Transform how government does business
Our courses drastically improve the documents that drive government and quasi-governmental bodies—policy writing, briefing notes, legislation and bylaws, investigation and decision documents, and more.
Training that’s specific to your world
We know government’s style, unique requirements, and writing and review process. This training is the product of decades of work and conversation with writers, reviewers, decision makers, and readers.
Government and regulatory training
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These courses are the starting point to significantly improve your documents and develop skills in your staff.
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These courses teach writers how to:
work skillfully with key documents that you produce regularly
avoid the pitfalls for that document type
write clearly and quickly under pressure
use templates effectively
gain from others’ experience with these types of documents
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These courses focus on and strengthen certain skills your team may need, depending on what they write.
Ask us if you need a course you don’t see here.
Offer a workshop for your team
Choose on-site training, live webinars, or self-paced online courses. Each workshop is customized to your organization and group.
Ways to work with us
Transform documents across your organization
One workshop produces real results. Those results are exponentially increased if you train more deeply and systematically.
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We offer multiple levels of training to reinforce, deepen, and advance your drafters’ skills.
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Apply this training across your branch, department, or organization to level up and standardize all the documents you produce.
When writers and reviewers are both trained in this way, it reduces complexity, editing time, and back-and-forth reviews.
Some of our clients
Alberta Energy Regulator
British Columbia Financial Services Authority
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 ministries of Energy, Environment, Family Services, Health, Justice, Lands, Technology, Transportation, and more
Local Government Administrative Association of Alberta
Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board
Nunavut Impact Review Board
Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments
Workers’ Compensation Board
Core courses
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Effective Government Writing
Learn the core skills government writers need to create clearer, more readable documents faster.
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Effective Writing and Reviewing for Managers and Leaders
A condensed version of Effective Government Writing with a focus on leaders’ needs and how to give clear, useful feedback to writers.
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Effective Editing
Get the step-by-step process Wordsmith uses when we edit. You’ll learn to pinpoint, resolve, and communicate issues in structure, language, and formatting. This course includes a takeaway checklist.
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Use AI to Think More Deeply and Get Smarter
Get the right relationship with AI as an analysis tool. Use it to gather information, test assumptions, identify risks, and develop more thorough and refined thinking.
Courses for specific documents
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Effective Briefing Note Training
Deliver strong, concise analysis decision makers can trust.
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Effective Policy and Procedure Writing
Write coherent, easy-to-implement policies and procedures that improve compliance.
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Effective Council Reports
Write efficient, clear reports that inform Council, so they can make the best decisions for the community.
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Effective Investigation Writing
Build a persuasive relationship between mandate or law, evidence, and findings.
Courses in specific skills
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Streamline the Writing and Review Process
Analyze process steps and time for the drafting, reviewing, and finalizing cycle in your organization. We help you identify inefficiencies, cut time, resolve back-and-forth cycles, and create stronger end products.
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Build Strong Rationale
Focus on creating strong, evidence-based content in any document type. This trains writers to approach problems more flexibly, analyze issues more deeply, and produce a clearer set of options for decision makers.
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Write Effectively as a Team
Learn best practices to manage the process to draft a document when multiple writers are involved. Use an orderly, efficient process to create clear content with less stress.
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Deliver Negative Messages Skillfully
Balance authority, professionalism, and empathy when delivering difficult messages. This training is effective for consumer complaints, complex stakeholder engagement, charged emotional situations, and impartial investigations.
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Effective Proofreading
Put the final polish on strong content. This is practical, hands-on training to catch errors and improve consistency.
What we teach your people to do
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30 words
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After
17 words
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51 words
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After
50 words
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26 words
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After
11 words
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32 words
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13 words
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48 words
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After
33 words
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"Best writing course I have ever taken."
Benoît Clément, Director of Financial Innovation at Verra
(5 star Google review) -
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“One of the best workshops I've attended. Inspiring and motivating to get better at writing."
Kris Samraj, Councillor for City of Medicine Hat
(5 star Google review) -
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"This was the most immediately applicable training I have ever taken. Our whole team got excited. We went back and applied what we learned to our Proposal Guide and cut the page count by 50%."
Lorraine Brekke, Manager of the Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program
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"Wordsmith facilitators are as confident, clear and helpful as your writing aims to be. More to learn about effective writing than many might think."
Chris Taylor, Alberta Education
(5 star Google review) -
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"I highly recommend Wordsmith. I learned a systematic approach to writing more quickly, clearly and with more persuasion. It was one of the best courses that I've taken since becoming a professional.
Samantha H
(5 star Google review) -
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"Sessions were well led by presenters who were very aware of the briefing note process in government. This meant I was able to get maximum value from the information."
Victoria Laidlaw, Alberta Education
(5 star Google review)
