Open-registration webinar – live training
Effective Municipal Writing
Write more effective documents for your city or town
We’ve been training municipal writers for 50 years. This workshop brings together what council, city managers and department heads have told us they want to see in quality writing. You will learn how to:
- write clearer documents that are easier for readers to act on
- resolve challenges specific to municipal writing
- apply research-based principles
- reduce writing and editing time by 50%
You can apply this content to every document you write: council reports, briefings, RFPs, policies, procedures, bylaws, emails, and more.
Course content
Learn the core skills of a strong municipal writer
Think deeper to write faster
Good writing is clear thinking on paper. This module gives writers a new process for writing. You will get past the stages you normally struggle with, access your own clarity more easily, and get your thoughts on paper more quickly and confidently.
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- Understand why writing is hard and how to fix it
- Resolve common problems in municipal writing
- Understand and adapt to the needs of council, senior leaders, reviewers, and the public
- Deepen your analysis
- Build strong structure
- Make content more readable
- Speed up the writing process by 50%
Write in a clear, accessible style
We cover all the principles behind clear writing. These are internationally established best practices to help you write in a way that readers can understand and act on quickly. It’s important to understand these, so you can ask AI to build them into anything it does for you (and you can properly evaluate anything it produces).
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- Refine first drafts quickly
- Write concisely without losing context
- Communicate in a clear, professional style
- Structure sentences effectively
- Avoid government jargon and insider language
- Explain technical content to non-technical readers
Use AI well in the writing and editing process
This online, self-paced course shows you how to effectively integrate AI into the process you learned on Day 1. You come with a document in mind to write, and use the course as a guided series of steps to create it. By the end, you’ll have an excellent document that was created using a combination of your human intelligence and AI. You also receive a library of sequential prompts you can reuse on future documents.
See full description →Your readers will notice a difference
Administration has undertaken a comprehensive review of the snow and ice control program in light of community feedback received over the past two seasons and evolving service-level expectations. Following consultation with internal stakeholders, a number of considerations have emerged which, taken together, suggest that…
Administration recommends adding residential streets to priority-2 snow clearing. This brings clearing time after a major snowfall from 7 days to 4. This change can be made within the current operating budget.
How it works
Practical, interactive training that becomes a new habit
We hear from you
You’ll tell us what documents you write, where you struggle, and what you hope to get out of the workshop. If you like, you can send us a sample document. We customize the workshop from your answers.
You write a real document
Each person comes with a document in mind. We walk the writing process live, and you collaborate, discuss, ask questions and learn from us and peers as you draft.
You keep practicing using our resources
You receive a 100-page manual covering every principle, optional feedback on your emails, and access to a self-paced AI module where you continue practicing.
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.
The training was beneficial and will definitely help me review documents, RFDs, and RFPs before submitting them to the SLT Team and Council.
I found this very useful. It gave me a new way to organize my thoughts and build strong rationale. I would highly recommend.
Answers to your questions
How many people are in the training?
We cap it at 20 people per session. This keeps workshops interactive and gives everyone a chance to ask questions.
Can I register a few people from my team?
Absolutely. If you want to register more than 10 people, email hello@wordsmith.ca and we can discuss a private session customized to your team and documents.
What do I take away?
A recording of each session for one week, a 100-page course manual covering every principle taught, and the self-paced AI module.
Is it open to all levels of seniority?
Yes — anyone who writes or reviews municipal documents, from admin staff to senior leaders. When a team shares a common vocabulary and approach, documents get clearer and the review process gets faster and smoother.
What if I can’t attend one of the days live?
Each session is recorded and available for one week. The exercises work best live, though, so we recommend attending both days if you can.
What if these dates don’t work for me?
We offer this workshop several times a year. You can add your name to our list and we’ll let you know when the next session opens.
Other live webinars
December 8 & 10, 2026
Effective Workplace Writing
Our foundational two-day course, for private- and public-sector documents of every kind.
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