About this learning event

Readers need to understand quickly the key points and structure of any piece of writing, from short memos to the most formal reports. Although documents need to be easy to read, this doesn’t necessarily make them easy to write. Writing clearly and concisely is often a challenge.

The focus was on producing more effective and strategic written communications. It pinpointed ways to strengthen the connection between sections and ensured more consistency, including when integrating inputs from other contributors to a document. It helped participants strike the right balance between specific details and broader messages and themes.

What you learned

The following topics were covered during this 3-day course:

• Finding the action in verbs
• Establishing clarity
• Highlighting key messages
• Guiding the reader through sentences and paragraphs
• Editing yourself and others
• Targeting your audience
• Editorial style and consistency

How you benefited

The workshop focused on principles for making writing more clear, concise, and effective, and it assumes that participants are empowered by their organization to apply these principles directly to materials that they write and edit.

Through a combination of brief lectures, small group work, and plenary sessions participants learned how to develop and strengthen the content and processes for their most important documents. Exercises focused on examples drawn from the participants’ own writing, and sessions provide an opportunity to share their experiences.

The practical knowledge gained during the workshop can be applied to everyday work immediately. While the course focused on written communications in English, many past participants have found its principles applicable also to their local languages.

Who attended the workshop

The workshop was designed for public officials in ministries of finance, line ministries, central banks, or other government agencies, who are involved in preparing and/or editing the annual budget, macro-fiscal documents, economic reports, other strategic documents, or key external communications for their organization. Officials who work on inputs for such documents (e.g., program managers, planning and financing experts, heads of departments, and communications experts) were kindly invited to attend the workshop.

Sufficient knowledge of English writing and editing was required to attend the course.

Participants were asked to provide samples of their written work prior to the workshop.

Faculty

Paul McClure, Ph.D., CEF Associate Fellow and Senior Communications Officer, World Bank Group

Paul McClure is a Senior Communications Officer in the World Bank’s Corporate Communications Department in Washington, D.C. He has taught written communications workshops at the CEF since 2008, and also joined our team in 2012-2013 on an external service appointment partially funded by the Bank of Slovenia. His contributions have helped scale up our support on written communications to finance ministries and central banks across Southeast Europe. At the World Bank, he has led efforts to revamp news releases and online content dealing with the Bank's research, analytical, and learning activities. He has also served as Chief of Editorial Services at IFC, the World Bank Group arm focusing on private sector development, where he managed the annual report and served as lead editor on external communications. His writing, editing, and publishing experience includes positions at the World Bank Office of the Publisher and Congressional Quarterly in Washington. He also has several years' experience in the teaching of writing at Cornell University.

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: