Improve your professional writing!
In this series of lessons you’ll learn best practices for improving your professional writing through study of the topics in the following modules. All modules include a lesson (Google Slides), handouts, and links to online resources. The handouts are yours to download and keep.
The Google Slides presentations are a self-guided study. Follow along by reading the speaker’s notes section at the bottom of each slide.
Module 1
A review of basic parts of speech
View the Google Slides presentation (Read the speaker notes)
Handout: Review Parts of Speech
Additional resources: Walden University: Main Parts of Speech, Purdue University OWL: Grammar (use the left navigation bar to cycle through the different topics)
Module 2
Define your purpose, scope, and audience
View the Google Slides presentation (Read the speaker notes)
Handout: Basic Patterns of Organizing Information
Additional resources: TechWhirl: Scope & Audience Analysis; Lumen: Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content
Module 3
Organize and structure your writing
View the Google Slides presentation (Read the speaker notes)
Handout: Tips for Drafting Your Document
Additional resources: Purdue University OWL: Organization and Structure; ND State University: Organizing Your Writing; Lumen: Organizing
Module 4
Use active voice and strong verbs
View the Google Slides presentation (Read the speaker notes)
Handout: Tips for Writing Effective Sentences
Additional resources: Purdue University Owl: Active Versus Passive Voice (use the left navigation bar to cycle through the different topics)
Module 5
Tighten your writing
View the Google Slides presentation (Read the speaker notes)
Handout: Choose the Best Word; Redundancies to Avoid
Additional resources: Lumen: Introduction to Writing Strong Sentences; Purdue University Owl: Conciseness (use the left navigation bar to cycle through the different topics)
Module 6
Punctuation: commas, periods, colons, semicolons
View the Google Slides presentation (Read the speaker notes)
Handout: General Punctuation Rules
Additional resources: Purdue University Owl: Commas (use the left navigation bar to cycle through the different topics)
Module 7
Punctuation: apostrophes, quotes, hyphens, dashes
View the Google Slides presentation (Read the speaker notes)
Handout: General Punctuation Rules (same as Module 6); Test Your Knowledge; Test Your Knowledge Answer Key
Additional resources: GrammarBook.com: Punctuation Rules
Module 8
Using lists: parallelism and structure
View the Google Slides presentation (Read the speaker notes)
Handout: None
Additional resources: Microsoft: What is Parallelism in Writing?; BC Campus: Technical writing Essentials: Lists; Univ of MN Center for Writing: Quicktips for Parallelism
Module 9
Using attachments & graphics, writing definitions
No Google Slides presentation for this module
Handouts: Using Attachments & Cross-referrencing; Writing Technical Definitions; Using Graphics
Additional resources: Microsoft: Create a Cross-reference in Word; Purdue University OWL: Writing Definitions; PrismNet: Extended Definitions; Lumen: Creating and Integrating Graphics; Purdue OWL: Data Visualization Best Practices
Module 10
Best practices for verifying and reviewing your writing
No Google Slides presentation for this module
Handouts: Tips for Reviewing & Editing; Stay on Track with Your Writing; Troublesome Words
Additional resources: Purdue University OWL: Proofreading; Site map of applied writing topics
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