 
Course Enrollment
Information
  
Instructor-Coached Online Business Writing Courses
|
|
Business Writing Training Videos
 Dr. R. C. Hogan, director of the Business Writing Center, has developed a series of videos in business writing training. Some short YouTube videos are free for use by individuals, companies, and agencies. He is also developing a complete one-day workshop that will provide the same training he presents at company sites. More information . . .
Evaluations of the Courses and Awards
|
Federal GSA contract GS-02F-0129T
The Business Writing Center has been awarded a federal General Services Administration contract. A special GSA course catalog includes book costs with tuition and GSA discounts. You may also download the GSA Pricing List containing all of the Business Writing Center services with GSA discounts.
Rating by Dun & Bradstreet
The Business Writing Center's courses and training were evaluated by Dun & Bradstreet for the U.S. Federal General Services Administration. Six companies for whom the Center had performed training were contacted for ratings of performance and quality. All ratings averaged 90 to 98 on the 100-point scale for course delivery, including areas such as reliability, quality, personnel, support, responsiveness, and timeliness.
Testimonials by Course Graduates
Graduates of the courses usually send an unsolicited note of appreciation and recommendation at the end of the course. You can read a selection of the hundreds of such comments. Read some testimonials . . .
Department of Defense Review of Business Writing Center Courses
Unknown to the Business Writing Center, a Department of Defense team of training specialists enrolled as a single trainee in a Business Writing Center course. After the team finished the course, they informed us that they had given the training very positive evaluations and recommended that the Center be used for Department of Defense training.
|
|
Florida Department of Health Selects the Center for Online Writing Training
The Florida Department of Health is using the Business Writing Center for online business writing training for its employees. Employees may register and start immediately. Catalog of courses
Review of the Proofreading Skills course by Investor's Business Daily
Investor's Business Daily interviewed a graduate of the Proofreading Skills course and wrote a review of the course and taking online training. Click here to see the review.
Article about the Center in hr-esources and HRWire
HR-esources and HRWire published an article about the Center and our suggestions to help corporations improve the quality and clarity of their writing, especially e-mail. To read the article, click here.
National Association of Legal Assistants Credits Legal Proofreading Course
The Legal Proofreading course is approved for 10 hours of non-substantive credit by the National Association of Legal Assistants. More . . .
Companies Whose Employees the Center Has Trained
Many businesses have arranged with the Business Writing Center to train employees. Check the list of companies and agencies to see if your company or agency has an arrangement with us. If so, you may proceed directly to
the registration form. Your course materials will be online within a few hours. More . . .
Article about the Center
in TechRepublic
TechRepublic published an article describing Center resources available for IT professionals. Click here to see the review.
|
Choosing Courses that Fit Your Training Needs
How Do I Decide the Type of Writing Training I Need or My Staff Needs?
The Business Writing Center has prepared a guide to help you understand the areas of business writing and how to decide which course will provide the training that will benefit you or your organization. More . . .
Free Writing Evaluation and
Course Recommendation
The Business Writing Center provides a free evaluation of a writing sample with suggestions for the courses that would be best for the writer.
More . . .
You May Enroll as an Individual with No Company or Agency Sponsorship
You may enroll yourself in any of the online training courses without being part of a company or agency training program. You will receive the same individual coaching from our trainers, thorough evaluations of your writing, and graduation certificate. Enroll . . .
Online Writing Courses for
Busy Business People
BWC95 Business Writing Essentials
BWC85 Basic Grammar Essentials
In response to requests for versions of our online courses that require less trainee and faculty time, the Business Writing Center has developed online courses in business writing and usage (grammar, punctuation, and syntax) that have the same content as the longer online courses, but require one-third of the faculty time and student time.
More . . .
Recommended Core Business Writing Skills Courses
Most business writers benefit from one of the two core courses that teach the critical skills of writing clear e-mail, memos, letters, and reports. BWC210 Business Writing Skills has all of the course materials online. BWC220 Explicit Business Writing teaches the same skills, but the reading assignments are from the book Explicit Business Writing: Best Practices for the Twenty-First Century, taught by the author, Dr. R. C. Hogan. Enroll . . .
Business Writing for Speakers of English as a Second Language
The Center offers three courses to help speakers of English as a second language to polish their business writing language skills. They are for speakers of English as a second language who have mastered English but need to polish their use of phrases, articles, modal auxiliaries, tenses, and the other areas that commonly cause problems for nonnative speakers of English. More . . .
|
|
Instructor-Coached Courses, Self-instruction Courses, and Coaching or Tutoring
The Business Writing Center offers instructor-coached courses, self-study courses, and coaching or tutoring courses. You may participate in the courses from anywhere in the world, at your own pace.
Instructor-coached courses. In the instructor-coached courses, students submit writing assignments attached to e-mails. The Business Writing Center's highly qualified trainers write extensive comments on assignments and coach students in learning skills. Students go through the courses at their own paces, without having to be online at specific times with other students or follow a schedule. They read materials online as they have time and submit assignments when they are ready. The instructor responds when the student submits an assignment. The Center offers 45 instructor-coached courses (Catalog).
