Business Communication

By the end

What you'll build

• Identify the purpose, audience and required action before choosing a channel or drafting a message
• Structure a written message so the conclusion and the request appear before the supporting detail
• Adjust tone and register to deliver refusals, apologies and disagreement without damaging the working relationship
• Give a concise verbal update and check understanding in a meeting or call
• Write for readers who do not share your first language or your working hours
• Apply a personal review checklist to cut length and remove ambiguity before sending

Curriculum

What's inside

7 modules · 35 lessons

1. 01

   Reading the situation before you write

   5 lessons
   • Purpose, audience and the one thing you need them to do
   • Choosing the channel: message, email, call or meeting
   • Working out what your reader already knows
   • When writing is the wrong move altogether
   • Before you type anythingmatch pairs
2. 02

   Structuring a message so the point lands

   5 lessons
   • Leading with the conclusion: the top-down message structure
   • Grouping supporting points so they hold together
   • Signposting with headings, lead sentences and summaries
   • From first draft to half the words
   • Order, grouping and signpostsfill blank
3. 03

   Tone, register and difficult content

   5 lessons
   • Saying no, saying sorry and saying 'not yet' without damage
   • Matching formality to relationship and risk
   • Softening a message without going vague
   • Handling disagreement in writing
   • Writing a clean nosequence order
4. 04

   Speaking and listening at work

   5 lessons
   • Making your point in a meeting when the floor is busy
   • Active listening and confirming what you heard
   • Asking questions that open up information
   • Giving a two-minute verbal update
   • Twenty seconds on the schedule itemscenario
5. 05

   Communicating across cultures and time zones

   5 lessons
   • Writing for readers who do not share your first language
   • Directness norms and how they differ
   • Asynchronous work: writing so nobody has to wait
   • Idioms, humour and other things that do not travel
   • Distance, dials and delaymatch pairs
6. 06

   Communication in practice

   5 lessons
   • Rewriting a real message from your own inbox
   • Reading someone else's draft usefully
   • Building a personal message checklist
   • Recovering when a message goes wrong
   • Auditing your own sending habitsfill blank
7. 07

   Practice and check

   5 lessons
   • Symptom and cause: messages that did not workmatch pairs
   • Before you press sendsequence order
   • The vocabulary of a message that worksfill blank
   • Getting one approval before Thursdayscenario
   • Course quizquiz

The shape of it

How this course works