Managers often have to review and edit their team's written communications. Your review and edit adds a professional polish to the final communication and protects your organisation's brand and reputation.

This review and editing half-day workshop is an opportunity to improve your review and editing skills.

Draft outline of a review and editing workshop

The M Factor writing courses are tailored to meet our clients' specific training needs, but a draft outline of a course is as follows.

Define the writing brief
Good writing starts with a clear brief. If you don't give your people a clear brief, they may go off on a tangent and not produce what you expect.

Brush up on modern styles
Styles change and modern punctuation styles are more minimal than in the past.

Set styles at the outset
If you have several people working on different parts of a large document, set your styles at the beginning to minimise editing at the end.

State your personal preferences
Sometimes your team members may write documents you will sign. In these instances, they need to understand your writing style as well as the organisation's brand.

Review for meaning first
It's tempting to start correcting grammar on a first reading, but it's important to stand back and ask: "Does this writing communicate its main ideas clearly?" If not, the problems may be structural.

Make changes to the copy
Some managers make changes on a hard copy and others prefer using track changes. Whichever way you work, you need to provide feedback to the writer so they improve their writing.

Encourage writers to take responsibility for their writing
Too often, writers accept managers' comments without question, even when a manager changes the meaning inadvertently or introduces a grammatical error.

Call or email 61 2 9365 7711 or mary@themfactor.com.au to find out more or book a course — available throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific.