COMMUNICATIONS/WRITING SKILLS TRAINING

ENTRANS Policy Research Group offers four standard workshops that are intended to improve public servants' writing skills. These courses are offered to departments that prefer delivering courses to their staff on an "in-house" basis, so that participants can make use of their usual workstations to perform writing exercises. ENTRANS usually concludes agreements (i.e. purchase orders) with departmental managers, who select the participants from among their staff.

The workshops leader is Robert Lyman, a retired public servant with 37 years' experience in the federal government. He also has over twenty years' experience at the executive level, having retired as Director General, Environmental Affairs, at Transport Canada.

The Fundamentals of Writing

This one day workshop is designed to train adults how to write sentences. It includes a review of the parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), punctuation, and syntax (sentence structure and choice of words). There are several exercises which allow participants to apply the principles.

Who should attend

People who have difficulty writing clear sentences or who would benefit from a review of grammar principles that they were once taught, but may have forgotten.

Participants learn:

• The structure of sentences
• The functions of different words
• Subject-verb agreement
• How to avoid ambiguity of pronouns
• When to use and avoid the passive voice
• How to use adjectives and adverbs
• The different roles of commas, semi-colons, colons and dashes
• How to vary sentence structure to maintain reader interest
• How to avoid run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, split constructions and faulty parallelism
• How to continue improving through self study.

Price

$300 plus HST per participant for off-site workshops (maximum of twenty participants)

$1600 plus HST for workshops delivered in-house (maximum of twenty participants)

Workshop on Writing Effective Briefing Notes

This one-day workshop is designed to train public servants how to write briefing notes for Ministers and senior officials. The workshop takes participants step-by-step through the writing process and offers them advice and practical examples of how to write well. It provides information about the nature of the briefing process, how briefing notes are used, how to adhere to departmental briefing note templates, and the characteristics of a good note.

Who should attend?

New public servants, those who are being asked to write briefing notes for the first time, and those who have limited experience and would like to improve their writing skills.

Participants learn how to:

• Plan and outline in advance
• Understand the needs and perspectives of Ministers and senior officials
• Define the issue
• Adhere to the departmental template
• Present considerations and analysis clearly
• Formulate action-oriented recommendations
• Revise and edit their own work
• Use published and internet sources to continue improving their writing skills

Price

$1600 plus HST for workshops delivered in departmental facilities (up to 15 participants)

The Craft of Writing for a Minister

This two-day workshop is designed to train public servants to hone their writing skills in preparing memoranda and briefing notes for a Minister. It explains the role that Ministers and political staff play and offers advice on how to meet their information needs. The course describes the techniques that can be used to improve the composition of Ministerial correspondence. Specifically, it addresses how to improve style, organization, clarity, conciseness, objectivity and tone. The course also offer advice on how to be sensitive to Ministers' needs, how to "speak truth to power", and how to be better understood when writing on highly technical subjects. Participants write a memorandum to the Minister, and receive feedback in the form of detailed edits (i.e. track changes) and verbal advice.

This workshop can be adapted to include training on how to write for senior managers, how to prepare presentation decks, and how to address writing problems that are specific to the group (e.g. how to communicate concerning highly technical subjects).

Who should attend?

Public servants who write briefing notes and memoranda for Ministers on a regular basis, whether they work in policy, program, regulatory or scientific organizations.

Participants learn how to:

• Plan and outline in advance
• Focus on the reader's needs
• Define the issue
• Present options and analysis clearly
• Demonstrate cohesion in the presentation of related ideas
• Formulate action-oriented recommendations
• Prepare talking points
• Revise and edit their own work

Methodology

The two-day workshop consists of a series of slide presentations, discussions, written exercises and films to review the principles that should guide a public servant in writing for a Minister, and to practice specific techniques of writing well.

Participants are given sufficient time to plan for and write a memorandum on a subject of interest in their department. The workshop leader edits each memorandum and provides individualized advice on areas of possible improvement to all participants.

The films shown are from the British Broadcasting Corporation series, Yes, Minister, and they illustrate the relationship between officials and Ministers and the ethical and practical problems that sometimes arise.

The variety of teaching approaches used in the workshop serves to maintain strong participant interest, and to promote learning.

Price:$2600 plus HST for a workshop delivered in departmental facilities for groups of up to 12 participants

Briefing Ministers for Cabinet Meetings

This two-day workshop is designed to train public servants to brief a Minister for a meeting at which the Minister will either present a proposal to his or her colleagues or respond to another Minister’s proposal. The workshop leader describes the institutional and personal dynamics involved in the Cabinet committee system, as well as the objectives that a Minister may have in presenting to colleagues. The workshop addresses the merits of written vs. verbal briefs, the best techniques to apply in writing a brief, and the best practices of officials who wish to serve the Minister’s needs. It also deals with the most common pitfalls of the briefing process. The workshop is intended primarily to assist an official who has prepared a proposal for Cabinet (i.e. typically, a memorandum to Cabinet, or MC) to support the Minister before the Cabinet meeting at which the MC will be discussed. This will typically involve, inter alia, preparing a “story line” that explains the rationale for the proposal and its implications, costs and benefits.

Who should attend?

Public servants who are currently drafting a proposal for a Minister to take forward to Cabinet or who expect to draft such a proposal in the near future.

Participants learn how to:

• Understand the Cabinet decision-making process, including the Cabinet committee system, the principles of Cabinet collective responsibility and confidence, the Cabinet papers system, and the roles and responsibilities of the central agencies
• Fulfill the requirements of a MC template
• Understand a Minister’s diverse roles and responsibilities and how these affect Cabinet deliberations
• Appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of written and verbal briefings, and how to prepare for each
• Manage their way through the steps of the writing process – planning, organizing, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading
• Adhere to the requirements of the departmental briefing template
• Use proven techniques to achieve clarity, coherence, and conciseness in their writing
• Develop a compelling story line

Methodology

The first day of the workshop is spent in plenary session. The participants are then charged to draft a story line concerning their MC that will serve as the basis for briefing the Minister, and to return on the second day of the workshop to present the storyline to the workshop for constructive feedback.

The second day is organized so that half of the participants are present in the morning and the other half in the afternoon, with each workshop participant allocated one hour to present the storyline and receive feedback. Ideally, representatives of the department’s Cabinet Affairs units participate in the second day to assist in providing feedback. The workshop leader provides verbal and written comments to each participant to assist him or her to improve the story line.

Price

$3000 plus HST for a workshop delivered in departmental facilities for groups of up to 12 participants.

What Participants in Past Workshops Have Said

• "The course leader should write a book. He is a master on the subject." (Natural Resources Canada)
• "Having worked in a Minister's office, and the department, I feel the workshop leader very much understood the real process of these environments. Thanks, great work!" (Fisheries and Oceans Canada)
• "Much better than I had hoped in terms of delivery of a potentially dry subject…Quite engaging! Time flew." (Coast Guard)
• "Great instructor. Very understanding. Very, very productive." (Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada)
• "This course exceeded my expectations in completeness, scope, format and the communications style of the workshop leader. I thoroughly enjoyed this course." (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)
• "I expected it to be extremely dull. Instead, I found it interesting, informative and well delivered." (Transport Canada)
• "I would definitely recommend this course to the rest of my group. It was very informative and I learned a lot (even little mistakes I had never realized I was making)." (Transport Canada)

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