Writing Effectively for the Digital Age

At the end of this 2-day course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the differences in communication styles, audience expectations, audience profiles, and platform types between traditional writing and writing for digital communication
• Identify key principles that underlie effective digital writing and communication based on audience expectations, needs, and cognitive characteristics
• Learn about these key principles and apply them to common professional and workplace writing tasks such as making requests, drafting circulars and notices, status reports, meeting updates, marketing and publicity copy, instructions, proposals, pitches, business plans etc
• Write effective emails by using a structured approach, applying tips and techniques unique to emails, and leveraging functions and features of modern-day emails
• Embrace the increasing importance of instant messaging and social-media messaging as tools for workplace/ professional communication; learn how to write in a way that maximises the reach, value, and utility of messages sent over WhatsApp, office messaging platforms, social media, etc.
• Understand that slides are fast replacing conventional documents written in prose; learn how to write content for slides that is brief, interesting, and captivating without compromising accuracy and completeness

What You'll Learn

Digital media has radically changed the way we read, think, and communicate. When we communicate in the digital age, we expect faster responses. We want to see only relevant content. Our attention is limited. And we are constantly bombarded by multiple information streams. Communicating effectively on digital platforms therefore calls for writers to draw not only on traditional planks of good writing such as accuracy, structure, and style; but also to hone additional skills such as brevity, relatability, leveraging on media content, and ensuring information connectivity.

This highly-interactive and hands-on course is conducted progressively in two main parts. First, learners will identify the demands and expectations of digital audiences, map these onto key principles underlying effective digital writing, and learn to apply these principles. Second, learners will be equipped with tips and techniques for writing effectively on common digital communication platforms such as emails, instant messaging, social media, and presentation slides.

Minimum Entry Requirement

Participants must have working proficiency in English.