Business Grammar & Proofreading

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Detailed Overview/Outline

Program Description:
Dear Professional:

Business Grammar & Proofreading is a new one-day workshop that features a phenomenal, “no-fear approach” to business grammar and proofreading skills. This skill-packed program has been designed for busy professionals like you who want a super-fast, easy way to brush up on grammar, spelling, proofreading, and business usage.

We’ve boiled down hundreds of grammar and usage rules to “the most important of the most important,” focusing on those contemporary grammar skills that will make the biggest, most immediate impact on your written business communication. This fast-paced, interactive learning adventure presents information in easy-to-grasp concepts that make learning fun — and painless. You’ll be startled at how much you’ll absorb, retain and enjoy!

An important feature of our exceptional workshop is a special update on the newest standards in business usage. You’ll discover how to handle courtesy titles, gender-pronoun problems, terms that may be considered insensitive or even offensive, and fresh alternatives to outdated words and phrases that have fallen out of favor.

Packed with tips, tricks and easy-to-remember techniques, this workshop is a must-attend event for you if any part of your job involves communicating in writing. Whether you prepare formal business reports, proofread business letters, send e-mail to customers or clients, or jot memos to your boss, the skills you’ll learn will add professional polish — and accuracy — to every sentence you write!

Don’t wait any longer to get the crucial grammar and proofreading skills you need to shine like the credible, capable professional you are. Enroll today!

Sincerely,

John Carey

Director of Curriculum

What You'll Learn:

Say goodbye to your grammar anxiety once and for all!

Spend just one day with us — learning in a fun environment where there’s no pressure or stress — and your grammar anxiety will melt away. You’ll discover dozens of easy tricks and tips for remembering grammar basics — tools you’ll use for the rest of your life!

Be “in the know” on the newest standards for business usage, including nonsexist language.

Forget “Dear Gentlemen.” You’ll learn up-to-date business usage for courtesy titles, salutations and more. Find out how to handle those sticky gender-pronoun issues and learn which words and terms may be considered insensitive or offensive.

Avoid making embarrassing written errors that could damage your credibility.

Grammar blunders and spelling errors scream “unprofessional!” Such mistakes can tarnish your image fast. This workshop will give you the important grammar skills you need to succeed, plus the confidence that comes from knowing that your written communication is error-free.

Proofread like a pro — and become the office hero!

By learning the foolproof techniques that professional proofreaders use, you’ll build a safety net for catching errors that would otherwise slip past. You’ll become the “eagle eye” in your office, proofreading quickly without sacrificing accuracy, as you spot even the smallest errors.

Continue to improve your skills with your take-home desktop reference.

You’ll keep honing your business grammar and usage skills long after this workshop is over, thanks to the valuable take-home materials you’ll receive as a participant. This valuable desktop reference is filled with grammar rules, tips and tricks and will become a trusted resource you’ll keep close at hand.

Who Should Attend?
YOU, especially if you miss one of these errors!

• Every employee is urged to turn in their expense reports on time.
• (Employees are urged to turn in their expense reports on time.)

• Who would you prefer to complete the report — Todd or I.
• (Whom would you prefer to complete the report, Todd or me?)

• We need your insurance that the workmen will finish by Friday.
• (We need your assurance that the workers will finish by Friday.)

• Our company use to file all their memoes.
• (Our company used to file all its memos.)

• The stern reprimand you delivered did not phase him.
• (The stern reprimand you delivered did not faze him.)

• If it was up to me I’d fire Dara immediately.
• (If it were up to me, I’d fire Dara immediately.)

• Its my recomendation that we conduct business with him.
• (It’s my recommendation that we conduct business with him.)

• We need to keep this problem from reoccuring again.
• (We need to keep this problem from recurring.)

• The team should run it’s own meetings.
• (The team should run its own meetings.)

• The proposed change should have positive affect on employes.
• (The proposed change should have a positive effect on employees.)

If you missed even one of these errors, you’re at risk for letting embarrassing mistakes slip into your work — and damage your professional credibility. Enroll in this workshop today and gain the skills and confidence you need to produce error-free business communication that makes you shine!

Workshop Agenda:
Out With the Old Business Communication Rules and in With the New!

