CS-115
Speaking With Authority
Hold a room, answer the hard question, and finish on time.
Beginner with Beatrix Onwuka
Writing That Gets Read at Work
Write the update, the proposal and the difficult message so people read them and act.
- Level
- Beginner
- Duration
- 5 weeks
- Price
- $229
- Course code
- CS-125
Overview
Most workplace writing fails in the first two sentences, before the reader has decided whether to keep going. The fix is rarely better vocabulary. It is knowing what the reader needs, saying the point first, and cutting everything that was written for your own comfort rather than theirs.
Over five weeks you rewrite your own real documents: a status update, a proposal asking for a decision, a message delivering news somebody will not like, and a reference document written for someone who will skim it under time pressure. Every piece is reviewed by the cohort, and rewritten.
The editing week is the one students mention afterwards. Cutting your own draft by a third is a specific skill, and it is teachable.
Who this is for
- Anyone who writes updates, proposals or reports at work
- Managers communicating decisions to a team
- Specialists writing for non specialist readers
- People whose documents get read halfway through and abandoned
Next Cohort
Applications open- Q4 2026Monday 5 October 2026
- Q1 2027Monday 11 January 2027
- Q2 2027Monday 12 April 2027
- Q3 2027Monday 5 July 2027
Applications for the Q4 2026 cohort close on Friday 18 September 2026. We reply to every application within two business days.
Beatrix Onwuka
Speaking, facilitation and workplace writing
You will be recorded speaking in the first session and again in the last one, and you will watch both. Progress you can see is progress you keep.
Beginner, no prior training assumed. One live session of ninety minutes each week, plus about three hours applying it to your own work. Sixteen seats. Full details on how enrollment works.
Module plan
5 modules across 5 weeks.
Each module has one live session and one piece of practice applied to your own work.
- Week 1
Who Is Reading, and What They Need
Writing to a specific reader with a specific decision to make, and letting that choose what goes in the first paragraph.
- Week 2
The Point, First
Leading with the conclusion, structuring so a skim reader still gets it right, and using headings that carry meaning.
- Week 3
Editing Without Mercy
Cutting a draft by a third, removing the throat clearing, and recognizing the sentences written to protect yourself.
- Week 4
Proposals and Recommendations
Asking for a decision clearly, presenting options fairly, and making it easy for somebody to say yes.
- Week 5
Difficult Messages
Delivering news people do not want, without hedging into ambiguity or hiding the ask at the bottom.
Outcomes
What you will be able to do.
By the last session of Writing That Gets Read at Work you will have practised each of these on your own work, not on a case study.
- Identify your real reader and the decision they need to make
- Lead with the conclusion and structure for someone who skims
- Cut your own draft by a third without losing the substance
- Write a proposal that makes a decision easy to reach
- Deliver unwelcome news clearly and without hedging
Same field
Also in Communication and Public Speaking
Speaking, writing and facilitating so that the room understands you the first time.