Spence & Company Workshops

Spence & Company training programs on effective business and technical writing are conducted on a workshop basis at the client's facilities. The size, length, and content of each workshop is tailored to clients' specific training needs. Our most frequently requested program is a two-day workshop consisting of a day-and-a-half of instruction, plus a half-day of 20-minute conferences with each participant. One-day workshops are also available.

Our two-day workshop consists of two sessions held on consecutive days. The first day is devoted to instruction on the Spence & Company principles for organizing ideas and composing business correspondence. The morning of the second day is devoted to instruction and exercises on editing, to the special requirements of writing and managing e-mail, and to preparing special forms of business correspondence. In the afternoon, the course instructor meets individually with participants in 20-minute conferences to critique samples of their writing submitted prior to the workshop and to offer guidance on ways to make their correspondence more effective.

Emphasis throughout the workshop is on learning-by-doing. Participants compose a minimum of three pieces of work-related correspondence, which are shared and evaluated in class. Time in class is also spent critiquing correspondence participants have submitted to the instructor prior to the workshop. Class size is generally limited to 12 to 15 participants to ensure maximum attention to individual questions and needs.

Workshop participants receive the two Spence & Company instruction books: Write Smart and its supplement, Business Writing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Write Smart presents Spence & Company's unique approach to business and technical writing. The book articulates and illustrates the principles for organizing, drafting, and editing every type of business correspondence. Business Writing provides numerous examples of how to apply the Spence & Company principles to clarify your business communications, in addition to models of the most frequently required types of business documents. In addition, participants receive The Write Smart Guide, which summarizes the principles of Spence & Company's structured approach to effective writing on a wallet-sized card.