Considering our Writing Workshops?

We think it's a good investment with a good return. Here's why:

Investment:

How much should this cost?

Large training companies that teach writing courses around the country in local cities several times a year, charge $200 to $500 per student, per day. We charge a fixed fee, currently $1500. If you can put 20 students in the classroom, your cost per student, per day, is $75. This cost is even less for government and non-profit customers.

How can it cost so little?

Overhead: we do not spend half of our revenues promoting and coordinating the next course in the next city in the next month. Ownership: we are not owned by founders and shareholders hoping to get wealthy on the economies of scale in a large and growing operation. Focus: we specialize in one topic, writing at work, and in one format, workshops, so we use one set of optimized teaching material.

Will we lose a full day of productivity for each person in the workshop?

No. We only teach onsite workshops. Between modules, students are encouraged to go check in with their e-mail, phone messages, and colleagues. Two breaks in the morning, two breaks in the afternoon, plus a one-hour lunch break: all this onsite time allows employees to keep the ball rolling at work even while spending the 'whole' day in training.

Why should we hire you instead of someone else?

We will let our instructor, Joe Judge, answer this one. Let's start with credentials. Academic credentials: I have degrees in engineering (RPI) and in business (Stanford). Experience credentials: I have 25 years of self-study in clear writing at work. I have authored several books and many business reports. I got started in this business when I was asked to teach a course in business writing at Stanford. This is what I do. It's pretty much all I do, and I'm very good at it. You may find a few people who are better teachers than I am, but you will undoubtedly pay three to five times as much to get them. Also, my workshop exercises are the best out there. You will not find better training material on the topic of business writing. I have looked and looked, but found no one else able and willing to assemble training material of this quality.

Return:

Why does a workshop give the best results?

People learn better when they are more involved. Passive attention in a lecture or seminar teaches people a few things, but the learning is not very memorable. Active participation in groups responsible for writing, editing, and presenting for critique results in people learning a lot and remembering it well. People also learn better when they work in groups, which is the only way we run our workshops.

How much better will our employees write?

Because most of our teaching material concerns advanced topics in writing, this issue is subjective. The proof of the value of the workshop is in the quality of the subsequent writing of the students, as assessed by you. So, to be honest, it is a gamble for you, but we think it's an inexpensive one in comparison to the offerings of other training companies. You simply have to try us and see if it works for you.

How can you guarantee that our employees with be better writers?

We can't. No one can. Anyone who says they can is selling you something, most likely at a much higher price than ours. We are confident that students who participate in our review modules (punctuation, grammar, usage, style) will make fewer errors in their writing at work. We are also confident that students who participate in our advanced modules will be more effective in their writing at work. But, again, you simply have to try us and see if it works for you.

Wouldn't it be more effective to customize your workshop exercises with examples of writing from our organization?

We respectfully, apologetically, sincerely submit that the answer is no. We tried it several times and found that it causes a distraction that turns the focus of the lesson away from good writing and toward spirited discussions (and even gossip) about the content and author of the writing sample. We believe that workshop exercises are more effective for students if there is some psychic distance from the content.