Core Skill 3. Structure documents for readability
Deliver content your audiences can put to use
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Organize your content to be easy to read quickly
How you structure a document determines whether a reader:
- immediately understands what they are reading, why it’s important, and what to do with the information, or
- needs to work hard to understand, misunderstands, or stops reading.
There’s a universal structure that serves all readers
This course teaches how to:
- orient the reader to what they are reading and why
- use structure to improve readability
- make content skimmable
- ensure a document works for audiences with differing needs
- build stronger analysis and rationale
- speed up the process of writing and reduce the number of edits
- create informal templates that serve any kind of writing
This presents the best of what we've learned from our over 40 years of experience working with workplace writers. See our other online courses and examples of our work to learn more.
Launching April 30, 2024!
What users say about this course
"This is the most informative writing training that I have taken during my 16 years in government. This is at least the fourth such course I have had. I cannot recall any of the content from the other courses, but have already incorporated aspects of this training into my current work plan."
- Writer from a federal review body
"I think it would be miraculous if senior managers and technical writers were also introduced to this way of writing. It could revolutionize our government."
- Business analyst from a provincial lands department
"Excellent examples and instruction! I learned several strategies to better organize my document and write more concisely."
- Writer on business services team of a municipality
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Wordsmith has been training workplace writers for over 40 years. We specialize in helping professionals get their expertise onto paper quickly, clearly, and with confidence.
Our courses offer practical tools you can apply immediately, and we deliver the content in multiple ways to keep learning engaging. These courses come from our team's expertise and Wordsmith’s decades of organizational knowledge. You can read the team’s bios here.