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Investing
in People is a key strategy for the vast majority of forward-thinking
organisations. And one of the best ways to invest in your
employees is to train them. For organisations that produce
large amounts
of corporate literature, both the organisation and its employees
can see rapid and demonstrable benefits from in-house writing
training.
The symptoms
UK Trade and Investment was in
just such a situation. As the government's lead organisation
for helping companies
based in
the UK achieve their export potential, UK Trade and Investment produces
a great deal of written communication, both internally and externally.
It is a large organisation with over
2,000 employees worldwide - many of whom are called upon
at some stage
to write or commission important, client-facing copy, often
with little
or no experience
of publicity writing. And yet, with a high-profile
organisation like UK Trade and Investment, it is vital that
all communications, particularly external, are as good as
they
possibly can
be.
This sounds straightforward enough: an
organisation such as UK Trade and Investment needs to ensure
that all the customer-facing copy
produced under its auspices is of an extremely
high quality. But that copy also has to be produced with
the
maximum efficiency, often to tight deadlines. And - perhaps
most importantly
- all written publicity material must be
consistent with the organisation's
key messages.
With these three key areas
of quality, efficiency and consistency in mind, UK
Trade and Investment realised that
it should invest
in publicity writing training for its
employees. They turned to
the people best qualified to provide
in-house writing training - a professional writing
agency experienced
in the most
up-to-date 'brain friendly' training
techniques.
The diagnosis
"We turned to Writing Machine for
help because not all of the people working here are skilled
marketing professionals, adept
at commissioning and writing copy," said
Julie Hatch, Marketing Manager. "Writing
isn't necessarily everyone's core
skill, and some people are just given
the job of getting on with it.
It might be something they've never
done before, and sometimes they don't
fully understand all the requirements."
To
get to the heart of the problem,
Writing Machine suggested comprehensive
skills
and materials
audits in two phases.
First came a metric-driven critique
of over 50 pieces of literature,
including brochures, case studies,
newsletters and direct mailings.
These had all been
written over
the past two
years by authors
at UK Trade and Investment. Writing
Machine graded each piece in terms of its
overall quality,
as well
as using a
set of criteria
ranging
from basic grammar to structure,
tone of voice and relevance.
During
the second phase, Writing Machine interviewed a cross-section
of employees
at UK Trade and Investment in
order to establish their
own perceptions of their abilities
and, in some cases, their limitations.
The
results of the
materials and
skills audits
were then combined to identify
areas needing improvement.
The
prescription
The point of the audit process
was to make sure that UK
Trade and Investment got the most
out of its
investment
in training.
Investing
in People is all well and
good, but
there's no point teaching
someone what they already
know.
The ground was now
prepared for the development of a
one-day training course
designed to address the
key weaknesses
within the department.
Writing Machine designed a 'SAVI-compliant'
training course.
This approach
incorporates well-documented
research which
shows that every human
being learns using a
combination of different
elements to process new
information:
Somatic, Auditory, Visual
and Intellectual. By
tailoring every module
of the training
course to meet each of
these four requirements,
Writing
Machine was
able to create a course
that would be accessible
to all
attendees, irrespective
of their
individual learning
types.
The treatment
Four one-day courses
were delivered by
two trainers,
both experienced
practitioners from
Writing Machine. Group sizes
were kept small,
with an average of
nine people attending each
session. This
high trainer-to-learner
ratio
was designed
to give everyone
from UK Trade and
Investment the maximum opportunity for
personal,
one-to-one contact
with an expert.
The course itself was
divided into three
main sections.
Before any
writing project
can begin,
it is vital
to establish the
objectives: answers
must be provided
as to why
the project
is being
undertaken in the
first place, and how its
success or failure
is to be assessed.
Who is going
to
read your
text? What
do you
want them to do after
reading it? And how
will you know if
it's worked?
Objective setting
was followed by
a structural
tools module,
which assists
learners
to develop an appropriate
structure
to meet those objectives.
This included
tuition in Microsoft
Word's Outline
facility that can
help during the
structuring process
- each learner
had
their own computer
to work on.
With
the objectives set and a structure
devised,
the
course moved
on to explore some
of the
ways in which
these can
be implemented
within real-life
writing, with
the emphasis on
writing to
meet
the needs
and expectations
of
the reader.
The
day was organised to mix theory
and practice
with fun,
whilst ensuring
the
learners had
to think on
their feet,
applying specific
writing techniques
to a
specially prepared
1,000 word
document. To create a friendly
atmosphere
and avoid 'information
overload',
practical and
theoretical
sessions were interspersed
with
quizzes and
activities to test what
learners
had picked
up
and to reinforce
the ideas in
the course.
Writing
Machine also
wrote
a workbook
to accompany
the
training
course.
As well
as containing
exercises
and examples, the
workbook
provided a comprehensive
guide to
some of the 'trade
secrets'
of writing
high quality
copy
which is
both entertaining
and informative.
The results
Julie
Hatch commented: "The
delivery
of the
course
was kept
at a
high
pace,
with
plenty
of variety.
Writing
Machine's
approach
to teaching
was highly
educational
and very
entertaining."
The
course
was
designed to be
very
flexible
to
the specific
needs
of
the individuals
attending
on
any given
day.
The
trainers' in-depth
experience
of
writing enabled
them
to
address any
issues
raised
by
learners during
the
session.
On
one particular
occasion,
for
example, a
tendency
was
spotted amongst
the
learners to overuse
exclamation
marks.
Identifying
the
need, the trainers
initiated
an
open discussion
on
the appropriate
use
of punctuation.
Having
two
experienced
writers
as
trainers also meant
that
individual
learners
could
get
a
great
deal
of
one-to-one
advice
and
tuition.
This
dynamic
approach
meant
that,
whilst
a
high standard
was
achieved
by
all,
the
unique
needs
of
the
individual
learners
were
also
met
-
a fact
reflected
in
the
excellent
feedback
received.
Julie
Hatch summed
up the
UK Trade and Investment experience
with Writing
Machine: "We're really glad we did this. It's
been very successful. Several people who went on
the course actually recommended
that everyone at UK Trade and Investment should do it
- whether their job involves writing or not. To me,
feedback like this means
that the course has far exceeded my initial expectations."
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