Self-study courses. The Center also offers self-study training that doesn't require an instructor. The courses cost less because trainer time isn't required. They also require less time to complete and volume discounts are available for companies and agencies. Arrangements can be made for Center faculty to evaluate a post-course writing sample and certify the student's competence in the skills (Courses available).
Coaching or tutoring. The highly trained Center faculty have advanced degrees and experience in coaching and tutoring students. The Center offers individualized coaching or tutoring courses for business writers, nonnative speakers of English, and executives. Read about them in the course catalog.
The courses are taught in different ways, depending on the content. You can read an explanation of the way the courses work, or you can contact the Business Writing Center for more information at 800 827-3770 or center@writingtrainers.com.
The sample self-study lesson for the Basic Business Grammar course contains the training on commas, including the pre-test, lesson, and post-test.
Learning Correct Usage (Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, and Sentences)
Businesses would like their employees to write without grammar errors, so they arrange to have them attend workshops on grammar. Unfortunately, a workshop simply will not teach business people how to overcome problems in their language usage. However, there is training that will help employees use correct grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and spelling.
More . . .
|
Tutoring and Coaching in Business Writing
Individualized Tutoring by Dr. Hogan
Two of our 45 training course options are Dr. Hogan's coaching courses. In them, Dr. Hogan trains business writers by coaching them through writing and revising documents to make them clear, concise, and professional. Dr. Hogan, director of the Business Writing Center, has been a manager of communications, consultant in writing to agencies and businesses, professor of writing at two universities, and owner of two writing companies. He is author of Explicit Business Writing: Best Practices for the Twenty-First Century.
The courses are BWC600 Writing Coaching for Executives and Managers and BWC520 Coaching through Writing Actual Documents. Register for one of the coaching courses.
|
|
Individualized Writing Courses
The Business Writing Center builds courses around trainees' writing needs. The real strength of training using the Internet and e-mail as the media is that it allows more individualized teaching than any other medium, including having a personal tutor. The trainee can learn and write at his or her own pace, taking all the time necessary. The instructor is available to provide guidance and coaching at any point. A classroom environment or tutoring appointments don't allow that flexibility.
To make the individualized teaching and coaching available to trainees, the Business Writing Center offers six individualized courses. More . . .
|
Special Arrangements for Business Writing Training
You May Enroll Now and Start Later
You may enroll in a writing course at any time and start when you are ready. For example, you could enroll today and start in another month, two months, or later. The time allotted for you to finish the course will begin then. We will also transfer you into another course at that time if you decide another would be better suited to you. For companies, if an employee decides not to take the course or leaves, we will transfer the enrollment to any other employee you designate.
|
|
End-of-Fiscal-Year Purchases
The Business Writing Center arranges deferred enrollments so blocks of enrollments can be purchased at the end of the fiscal year, then used for any employees at any time during the next year. More . . .
Nonprofit and Government Discounts
Nonprofit organizations and government agencies are given discounts on courses. Other special arrangements are made for government agencies. More . . .
|
Certifications Available for Graduates
Courses for Certification in
Explicit Business Writing
The Center certifies business writers in the 39 best practices that result in explicit business writing. A graduate certified as competent in the skills will be able to write e-mails, memos, letters, and reports that communicate explicitly to readers. The Center also certifies students in colleges of business.
Two courses teach the best practices: BWC220 Explicit Business Writing, which has five competency exams, and BWC225 Explicit Business Writing with Additional Training, which has 39 activities and 17 competency exams. Graduates of BWC225 are able to edit others' writing and teach the skills, so the course is ideal for training trainers. The materials are available for use by professors and corporate trainers.
More . . .
|
|
Certification for Explicit
Business Writing Trainers
The Center trains and certifies corporate trainers, college faculty, and anyone interested in teaching the explicit business writing skills. The course materials and book can then be used in the training. More . . .
Business Writing Certificates
All graduates of each Business Writing Center course receive a graduation certificate with our gold seal for framing. In addition, the Business Writing Center offers four special programs for business writers and writing trainers:
- Business Writing Specialist Certificate
- Editing and Proofreading Specialist Certificate
- Explicit Business Writing Trainer Certificate
- Writing Course Trainer Certificate
|
Customized Training
Customized Training for
Corporations and Agencies
The Business Writing Center customizes training to fit a company's or agency's requirements. Center faculty will evaluate a company's or agency's writing, provide suggestions for training, and design a program to develop a workforce that writes explicitly. With a minimum number of enrollments, the customization is free. More . . .
|
|
Customizing the Best Practices Book for Associations and Organizations
The Business Writing Center customizes Explicit Business Writing: Best Practices for the Twenty-First Century to give a company, association, or agency a tailored training manual, at no cost when an order of books is placed.
