Training

English Language Training

Individual and Group Classes in Spoken and Written English

Basic Course

• 40 hours spread over four months
• Classes of 75 minutes duration will be held twice every week

 Who is this course for?

• Professionals, Job-Seekers, Home Makers, Anyone Else Who Wants to Enhance Their English Language Skills

 How You Will Benefit/The Fruits of Your Labour

• Improved grammar and pronunciation
• Expanded vocabulary
• Better communication skills, both spoken and written
• Develop self-confidence
• Win the confidence of your superiors
• Earn the admiration of your peers and subordinates

Secrets of Good English: Written

• Your teacher will share his/her expertise and reveal to you to the keys of good written English
• The mode of study for Written English is through interactive presentations and
  exercises in grammar and punctuation

Grammar

• Correct use of tenses
• Correct syntax
• Correct use of words
  • aren’t I , am I  not/less, fewer/affect, effect/its, it’s/real, really/lie, lay/like,
    such as/as though, as if/wait on, wait for…and much more
  • Subject-verb agreement: How do you end the confusion?
  • How and when to use words such as ‘That, Which, Me, Who, Whom’
  • Idiomatic confusion: Understand some key idioms to end confusion once and for all
  • How to avoid the use of Indian English or ‘Hinglish’
  • Common errors that Indian writers of English make

  Punctuation

  You will learn how to use commas, semi-colons, hyphens, dashes, and other
  punctuation, just like a professional writer would

Articles

• Your teacher will let you in on ways to master the use of articles, often a cause
  for a lot of confusion

American and British English

• American and British English: What’s the difference?

Secrets of Good English: Spoken

• In Spoken English you will discuss and talk about everyday real-life situations happening in office and at home
• You will learn:
  • How to keep your conversation short, simple and to the point
  • Avoid jargon or technical language
  • Steer clear of politically incorrect language
  • Avoid using words that are racist or sexist. In other words, adhere to what is
    regarded as liberal opinion on matters of sexuality and race
  • Tone and Style:
    • Speak softly (but loud enough to be heard), slowly and clearly
    • Don’t let words run over each other
    • Sound confident and convincing
    • Corrective Measures
      • Get rid of common errors in pronunciation
      • Correct pronunciation
      • Refine pronunciation

 Individual and Group Classes in Written and Spoken English

Advanced Course

• 40 hours spread over four months
• Classes of 75 minutes duration will be held twice every week

 Who is this course for?

• Upwardly mobile professionals, those tipped for/or seeking promotions, job-seekers, home makers, anyone else who wants to enhance their English language skills

 How You Will Benefit

• Enhance communication skills, both spoken and written
• Grow self-confidence
• Poised for promotion and career growth
• Earn the admiration of your peers and subordinates

Small steps to take you closer to mastery of the written word

• Silly, Strange, Ambiguous English: How to make sense of it and then spike it!
• Redundant Words: Shun them like the plague
• Look before you leap: Before you start writing, you should ask yourself: Whom am I writing for? In other words: know your target audience
• Know your facts before you start writing: so study and research first
• Learn how to think out-of-the-box, to innovate, improvise and apply it to your
  writing as well
• While writing, follow the two simple C’s: Crispness and Clarity
• And the third equally important C is Consistency—in language, style and tone

• Is my audience American, European or Indian? Where do they live? Are they professionals,  senior management?

WE CAN TEACH YOU ALL OF THIS.

• But what you will always need is Love for the English language—we can’t implant
  this into you; you’ve got to have it.

 

Teaching Methods

• Interactive presentations and exercises
• Emphasis will be on practical, everyday work environments and real-life situations
• Integrated approach on writing, grammar, vocabulary growth to consolidate language skills.

We will teach you how to write:

• Letters
• Emails
• Newsletters
• Proposals
• Project reports
• Agenda
• Minutes of meetings

All of this peppered with:

• Good lead-ins or intros
• Catchy headlines

Learn from our gurus how to write the 5 Q’s: When, Where, What, Why and How

If your opening paragraph contains all this information, you are on your way to writing a
well-written announcement or an email. But make sure, you do the following:

• Cut out the hype
• Concentrate on facts
• And get to the point, right in your first paragraph or better still in your lead
  sentence, itself

We’ll teach you how to:

• Use language that is at the level of your target audience
• Pick the appropriate structure and layout to help your readers navigate through your communication
• Employers want their employees’ written communications to be direct, grammatically correct, and easy to read. We’ll tell you how to do it!

