be encouraged to summarize their key learning points and prepare a short action plan to implement on their return to work.

Do you struggle to write correctly and professionally? Have you struggled with whether or not to use a comma or with how to punctuate bulleted lists? Have embarrassing errors undermined your writing? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this workshop is for you. In a lively, hands-on session, you will learn to appreciate and apply grammar rules for clear communication. You will also learn to avoid common pitfalls and edit your work for clarity and correctness. Participants will have plenty of opportunity to practice their new skills on common business documents, and are encouraged to bring examples they are working on.

Would you like to write more effectively? Have you forgotten what you learned in school? Would you like to have a greater impact and influence on your readers? Today’s business environment relies heavily on the written word. Whether you’re answering email, writing a detailed report, or responding to a customer query, your effectiveness will be judged by your ability to write in a clear and concise manner. Each participant receives a workbook and bibliography of helpful references. Seminar participants are encouraged to participate in writing exercises throughout the day and there is an opportunity for one-on-one consulting to answer specific questions and evaluate personal writing styles.

Meetings are an important part of the group decision-making process. With today’s flatter, less hierarchical organizations, one week you could be asked to chair a meeting and the next week to record the minutes. Minutes are a record of the group’s decisions and action items and it is vital that they are clear, concise and accurate. This seminar helps participants to understand the full range of their role and responsibilities as Minute Takers, to work effectively with the Chair and to produce agendas and minutes in a variety of styles – formal, informal and action. Workshop participants will take part in a mock meeting to gain a practical understanding of the roles of Chair and Minute Taker, to practice taking accurate notes and producing correct minutes. Active learning takes place in a relaxed and fun environment. Course participants will be encouraged to summarize their key learning points and prepare a short action plan to implement on their return to work.

Even strong workplace documents can lose credibility when errors, unclear wording, inconsistent formatting, or accessibility barriers get in the way. This course introduces the SCAN method, a repeatable process for reviewing documents for Structure, Clarity, Accuracy, and Navigation. Participants will learn how to scope a review, strengthen readability, check details, improve consistency, and support basic accessibility before documents are shared. They will also practise using AI-supported tools responsibly and giving clear handoff feedback that helps writers make the right changes without unnecessary rewriting.

Decision-makers rely on reports to understand issues, weigh evidence, and choose a clear path forward. When reports are too dense, loosely structured, or unclear about their purpose, important information can get lost. This course introduces the FOCUS framework to help participants turn complex information into clear, logical, and decision-ready reports. Participants will learn how to define report boundaries, organize evidence, keep sections focused, and write executive summaries that lead with meaning and direction. They will also explore how to use AI tools selectively to test outlines, identify structural gaps, and refine summaries while maintaining accuracy, context, and professional judgment. Participants leave with a reusable report blueprint they can apply to current and future workplace reports.

Busy decision-makers do not have time to search through dense background, unclear issues, or options that are not fully explained. This advanced course helps participants write briefing notes that turn complex, messy, or sensitive information into clear decision support. Using the 4 D’s Briefing Note Framework, participants will practise defining the issue, distilling relevant context, developing balanced options and implications, and delivering a clear recommendation or next step. The course also explores how approved AI tools can help structure non-sensitive source material while keeping human judgment, accuracy, and confidentiality at the centre of the work. Participants will leave with a practical approach for writing briefing notes that help senior readers understand what matters, weigh risks, and move forward with confidence.

In a busy workplace, unclear writing costs time. Everyday messages are often slowed down by dense jargon, long sentences, buried main points, and unclear next steps. This course gives participants practical tools to make emails, memos, notices, internal updates, and short web or intranet content clearer, shorter, and easier for the reader to act on. Using the PLAIN framework, participants learn how to check their writing for purpose, reader needs, main message, tone, sentence clarity, and scanability. This course also explores how AI can help flag readability and tone issues, jargon, and bias while keeping human judgment at the centre. Participants leave with a revised piece of communication and a repeatable process for writing in plain language back on the job.

This practical and interactive half-day workshop is designed to raise awareness about what factors go into professional emails.  Through theory and practical exercises, you will learn the importance of taking the time to write a quality email and how to do so. You will also discover how bad emails can affect your credibility, professional relationships, and productivity.

Equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) are often promoted as essential concepts in Canadian society. However, we are rarely given the instruction needed to incorporate EDIA practices into our daily work. This course will discuss the importance of and methods for applying EDIA to our writing and document formatting. This will give participants concrete applicable instruction for incorporating inclusive language and accessible formatting techniques into anything they set out to write.