Reporting Skills & Professional Writing

LEARN TO PLAN, DRAFT AND EDIT REPORTS THAT LEAD TO ACTION

What you'll learn

SET REPORTING OBJECTIVES

COLLECT /ANALYSE DATA AND DRAW CONCLUSIONS / IDENTIFY LESSONS LEARNED

PLAN YOUR WRITING AROUND THE REPORT OBJECTIVES AND READER'S NEEDS

ORGANISE YOUR IDEAS WELL AND COMMUNICATE CLEARLY IN A WAY THAT KEEPS YOUR READERS INTERESTED AND ALERT

Requirements

Ideally you will already have some experience in international development, relief or humanitarian work. You will have at minimum a working knowledge of English. This course is suitable for any level, however - we have trained native speakers working for the UN as well as staff or remote, rural NGOs in developing countries with equal success.

Description

COURSE OUTCOMESThis practical self-study course will teach you how to create reports that lead to action and support good project decision-making. You will learn a process for reporting that will reduce wasted time and deadline stress and lead to writing that has greater impact.Through downloadable course videos, practical exercises and extra materials you will learn how to:Set reporting objectivesCollect dataAnalyse data and draw conclusions / identify lessons learnedPlan your writing around the report objectives and reader's needsOrganise your ideas in a logical, persuasive wayCommunicate clearly and in a way that keeps your readers interested and alertThe course addresses the challenges faced by development, relief and humanitarian professionals in reporting and professional writing in a way that allows for maximum practical work. While you will get all the theory you need, you will learn the steps and tools in a way that you can apply time after time after the course is over so that: You will always know what to do each time you reportYour reports will be actionable - contributing to better managed, more responsive projects and better resultsYour reports will take less time and be of higher qualityHOW IT WORKSAs soon as you sign up you get immediate, lifetime access to all the course materials - downloadable course videos, worksheets and extra materials. As a self-paced course, you work through a series of video presentations on various aspects of Reporting Skills and Professional Writing at your own pace.The first half of the course examines the key skills of Professional Writing, while in the second part we move onto the process of reporting - setting objectives, gathering and analysing data, and planning / drafting / editing reports.This is a practical course. At various points you will invited to stop the video and complete different tasks. You will find the worksheets for these inside the course. Please do stop and do the tasks when asked.All of the videos can be downloaded for off-line study / reference, as can everything else - PDF slides, worksheets and reference materials. At the end of the course there is a test to measure how successfully you have learned the skills before you are issued with your certificate.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 READ ME

Lecture 2 WHAT IS PROFESSIONAL WRITING?

Lecture 3 WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE GET IT WRONG?

Lecture 4 WRITING TELLS OTHERS WHO WE ARE

Lecture 5 THE WRITING PROCESS

Section 2: THE ART OF WRITING CLEARLY

Lecture 6 READ ME

Lecture 7 MEASURING CLARITY - THE FOG INDEX

Lecture 8 TOOLS AND EXERCISES FOR IMPROVING CLARITY PART 1

Lecture 9 TOOLS AND EXERCISES FOR IMPROVING CLARITY PART 2

Lecture 10 TOOLS AND EXERCISES FOR IMPROVING CLARITY PART 3

Lecture 11 WHAT WE'VE LEARNED SO FAR

Lecture 12 SOLUTIONS TO TASKS & EXERCISES

Section 3: ORGANISING YOUR IDEAS IN WRITING

Lecture 13 READ ME

Lecture 14 DEDUCTIVE VS. INDUCTIVE REASONING

Lecture 15 ORGANISING YOUR MAIN POINTS EFFECTIVELY

Lecture 16 WRITING PARAGRAPHS THAT PERSUADE

Lecture 17 TOPIC SENTENCE EXERCISES

Lecture 18 EXTENDED EXERCISE

Lecture 19 SOLUTIONS TO TASKS & EXERCISES

Section 4: LANGUAGE, STYLE & EDITING

Lecture 20 READ ME

Lecture 21 KEEPING YOUR READER'S INTEREST

Lecture 22 TOOLS FOR IMPROVING STYLE

Lecture 23 HOW TO EDIT LIKE A PRO (& EXTENDED EXERCISE)

Lecture 24 PROFESSIONAL WRITING: WHAT WE'VE LEARNED SO FAR

Section 5: SETTING REPORTING OBJECTIVES

Lecture 25 READ ME

Lecture 26 REPORTING SKILLS OBJECTIVES

Lecture 27 SETTING OBJECTIVES & PLANNING FOR DATA COLLECTION

Lecture 28 RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE REPORTER

Lecture 29 THE FOUR LEVELS OF EVALUATION

Lecture 30 WORKING WITH TEMPLATES

Lecture 31 DECONSTRUCTING EVALUATIONS

Lecture 32 DECONSTRUCTING MONITORING REPORTS

Section 6: DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS

Lecture 33 READ ME

Lecture 34 DATA COLLECTION METHODS

Lecture 35 DATA COLLECTION CONSIDERATIONS & EXTENDED TASK

Lecture 36 ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION OF QUANTITATIVE DATA

Lecture 37 THE 3 STEPS OF ANALYSIS

Lecture 38 STEP 1: FAMILIARISATION

Lecture 39 STEP 2: ORGANISATION & CONTROL

Lecture 40 USING MIND MAPPING FOR DATA MANAGEMENT

Lecture 41 DESCRIBING THE DATA

Lecture 42 STEP 3: SYNTHESISING INFORMATION

Section 7: PLANNING AND DRAFTING YOUR REPORT

Lecture 43 READ ME

Lecture 44 SPR ANALYSIS & READER PROFILING

Lecture 45 CREATING A REPORT STRUCTURE

Lecture 46 MAPPING THE REPORT

Lecture 47 THE WRITING PROCESS REVISITED

Lecture 48 DRAFTING THE INTRODUCTION (PRACTICAL)

Lecture 49 DRAFTING THE MAIN BODY (PRACTICAL)

Lecture 50 DRAFTING CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (PRACTICAL)

Section 8: REPORT EDITING & LAYOUT

Lecture 51 READ ME

Lecture 52 EDITING IN PRACTICE

Lecture 53 EDITING IN PRACTICE (POSSIBLE SOLUTION)

Lecture 54 DESIGN & LAYOUT - GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Lecture 55 DESIGN & LAYOUT - CANVA

Section 9: WRAPPING UP

Lecture 56 READ ME

Lecture 57 REVIEW OF KEY POINTS

Lecture 58 EXTRA CASE STUDY WALKTHROUGH - WORKSHOP REPORTS

This course is intended for people working in development, relief of humanitarian work - project managers, field staff and M&E officers. Others, will, of course, benefit - these tools are essential in any professional writing and any context.