Rev Up Readability corporate communication skills training

Measurably boost reading grade level scores in Ann Wylie’s clear-writing class

Let’s start with the bad news. More than half of American adults have basic or below basic prose skills, according to the DOE’s latest literacy test.

Send out a message that’s written at the 11th grade level, for instance, and 97% of U.S. adults won’t be able to understand it, according to the Department of Education’s latest adult literacy test.

In this environment, how do you reach all of your readers?

Learn how to reach more readers in Ann Wylie’s Rev Up Readability workshop. You’ll make your messages measurably more readable when you master 130 years of clear-writing best practices.

“A Program Manager asked me to write a brochure for him last week. I showed him the chart comparing average number of words per sentence with the percentage of comprehension. That helped persuade him to keep the text simple and to the point.”

— Sharon Foote, public information specialist, Mecklenburg County Water & Land Resources
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Want to communicate effectively? Write better communication programs, content marketing pieces, news releases, social media posts and intranet articles?

Boost your public speaking and presentation skills through writing? If so, this learning experience is for you.

How you’ll boost business communication skills

In this workshop, you’ll learn effective communication skills for improving readability. Specifically, you’ll learn how to:

Reach Real Readers

“The problem with communication,” said George Bernard Shaw, “is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”

So how do you go beyond just pressing Send to actually getting the message across?

In this session, we’ll dive into the results of a massive worldwide literacy study to get a reality check on the level at which your readers really read. Specifically, you’ll learn how to:

• Write for real readers. Set reasonable readability expectations for your organization.
• Overcome special audience challenges. Identify what level your own audience likely reads at.
• Sell readability’s bottom-line business value. The U.S. Navy, for instance, saved more than $27 million by increasing readability.

“I’ve noticed that both my writing and editing have become cleaner and more concise. I’ve received unsolicited, favorable comments from numerous colleagues regarding pieces on which I’ve used these techniques.”

– Rachel George Leidenfrost, internal communications associate, M&T Bank

Cut Through the Clutter

Would your message be twice as good if it were half as long?

Yes, the research says. The shorter your message, the more likely readers are to read it, understand it and make good decisions based on it.

So how long is too long? What’s the best paragraph length? Sentence length? Word length?

In this session, you will:

• Use a cool (free!) tool to get 27 analytics on your piece.
• Get quantifiable targets for each metric: What’s the right length for your message? How readable should your website be? How many words per sentence and syllables per word is most readable?
• Get tips and techniques for measurably improving readability on each metric.

“I would recommend this workshop to anyone who has to write more than 2 sentences a day – ANYONE!”

— Melissa Summer, associate marketing manager, CPP

Take the Numb Out of Numbers

If your readers are like most, they have, on average, below-basic numerical literacy, according to a massive international literacy study.

In this environment, how well are they understanding your quarterly results?

In this session, you’ll learn to overcome poor communication by making numbers understandable as well as interesting:

• Avoid statistics soup and data dumps using three simple steps.
• Help readers understand your numbers by asking one key question every time your fingers reach for the top row of the keyboard.
• Make numbers more emotional by turning them into people, places and things.

“Makes me want to go back and revise everything I’ve done in the past three years.”

— Blythe Campbell, director, communications and marketing, NANA Development Corp.

Start Making Sense

Jargon. Buzzwords. Acronyms. They’re things that make your reader go “huh?” And we need to get them out of our message.

In this session, you’ll learn how to translate the language of your organization into the language of your readers. You’ll find out how to:

• Run a simple test to decide which terms to use with long-term industry insiders.
• Define terms the reader-friendly way (Hint: It’s not the way we learned to do it in Journalism 101.)
• Steal techniques from Warren Buffett to make complex technical or project-management information easier to understand — and more fun to read.

“Some of the best professional development I’ve ever had. Everything Ann teaches is practical, and I can immediately use it to improve my writing.”

— Sarah Julian, director of communications, Oklahoma Public School Resource Center

Training options

Choose from these types of clear-writing workshops:

• In-house training programs: Empower your team members to boost readability with on-site or online courses.
• Public Master Classes: Build your own clear-writing skills when you attend one of our writing workshops near you.
• Association workshops: Bring Ann to your conference or chapter for a keynote, breakout session or professional development program.

Browse all communication skills training workshops..

I’m ready to boost my readability skills!

I’d like to:

• Book Ann for an in-house or association workshop.
• Attend Rev Up Readability, Ann’s master class, Sept. 19-23.
• Learn about our corporate communication trainer, Ann Wylie.

Questions? Contact Ann.