• Still clinging to “old” business writing and usage ideas? Professional examples of how modern, written business communication should sound
• Why a casual, friendly tone is key to contemporary business communication
• Strategies for eliminating stiff, formal language and avoiding wordiness
• Understanding why concise communication is imperative today, whether you’re writing a formal report or an e-mail
• Most-often misused words in business documents, including words that don’t exist

“Must-Know” Grammar Basics for Blunder-Free Writing

• Image-crippling mistakes to avoid: Grammar blunders that professionals most frequently make
• What a misplaced modifier is and how it can wreak havoc with your meaning
• A simple way to make sure your subjects and verbs agree — guaranteed!
• "That’s up to you and I" or "that’s up to you and ME"? How to choose the right pronoun
• Handy grammar resources that will provide answers to even your trickiest questions

Smart Ways to Rev Up Your Sentences — and Polish Your Professional Image!

• How to use active verbs and voice to communicate more powerfully
• Wake up your readers by slashing adjectives and dumping unnecessary adverbs
• Tips for using varying sentence patterns and sentence lengths to express your ideas
• Less is more: “How-to’s” for trimming the fat from your documents
• Pointers for adding zing to your written communication

Handy “Cheat Sheets” for Capitalization, Numbers and Abbreviations

• The 10 Commandments of Capitalization for business communication
• Rules for capitalizing professional titles and names of things
• The Rule of 10 for spelling numbers and expressing them in figures
• When — and how — to abbreviate and when to spell it out

Punctuation Made Easy for the Semicolon-Challenged!

• Punctuation mistakes that are instant credibility killers — ones you’ll never again make!
• Avoid “comma-itis” by knowing when a comma is essential
• Easy ways to keep semicolons and commas straight
• Correctly using apostrophe-“s” or “s”-apostrophe to keep your meaning clear
• When (and why) to use parentheses
• Understanding when you need quotation marks and how to use them with other punctuation
• Punctuation rules that were made to be broken and when it’s a good idea to break them

Secrets of Goof-Proof Spelling

• A list to keep at hand from now on: The 100 most-often misspelled words in business communication
• 5 golden spelling rules every professional should memorize
• “Occuring” or “occurring”? The handy rule for adding word endings
• Hear are example of why you can’t depend on spell-checker to get your spelling write all the thyme
• Resources to check for the correct spelling of the newest words in our ever-evolving language

New Business Usage Standards: R.I.P. to “Dear Gentlemen”

• Guidelines for handling courtesy titles in business communication
• Fresh, new options for salutations in business correspondence
• Nonsexist alternatives guaranteed to help you steer clear of offensive language
• Solutions to gender-based pronoun problems
• Pet phrases and outdated words that need to be put out to pasture

Proofread Like a Pro to Catch Embarrassing Errors Before They “Go Public”

• Are you proofreading or editing? Why it’s important to know the difference before you start reading
• Tips for proofreading quickly without sacrificing accuracy
• Visual tricks that will help you catch hard-to-find errors such as duplicate words and omitted letters
• The secret to spotting your own typos and grammatical errors
• How to proofread numbers with 100 percent accuracy every time
• A proofreading checklist that will serve as your “safety net” so you can rest easy, knowing you’ve caught every error

Program Hours:

9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Registration begins at 8:30 AM

Sponsor Background:
National Seminars Group, a division of Rockhurst University Continuing Education Center, Inc., is one of the nation's leading providers of continuing education. Each year, we provide more than 6,000 seminars in the United States and Canada, and in our 14-year history, more that 5 million professionals have participated in these programs.

Besides offering a full range of training skills to all professional levels through our one-day and two-day seminars and conferences, we also offer highly-acclaimed books, audiocassette, videocassette and CD-ROM training products for individuals, teams, departments or corporate reference libraries.

Since 1991, our affiliation with Rockhurst University, a highly acclaimed four-year university, ensures our commitment to providing lifelong continuous-learning opportunities. We're certain the combination of continuing education with academic excellence gives you the best and most innovative approach to fulfill your continuing education needs.

Cancellation Policy:

If you cannot attend a workshop for which you are registered, you may send a substitute or receive a credit memo toward a future workshop. If you cancel your registration up to five business days before the workshop, your registration fee will be refunded less a $10 enrollment charge.

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