About our challenge-specific training
Who should attend
Everyone who deals with these tricky writing problems—including reviewers.
What you’ll learn
Why these challenges happen and the precise strategies and tools to resolve them.
Why bother
These courses hone specific, important skills and put an end to chronic struggles.
What if you could cut organizational writing and reviewing time in half?
Our workshops give individuals tools to write twice as quickly in half the time. This builds skills, confidence, quality, and productivity.
You can multiply these same results across your whole organization. By reducing the time and cost of every document you produce, you free up time, money, and attention for other important work.
How Wordsmith writing courses have benefited our divisions
The resources Wordsmith provided, such as updated templates and checklists, helped PSC staff produce clearer, more concise documents, and contributed to more consistent and efficient processes across the department. We also saw an immediate reduction in style inconsistencies and common edits, which allows for a more productive use of reviewers’ time.
Specific highlights from my Executive Team included:
“I saw an immediate and lasting improvement in my branch and the PSC as a whole. Products became much more conversational and concise. The biggest benefit was that it gave people a sense of permission to leave extraneous details out. It definitely reduced the amount of time spent on reviews and revisions.”
- Lana Lougheed, Deputy Minister of the Public Service Commission
Writing that works for work
You likely don’t consider yourself to be a ‘professional writer,’ but that’s how you get the bulk of your work done. Mastering this skill radiates out to everything else you do.
Our courses are practical and hands-on
We’ve designed them to give you the tools you need to:
build confidence and skill
speed up the writing process and improve clarity
reduce the back-and-forth emails and review cycles
Get many hours in your day back with our training.
“Can’t believe how practical—online course”
Some of our clients
Alberta Energy Regulator
British Columbia Securities Commission
Canada Energy Regulator
Canadian Human Rights Commission
Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization
Cities of Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Vancouver, and more
Civilian Review and Complaint Commission for RCMP
Federal and provincial governments (across nearly every ministry)
Nunavut Impact Review Board
Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments
Verra
Workers’ Compensation Board
Have documents that look like this
Before (314 words)
Issue
The XX Committee (the Committee) was tasked with sourcing information that could potentially be used to strengthen Province X’s health care system, deliver better results for citizens, and deliver greater efficiencies.
Background
Over a matter of nine months, the Committee conducted research and facilitated discussion with stakeholders with expertise across the field of health-care systems.
Stakeholders involved in the Committee discussed at length how to best ensure that evidence is gathered, analyzed, and disseminated throughout the system relative to publicly funded services, technologies, structures, processes and procedures and incentives.
It should be noted that much research and analysis has been done on leading and best practices. The sources of this research and analysis were cross jurisdictional in nature, as well as in our own province.
Many possibilities were discussed. These included a “clearinghouse function” being identified or established and other structures being engaged and put into place to ensure greater coordination and application in the use of evidence.
Analysis
The Committee’s mandate is built on the platform of the ongoing and increasing need for the health system to do more to ensure that evidence is appropriately applied in order to better inform decisions about services, practices and policies and improve health outcomes in Province X.
The Committee is of the belief that the Province X Health Act should contain provisions to establish an objective, independent entity with the resources to assess and analyze health research and other relevant evidence in order to inform decisions on health services throughout the system.
The Committee agrees that as its recommendation is implemented, all necessary steps should be taken to optimize the use of existing expertise and resources, such as those residing in the health system, X Province universities, institutes, and other health agencies, as well as national research organizations.
Recommendation
It is recommended that Province X establish an arm’s-length entity to support evidence-based decision-making throughout the health system.
After (249 words)
Issue
The XX Committee investigated how best to use health research to strengthen Province X’s health care system.
Recommendation
The Committee recommends the Province X Health Act establish an independent body to collect and analyze research, communicate findings, and inform decisions on health services.
Background
The Committee’s mandate was to analyze ways to improve Province X’s health care system, deliver better results, and increase efficiency.
The Committee worked over nine months to research the issue and consult healthcare experts. We gathered and carefully reviewed the information available nationally, internationally, and here in Province X.
There is already a solid body of research in health care, but there is currently no organization to coordinate and communicate it.
Analysis
Province X is not currently maximizing its ability to use existing research to make evidence-based decisions.
The Committee found rich opportunities to improve the health system by:
better understanding the existing body of health-related research
integrating existing research into the province’s day-to-day practices
communicating findings to policy makers to inform decision making
The Committee believes the best approach is to establish an independent body to undertake these responsibilities.
It is important this body have the necessary resources.
The advantages of establishing an independent organization
This body would:
centralize the research
draw on expertise from institutes and agencies, provincial universities, national research organizations, and within our own health care system
develop strategies to inform decisions about health care and propose ways to apply evidence to daily practices across the system
A success story
The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) is an organization that resolves financial disputes. Plain language has become, in their words, “the way we do things.” OBSI:
trained all their staff—we offered foundational and document- and skill-specific, training to give writers and reviewers tools
updated templates—this significantly shortened the length of documents and time to produce them and improved clarity
created consistency—they now have a one-page writing standard of principles and a style guide
streamlined the review process
Clearer letters in a fraction of the time
In a specialized and jargon-filled industry, their documents have become extraordinary examples of clarity. Consumers have responded to unfavourable letters by saying, “Thank you. You were the first person who helped me understand.”
Many of the major banks have now adopted OBSI’s approach to letter writing.
What costs can Wordsmith’s trainings save you?
Wasting time writing inefficiently and ineffectively can cost your organization money. Wordsmith has witnessed significant cost savings in its client’s businesses after training programs. Use the cost savings tool to project your organization’s potential gains.
What if you could cut organizational writing and reviewing time in half?
Our workshops give individuals tools to write twice as quickly in half the time. This builds skills, confidence, quality, and productivity.
You can multiply these same results across your whole organization. By reducing the time and cost of every document you produce, you free up time, money, and attention for other important work.
How Wordsmith writing courses have benefited our divisions
The resources Wordsmith provided, such as updated templates and checklists, helped PSC staff produce clearer, more concise documents, and contributed to more consistent and efficient processes across the department. We also saw an immediate reduction in style inconsistencies and common edits, which allows for a more productive use of reviewers’ time.
Specific highlights from my Executive Team included:
“I saw an immediate and lasting improvement in my branch and the PSC as a whole. Products became much more conversational and concise. The biggest benefit was that it gave people a sense of permission to leave extraneous details out. It definitely reduced the amount of time spent on reviews and revisions.”
- Lana Lougheed, Deputy Minister of the Public Service Commission
Latest blog posts
Why writing is a struggle… and how to fix it
What you’re likely accustomed to
Most people simply haven’t been given good tools for writing effectively at work. That can make writing feel like this:
Effort
Time
Page count
Stress
Frustration
Our workshops offer an alternative
Good writing is not rocket science. We teach a series of practical steps that give writers traction and lead to clear documents.
Ease
Clarity
Flow
Speed
Mastery
Effective workplace writing is
a series of practical principles
It often looks like something magical happened when you read a clear document.
In reality, you achieve this through a series of objective principles—that’s what we teach.
We think this City of Calgary sign is genius!