Clear Writing™
in the workplace
15 Years of Praise
5 Features & 12 benefits
1 Day Training Agenda
Your American Facilitator
How’s it’s Different
Clear, structured, and precise communication is critical in professional settings. This workshop equips participants with practical techniques to convey ideas effectively, structure messages logically, and communicate information accurately across different workplace contexts.
Participants will learn methods to plan, write, revise, and edit documents efficiently, producing clear, professional, and actionable written & spoken communication.
Skills are immediately applicable to emails, reports, proposals, presentations, and other critical & commonplace workplace interactions that require positive outcomes for the organization.
Features & Benefits
Clear Writing's Features
- Learn practical communication frameworks developed by an experienced facilitator from Harvard Business School with extensive executive and professional training experience.
- Adopt a structured communications methodology to improve clarity, efficiency, and consistency.
- Apply analytical questioning techniques to define objectives and understand audience context.
- Strengthen interpretation and listening skills to anticipate how messages will be received.
- Develop a clear, professional writing & speaking style suitable for workplace communication.
- Apply a logical and repeatable framework immediately across multiple professional scenarios.
Clear Writing's Outcomes
- Write with clear purpose to communicate ideas accurately and effectively.
- Structure messages to highlight key points and essential information.
- Communicate clearly and appropriately across teams, stakeholders, and clients.
- Present complex information concisely for workplace audiences.
- Review messages from the audience’s perspective to improve clarity and relevance.
- Strengthen listening and analytical skills for professional communication.
- Identify key takeaways efficiently when reviewing complex documents.
- Apply structured brainstorming techniques to organise ideas clearly.
- Recognise and avoid common reasoning errors in written communication.
- Write effective email subject lines that clearly reflect content.
- Apply practical editing techniques to improve clarity, conciseness, and flow.
- Reduce unnecessary jargon and overly complex language.
- Apply techniques through practical, workplace-relevant exercises.
1 Day Training Agenda
Full 1 Day Training Agenda
Session 1: Clear Writing and Speaking Essentials
Introduction to the foundational principles of clear workplace communication. Focus on purpose, audience awareness, and clarity.
Key topics include:
- Reading and writing with clear purpose
- Identifying essential information
- Defining objectives and expected outcomes
- Understanding audience perspectives
- Structuring messages for clarity and impact
Session 2: Analytical Thinking for Clear Communication
Learn to plan and organise messages before writing to reduce inefficiency and improve effectiveness.
Tools covered include:
- Structured plan-write-revise-edit process
- Analytical questioning techniques to explore topics and options
- Brainstorming and outlining methods for clear ideas
- Logical organisation of content for workplace documents
Session 3: Analysis and Practice Exercises
Apply techniques through guided exercises. Focus on:
- Identifying audience needs and priorities
- Clarifying writing objectives
- Avoiding jargon, ambiguous phrasing, and unnecessary complexity
- Improving structure and logical flow
- Addressing common communication challenges
Session 4: Practical Writing Assignment
Analyse a workplace scenario, develop key points, and produce a structured outline for a clear written response.
Session 5: Persuasive Workplace Writing
Learn to structure documents that clearly present information, rationale, and recommendations.
Topics include:
- Structuring arguments logically
- Presenting facts clearly
- Writing effective openings and conclusions
- Communicating complex information concisely
Argument Exercise:
Analyse a business scenario and structure an outline for a persuasive argument.
Skills covered:
- Identifying key issues
- Common writing mistakes and how to avoid them
- Step-by-step process for persuasive professional writing
- Analytical questioning for effective message development
Session 6: Grammar and Mechanics for Clarity
Focus on sentence and paragraph clarity, tone, and readability.
Topics include:
- Sentence and paragraph structure
- Tone and style appropriate for professional communication
- Revision and editing techniques
- Practical examples to improve clarity and readability
Session 7: Applied Writing Exercise
Participants produce a short document based on a defined purpose, audience, and expected outcome, applying techniques learned throughout the programme.
Session 8: Facilitated Review and Discussion
Review exercises, discuss approaches, consolidate learning, and reinforce application of techniques to workplace writing scenarios.
Your American Facilitator
Experienced professional trainer in workplace writing and communication
John Sturtevant developed a highly acclaimed Business Writing curriculum at Harvard Business School (HBS) where his course was a requirement for Harvard MBA Students. He also created a Communications Program as Professor of Business Communication at The European School of Economics in Rome, Italy.
John has extensive experience delivering professional communication programmes for adult learners internationally. He has designed and facilitated workplace writing programmes for executives and professionals across multiple sectors, including facilitation of the Clear Writing Program for MNCs & SMEs over the last 18 years and specifically for Public Officers in Singapore in the last 6 years.
He brings a practical, application-focused approach to training, emphasising clarity, structure and relevance to daily work.
15 Years Of Praise
“This course will benefit public officers who has to write or say anything to anyone“
“Valuable workshop to un-learn bad habits and re-learn skills
A very engaging session. Learn how to make your writing effective and relatable to any audience you are communicating with.
I can definitely recommend The Clear Writing Course to everyone as John Sturtevant made the skills needed in clear writing come alive!
“Everyone should at least attend this workshop once”
“John is Incredible! Attending this program will give you abilities you can use forever.”
“Great, Amazing, Beautiful!”
“I look forward to apply this back at work tomorrow.”