Persuasive writing

Course summary

This course is designed specifically for those who write for challenging audiences. Whether you need your readers to change their mind about a particular issue or to commit to a change in behaviour you will pick up the tips and techniques you need to reach your audiences in the most effective way.

Course outline

This practical, hands-on course equips you with the writing skills you need to motivate and persuade your audience. In particular you will focus on some of the obstacles to effective writing and how to overcome them. Over the day you will cover:

• purpose of publication
• clarifying and delivering a clear message
• understanding your audience
• multiple audiences - who to target
• adjusting your language to reach your audience
• writing for children and young people
• writing for people with low literacy or English as a second language
• writing for professionals and politicians
• writing for internal audiences
• presenting complex information clearly (without dumbing down)
• motivating and persuading - how to get audiences to take action
• informing without patronising
• persuading without pushing
• headlines and titles that pull the reader in
• keeping your reader reading
• giving and receiving feedback
• structuring for the busy reader
• editing and house style
• a year of free support

"It was good to have our work reviewed by the trainer as it made the learning and feedback more relevant." SW Muscular Dystrophy Campaign

This course takes place at the Centre's central London training suite. It can also be held in-company at your organisation for a group of your staff, no matter where you are based. Call Sally on 020 7490 3030 for more information on in-company training.

Who is this course for?

Anyone who needs to get a message across to a particular audience. It is particularly useful for those who need to write letters, emails, print materials or Web content that intends to change attitudes and behaviour. The Centre works with people from all sectors including the public sector, voluntary sector, corporate sector and private sector.

What will this course help me do: learning outcomes?

Your trainer will engage directly with your needs and those of your organisation. Throughout the day you will participate in discussions, training sessions and practical exercises. On completing the course, you will feel more confident in your writing skills and will be keen to put your new, fresh ideas into practice.

Other courses to consider

The Centre offers a wide programme of communication courses, including WRITING FOR THE WEB, SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS, NEWSLETTERS THAT WILL GET READ, PROOFREADING, and WRITING PUBLICATIONS.

Course dates

This course is run on request. This means that we will keep your details on file and once we have at least three people interested in the course we will contact you to let you know and to schedule a date. Please contact us to log your interest in this course.

Alternatively we can also run this as an in-company course. Find out more about in-company training.