Write more effective documents for your city or town

We’ve been training municipal writers for over 45 years. This workshop brings together input from council, city managers, and department heads for what they want to see in quality writing. You will learn how to:

write documents that are clearer, more usable, and easier for readers to act on
resolve challenges specific to municipal writers
apply research-based principles for strong writing
use a step-by-step writing process to reduce writing and editing time by 50%

The workshop applies to every document you write—council reports, briefings, internal reports, RFPs, policies, procedures, emails, bylaws, and more.

Effective Municipal Writing

The content is practical, interactive, and hands on

You will collaborate, discuss, ask questions, learn from peers, and do exercises. Each person comes with a document in mind to write. We will walk you through a writing process live to get a real piece of work done during the workshop.

Tailored to you

When you sign up, we ask:

what documents you write
where you struggle
what you hope to get out of the workshop
for an optional sample document

We use what you tell us to customize the workshop.

Course details

7 hours of live content, plus 3.5-hour self-paced follow up
Online (Zoom)
Day One—November 24, 2026 9:00 - 12:30 MST
Day Two—November 26, 2026 9:00 - 12:30 MST
$750 per person
Certificate of completion

We limit attendance to 20 people per session. This keeps workshops interactive and gives everyone a chance to ask questions.
Absolutely! If you want to register more than 10 people, please email us. We can discuss hosting a private session customized to your team and documents.
hello@wordsmith.ca
Yes. All participants get access to the recording for one week after each session.
The training is valuable for anyone who writes or reviews municipal documents—from admin staff to senior leaders.
When your team shares a common vocabulary and approach, documents get clearer and the review process gets faster and smoother.

Module 1—Think Deeper to Write Faster

We’ll walk you through a new writing process that:

reveals the reasons behind workplace writing struggles and how to solve them
adapt to the needs of different audiences, including Council, senior leaders, technical reviewers, and the public
creates a strong, readable structure
helps you deepen your thinking and analysis
allows you to write much more quickly and confidently

Course content

These three modules cover all the core skills necessary to be a strong writer

Module 2—Write in a Clear, Accessible Style

We cover how to:

refine first drafts quickly
write in a clear, professional style
write concisely without losing important context
avoid government jargon and insider language
structure active, strong sentences
explain technical content to non-technical readers and the public

Module 3—Self-paced workflow to use AI effectively in the writing and editing process

The first two modules give you the foundation to be a faster, more effective writer. This module integrates AI into that process. We cover ways to use AI to:

assess your audience, purpose, and structure
speed up the process
act as a thinking partner and writing coach
perfect tone to be appropriate for the audience, purpose, and context
edit and proofread thoroughly and quickly

We also cover where it’s appropriate to avoid using AI and rely on your judgment and expertise. This guidance prevents AI from creating confusing text, time cost, and hallucinations.

Build strong analysis that supports decision-making

Communicate complex information clearly while respecting accuracy, context, and political sensitivity

Move documents through review with less stress, clearer feedback, and fewer unnecessary revisions

Wordsmith has helped our organization tremendously. We broadly trained our staff in writing reports and I’ve seen an improvement in our writing. The reports are clearer, better organized, and simply easier to read. The more staff we can get this training for, the better.

—Ray MacIntosh, CFO of the City of Red Deer