Training & Coaching

Writing skills for work. For life.

Our workshops are short, fun and extremely effective.

Here’s something that might surprise you. It isn’t actually very difficult to become a good writer. There are plenty of simple tips we can pass on to you that will improve your writing instantly.

Have you, for instance, ever stopped to think about how many words there should be in a sentence? Do you have any idea what “shape” your document should be? Do you make common mistakes like writing “could of” instead of “could have”?

Our workshops focus on helping you develop a strong, clear, direct writing style. We’ll also take a look at the most common punctuation and grammar mistakes, and throw in some tips on spelling too.

Your content will read better, look better and be better for your company’s bottom line.

Be a Better Writer in a Day

— the only writing course you will ever need —

Our flagship course is the only writing course you will ever need. Our courses are highly interactive and occasionally noisy (you’ll need to be quick on the buzzer). You’ll leave able to write easy-to-read, succinct, professional documents that catch your reader’s attention. The workshop covers

Writing in crisp, punchy sentences
Using straightforward English
Clear, clean copy
Intros, endings and structure
Writing to length
Jargon, acronyms and management-speak busted
Tools and resources for writers
Grammar and punctuation: common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Spelling: hints and tips.

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Be a better writer in a morning (or an afternoon)

A condensed version of our full day workshop, designed to fit into half a day. There’s an optional hour to work on your own documents, putting what you have learned into practice and getting instant feedback.

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Be a better writer in two hours flat

Our “highlights” course for the short-of-time focuses on the points that will improve your writing the quickest. We’ll look at how to craft succinct, uncomplicated, attention-grabbing sentences, plus how to avoid management-speak and write in simple, straightforward English. We’ll discuss how to use apostrophes correctly, and throw in some essential tips on how to improve your spelling. A fantastically useful 120 minutes!

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How to be a media expert

Do you see other people in your field being quoted in the press, and writing opinion pieces for major magazines and newspapers? Do you want a bit of that too? This course will show you how to become the “go-to” person in your industry. We’ll focus on what journalists are looking for, how to be a dream interviewee and how to write articles for different media. We’ll practise print and broadcast interviews and cover blogging too. This course is run jointly with media trainer Steve Hemsley.

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PR training

We have a special workshop for PR companies, which combines writing skills training with an insight into the minds of journalists. We’ll look at examples of bad press releases and reveal the things that wind journalists up about them. We’ll also discuss how to pitch a journalist by email and the things that will make them love you.

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Business writing skills

(in-house training)

Do you have a number of delegates who would like to do the workshop? If so, The Sentence Works can come to your offices.

Our in-house training is always available at a time and date to suit you. We offer a variety of courses to suit your time, budget and needs.

We can deliver the standard day-long Sentence Works workshop, the half day masterclass or the intensive two-hour session.

We can combine standard elements of the course with others tailored especially for you. For instance, we designed an email workshop for one client and a press release writing workshop for another. For in-house courses, we will use your own examples of web copy, reports etc.

We can also develop an entirely bespoke workshop for your staff if you prefer.

Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

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One-to-one Coaching

—Would you prefer an individual session? —

An open course might not be for you. You might have particular issues you’d like to focus on, or you might simply prefer the privacy of individual coaching.

You might want advice and help on writing a particular document. We can offer a one-off session or we can have several meetings.

Please get in touch to discuss your requirements. This writing skills coaching is particularly suitable for senior executives.

Coaching is available face-to-face, by email, phone or Skype.

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Online courses – do you want to learn at your own pace?

Want to improve your writing but pushed for time or can’t get to one of our workshops? Our online courses are perfect for you.

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Open Events.

Some of Our Clients.

The Resident Expert.

Judy Yorke

Specialty: Teaching

I love writing but I think I love training even more. For me, there is enormous satisfaction in being able to make a huge difference to people’s writing skills in just a few hours.

That’s because our short courses can transform the writing you do every day as part of your job.

I’m a qualified trainer so I know exactly how to run a lively course that’s both incredibly useful and enormous fun. There’s some hard work in our sessions, as well as plenty of discussion and some highly competitive games, including our fast-becoming-famous buzzer round.

What you’ll take away is the ability to write in simple, clear, pithy English and keep your writing fresh and interesting. One extra advantage is that you will save both you and your reader time because you’ll learn to get straight to the point.

We offer courses for individuals, bespoke workshops for companies, online courses and one-to-one coaching.

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Testimonials

"Judy is a wonderful copywriter. Writing copy for businesses is not easy but Judy is brilliant at taking what we give her and creating something accurate that speaks to business owners in our voice. She has written the copy for the last few years Ride the Wave business support programme which helped it to exceed all its targets for engagement. She has for the last few years written our Chamber breakfasts copy which introduces our speakers and which I always look forward to receiving and publishing. Judy is also a pleasure to work with."

Sarah Springford, Director of Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce.

“A very belated, but huge thank you nonetheless, for last week’s workshop. It was brilliant and I have already put some key exercises into practice and it has helped so much. Namely, the cutting down on text for press releases; making introductions more succinct and a ‘less is more’ approach. So thank you very much for a very enlightening and constructive course. Highly worthwhile.”

Sarah Fiedosiuk, Head of Media/PR, Group B Strep Support

"Thank you again for providing such an excellent, perfectly pitched course. I really appreciated all the work you’d done to make your examples relevant. We’ve had great feedback from the team and loads of enthusiasm about putting everything they’ve learned into practice."

Miriam Underhill, Children’s Services, East Sussex County Council

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