Written Communications: Being Heard and Understood

Overview

Join a renowned professional writing instructor to gain tools, tips, and techniques that will elevate your professional and personal communication style.

We’ve all encountered bad writing at some point in our lives. We’ve possibly even authored some ourselves. And it’s pretty clear when writing is bad. Whether you’re writing business letters, memos, emails, reports, announcements, or some other professional communication, the pragmatic communicator can be far more effective than the multiloquent one.

Because we are judged by our ability to communicate with direction, focus, and confidence—along with inspiration and empathy—getting the right message across is absolutely essential to achieving your objectives.

In the 12 rewarding lectures of Written Communications: Being Heard and Understood, Professor Allison Friederichs, Associate Teaching Professor and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Denver, University College, will share the secrets to sharpening your written, oral, and interpersonal communications skills.

Bringing plenty of humor and enthusiasm, along with dozens of tools, examples, and exercises, Professor Friederichs takes you through each component of writing a successful business communication—from picking the right words to ensuring the grammar and punctuation are correct, to analyzing, crafting, and editing your message.

Most importantly, she will show you how impactful communication isn’t about you: It’s about your reader. Once you understand your audience, she’ll show you how to target the message, make appropriate word choices, incorporate sound logic, and untangle complex syntax using a combination of examples and activities.

Course Structure

1. Impactful Writing
   Duration: 30 min
   Get an introduction to what makes your writing matter and learn how to employ empathy in order to shift your perspective, so you are focusing on your reader, not your message.
2. How Language Mirrors Culture
   Duration: 27 min
   Starting with an overview of the descriptive/prescriptive debate, Professor Friederichs examines how language has changed and evolved—and why knowing about these changes matters when you write—highlighting the importance of syntax.
3. The Importance of Word Choice
   Duration: 34 min
   Continuing the discussion of language and words, Professor Friederichs reviews the two levels of meaning that every word has: denotation and connotation. She provides a framework called “The Four C’s” to help you select the right word.
4. Mastering Punctuation
   Duration: 41 min
   Proper punctuation may seem challenging, but it can make or break your professional message. She provides clarity for the most misunderstood rules of punctuation, including issues around commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and dashes.
5. Mastering Noun and Pronoun Grammar
   Duration: 31 min
   Professor Friederichs moves from commonly misunderstood components of grammar to more formal rules, including capitalization issues with proper nouns, subject-verb agreement, pronouns, possessives, and dangling and misplaced modifiers.
6. Mastering Verb and Adverb Grammar
   Duration: 33 min
   Grammar can also help determine the mood of your communication. Professor Friederichs demonstrates how as she covers verb usage, including passive and active voice, tense, and adverbs.
7. Analyze: What Your Reader Needs to Know
   Duration: 30 min
   Professor Friederichs introduces you to the business-writing process called ACE, which stands for Analyze, Craft, and Edit. She details the analysis phase of ACE—including a checklist—to help you organize your thoughts and write with purpose.
8. Craft: Building the Bones of Your Document
   Duration: 30 min
   Examine the best practices for drafting a document as Professor Friederichs introduces additional checklists to help you transcribe your purpose statement, craft the body of your message, and draft your conclusion.
9. Edit: Perfecting Your Prose
   Duration: 34 min
   Learn how the editing step of the ACE process does not mean proofreading, but instead ensuring you are analyzing your document to confirm it says what you want it to say.
10. Applying the Analyze-Craft-Edit Process
    Duration: 30 min
    Using two common, real-life examples, Professor Friederichs demonstrates ways to practice applying the ACE process.
11. Developing Your Professional Voice
    Duration: 33 min
    As you move closer to mastering the fundamentals of professional communications, Professor Friederichs provides ways to help you develop your professional writing voice.
12. Building Relationships through Writing
    Duration: 30 min
    Professor Friederichs demonstrates how you can build strong relationships through your communication—including the importance of your responses to another person’s writing.