Presentation Skills

• How to prepare effective presentations
• How to feel the pulse of your audience so that the presentation captures their
  attention
• Use audio-visual aids like graphics, sounds to increase the impact of your presentation
• Cultivate the right intonation and show rapport with your audience with appropriate body language
• The ultimate key to success in all communication, including presentations is the
  KISS  principle:
  
  • Keep it short and simple

 Individual and Group Classes for a Specialised Course on Business Writing

• 15 hours spread over six weeks
• Classes of 75 minutes duration will be held twice every week

 Who is this course for?

• Upwardly mobile professionals

 Benefits

• Enhance your business writing skills
• Learn clear, concise and effective business communication
• Grow in professional competency
• Earn the admiration of peers and subordinates
• Poised for promotion and career growth

Course Essentials

• The course will concentrate on the practical aspects of writing letters, emails,
  reports, newsletters, project reports, and other forms of business communication as desired by the individual or group
• It will provide an insight into layout and style of different types of business
  writing and see how miscommunication can be avoided

Keeping Business Communication Plain and Simple

• We will teach you how to set out writing essential information in a manner that
  gives the reader a chance of understanding the communication at the first
  reading and conveys the same sense and meaning that the communicator intended to

The Five Q’s

• If a communicator addresses the Five Q’s—when, where, what, why and how—in the opening lines/paragraph itself, it signals the beginning of good communication

Multi-tasking in Communication

• In a typical work day, one is required to send out routine emails, design an
  important research presentation, and collate data in an easy-to-read format
  like a table or pie chart. This course will equip the learner with the skill
  sets and language to address varied and multiple communications

How to use the correct tone in different types of Communication

• The tone should be formal in communication of data and research
• For an email asking for information and clarifications, the tone can be less formal
  but never  casual
• The tone will vary for a business leader, a senior, a subordinate; it should have
  no hint of gender or racial bias
• The  tone also depends on whom the email is being copied to and whether it is also being marked to an international audience

We will teach you:

1. How to be objective and critical about every communication you send
2. The A (accuracy), B (brevity) and C (clarity) of email writing.
3. The Five essential C’s—completeness, conciseness, courtesy, consideration and clarity—in every business communication
4. The pros and cons of email writing
5. Email rules and manners
6. Phrases to avoid in business writing
7. The good and the bad in communication
8. The art and craft of headlines and sub-heads
9. The advantages of bullets
10. Putting both your heart and head into business writing
11. The narrative and descriptive aspects of business writing
12. The nonsense of not breaking up your text into paras and following para-sense
13. The long and the short of business writing
14. Why superiors, peers and subordinates love a simple, concise and clear communicator

The Tricks of Good Business Writing

• Learn to make every word count in your written communications
• Learn to edit your own work ruthlessly

 Corporate Training

Day-Long Workshops at the Customer’s Site

• Overview of key language and grammar issues: This will include grammar
  and writing exercises to gauge language skills and competencies of the participants

Group and Individual Mentoring at the Customer’s Site

 Objectives:

• Identify and fix weak areas and strengthen skills and competencies in
  each team member
• Learn to objectively edit one’s own written work and avoid common
  language flaws such as article errors, subject-verb mismatch, prepositions and
  punctuation issues
• Eliminate redundancies and repetitions, and learn the correct use of US
  or UK English
• Comprehend and apply key editing skill sets that will help in writing
  concise, crisp and meaningful copy
• Polish language to produce better documents, articles, white papers,
  brochures, and emails

Need-based Mentoring Sessions

• The training can consist of multiple mentoring sessions individually and
  in groups.

Duration

• The duration of the training is need-based, ranging from one month to three months or more

 Note: The packages will be tailor-made for corporates that can also choose any modules of interest from the basic and advanced courses mentioned above or the specialised course in business writing

  Journalism

 Subjects that Oswald Teaches

• Reporting
• Editing
• Rewriting
• Newspaper Journalism
• Magazine Journalism