Outside US & Canada?
Polishing your Business Writing Skills
By Melody GoughQuestion
I want to practice business writing skills for a policy writing/analysis job in government. Do you have any suggestions?
Answer
Professional writing and communication skills are more crucial than ever in our hyper-connected economy. This is especially true if you plan on authoring policy papers or grant proposals. WorldWideLearn can point you to a variety of online courses in business and technical communications.
Writing course topics range from general composition to specific issues such as grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation. There are also courses for specific business communication needs, such as sales letters, managerial reports, emails, or--more relevant to your needs--grant writing.
If you are writing in a public and environmental policy context, however, you will probably be best served with a technical or document writing course. You'll learn to organize information and express complex, technical concepts in simple yet precise language. Look for an online course that offers one-to-one instructor feedback. Ultimately, improving your writing will take practice, practice, practice. An ongoing dialogue with an expert wordsmith will help you troubleshoot your prose and track your progress along the way.
University of Nevada Reno professor Melody Gough is here to answer your questions every week. Professor Gough has taught poetry in both online and community college classrooms for almost a decade and has also taught English composition at the local university for the past five years. In addition to advising her students and inspiring them with witty classroom exercises, Professor Gough writes both poetry and memoir. Her Master of Arts in Teaching English is from the University of Nevada, Reno.