The first customized book was for crime laboratory directors. More . . .
|
Other Business Writing Training Services
Competency-Based, Onsite
Business Writing Workshops
Dr. Hogan presents workshops at company sites to train participants in the skills they need to write explicit business documents. The workshops teach the best practices explained in Dr. Hogan's book, Explicit Business Writing: Best Practices for the Twenty-First Century.
The workshops are competency-based. Dr. Hogan evaluates participants' writing and certifies their writing competence or coaches them through revising.
More . . .
Editing, Proofreading, and Writing
Business Writing Center staff edit, proofread, and write documents for companies. Documents include letters, reports, newsletter articles, public-relations pieces, user manuals, and any other document an agency or company needs to have written clearly to have impact.
For more information, contact center@writingtrainers.com.
Dr. Hogan Speaks to Groups about Explicit Business Writing
R. C. Hogan, Ph.D., director of The Business Writing Center, author of Explicit Business Writing: Best Practices for the Twenty-First Century, speaks to groups about how to help employees write clearly and effectively. More . . .
Taming the E-mail Problem
This Power Point presentation explains how business people can manage e-mails and keep e-mail viable as an efficient medium for business communication available today. You may use and copy it freely in your company.
|
|
Best Practices for Writing that Communicates Clearly
 R. C. Hogan, Ph.D., director of The Business Writing Center, with 38 years' experience in teaching writing, has written a valuable writing guide for business people titled Explicit Business Writing: Best Practices for the Twenty-First Century.
It contains the best practices business people are using today to make their writing clear and effective. More . . .
Online Business Writing Training Materials for Trainers and Professors
The following online, interactive course materials are available for corporate trainers and college faculty. The Business Writing Center has a train-the-trainers course training corporate trainers to use any of the materials.
•
Basic Grammar for Business
•
Business Writing Skills
•
Editing Skills
•
Effective Business Letters
•
Effective Workplace E-mail
•
Explicit Business Writing
•
Legal Proofreading Skills
•
Legal Writing Skills
•
Plain English Writing Skills
•
Proofreading Skills
•
Recording and Writing Meeting Minutes
•
SEC Plain English Writing
•
Writing Clear, Objective Audit Reports
•
Writing Skills for Contact
Center Representatives
|
|
Free Online Tests for You or Company Staff
|
Test Your Knowledge of the 26 Most Common Business Writing Problems
This sentence is incorrect: "The jury was at odds over the verdict." Do you know why?
You may take the free quiz of the writing problems business people commonly display by clicking here. The quiz is a teaching tool you may use freely. If you are a manager, you may use it with your employees.
For each item, you or your employees choose the sentence you believe is written correctly. After you select sentences for all of the items, your score will appear, along with an explanation of the rule for each item. Some of them will surprise you.
Test Your Knowledge of the
Most Commonly Misspelled Words
Do you write "accomodate" or "accommodate"? "Deductable" or "deductible"? "Occurrance" or "occurrence"? Sometimes "acknowledgment" is correct and sometimes "acknowledgement" is correct. Do you know when each is correct?
You may take the free quiz of the 25 most commonly misspelled words by clicking here. Use the quiz freely.
After you select spellings for all of the words, your score will appear, along with the correct choices.
|
|
Test Your Knowledge of Comma Usage and Learn the Basic Rules
A sample lesson the Center uses in our grammar courses is available for you or your employees to use. It includes a pre-test on commas to let you know your current level of knowledge and an interactive lesson on commas. After you read the lesson, you may take the post-test to see how much you've improved your skills.
Click on this link to go to the sample menu for the grammar course. There, click on Lesson 9 to take the pre-test, read the lesson on commas, and take the post-test: Commas . . ..
Test Your Knowledge of the Most Commonly Confused Word Pairs
When do you use "affect" and when "effect"? When "between" and when "among"? How about "comprised" and "composed"? Why is this sign you commonly see at checkouts wrong: "20 items or less."
You may take the free quiz of the most commonly confused word pairs by clicking here. Use the quiz freely.
For each item, choose the word you believe is correct for the sentence. After you select words for all of the sentences, your score will appear, along with the correct choices.
|
Interview with the Director
by The New York Times
The New York Times published an article on page A-1 about writing training featuring an interview with The Business Writing Center's director, R. C. Hogan, PH.D. You can read the article at this link.
Article about the Center
in The Daily Pantagraph
The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois, where The Business Writing Center's main site is located) interviewed the Center's director, R. C. Hogan, PH.D. at his office. You can read the article at this link.
|
|
Article about the Center
in TechRepublic
TechRepublic published an article describing Center resources available for IT professionals. Click here to see the review.
Responding To Customers in E-mails: Let Customers' Words Guide You
The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) asked the Business Writing Center to write Responding To Customers in E-mails: Let the Customers' Words Guide You, based on the Business Writing Center's Writing Skills for Technical Support Representatives online training course. You may review the introduction and contents of the course.
Cincinnati Enquirer article
The Cincinnati Enquirer weekly magazine published an article about the unique services the Business Writing Center offers.
|
E-mail the Center at
center@writingtrainers.com
Copyright © Business Writing Center - All Rights Reserved
|
center@writingtrainers.com