Since 1997 Anna Olswanger has offered full-day business writing workshops for corporate clients, including the Johns Hopkins University Center for Training and Education in Baltimore, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation in DC, and The Enterprise Foundation in Columbia, Maryland. She offers these workshops on site to interested corporations and institutions throughout the country:

The Write Thing 1: The Plain English Approach to Business Writing

In this basic writing workshop, participants learn the pitfalls of stilted language, including the passive voice and wordiness. They learn how to break their writing into three steps: prewriting, writing, and revising, and how to use concrete language with specifics only they can provide. These techniques help them to write memos and letters in their own voice, free of "business-speak." This workshop is a prerequisite for all other "The Write Thing" workshops.

The Write Thing 2: Focus on Reader-Centered Writing

In this writing workshop, which builds on the first "The Write Thing" workshop, participants learn how to put their thoughts together logically to convince readers that they know what they are talking about. Participants learn how to analyze their purpose and audience, generate ideas with a startup strategy, sequence their ideas, write the first draft, and edit it. These techniques help them to achieve a clear, straightforward style. Prerequisite: The Write Thing 1: A Plain English Approach to Business Writing.

The Write Thing 3: Focus on Basic Grammar

In this workshop, participants practice editing their memos and letters for grammar and mechanics so that their reader easily understands what they are saying. Participants focus on basic grammar concerns, such as confusing subjects, pronoun clarity, run-on sentences, sentence fragments, commonly confused words, and capitalization. Prerequisite: The Write Thing 1: A Plain English Approach to Business Writing.

The Write Thing 4: Focus on Advanced Grammar and Editing

In this workshop, which builds on the first and third "The Write Thing" workshops, participants practice editing for clarity, conciseness,and accuracy, while allowing their warmth and personality to come through on paper. They focus on advanced grammar concerns and usage, such as dangling modifiers, parallelism, consistency, logical comparisons, and pronoun agreement. Prerequisite: The Write Thing 1 and The Write Thing 3.

The Write Thing 5: Editing Your Own Memos and Letters

In this advanced workshop for veterans of other "Write Thing" workshops, participants edit their own memos and letters and find their personal writing strengths. They practice streamlining sentences, reducing gobbledygook, choosing an appropriate tone, and taking a positive approach. They practice applying the principles of "The Write Thing" workshops" to new memos and letters, and to memos and letters that they have written on the job. Prerequisite: At least two "The Write Thing" workshops.

Thinking Outside the Box: Learning to Find Great Ideas

Logic and analytical abilities alone no longer guarantee success in the workplace with its rapid pace of change. Employees have to be imaginative and flexible. This workshop teaches participants how to be innovators and make their workplaces responsive. Based on the research of Edward De Bono and others, participants use games and mental exercises to help them break free from thinking ruts and venture beyond old boundaries. "Thinking Outside the Box" gives participants the skills to solve business problems creatively and effectively.

E-Mail Made Easy

Some writers wonder if their e-mail should sound (or look) different from their snail mail. This workshop teaches about mass e-mails, greetings and closings in e-mails, subject headers, urgent e-mails and when to send them, private and confidential e-mails, spamming, responding to e-mails, spelling and grammar (they do matter!), capital and lowercase letters and when to use them, and e-mail "voice."

Difficult Memos and Letters: Writing on the Job with Emotional Intelligence

Individuals today have specialized skills, but their productivity depends on being part of a team. Emotional intelligence, which helps harmonize people into a team, is fast becoming a valued workplace asset for writers. In this workshop participants learn the principles of emotional intelligence, and practice using them to write difficult memos and letters, such as memos and letters to lift morale, explain a demotion, neutralize unfavorable news, prevent another employee from hacking at a proposal, or ask payment from a client who is ignoring bills. Participants who want to work with Olswanger on particular memos and letters, or revise memos and letters that they have already written, are free to bring them to the workshop.

To arrange for a business writing workshop at your corporation or institution, contact Anna Olswanger for prices and available dates.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Anna Olswanger earned her B.A. with Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, from Rhodes College in Memphis, and her M.A. from the University of Memphis. "The Home of the Blues" is the backdrop to many of her fiction stories, including "Chicken Bone Man," which won Maryland's F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Contest. In 2001 Olswanger moved to New Jersey where she runs her own small publishing company. She is the author of Shlemiel Crooks, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book and PJ Library Book, and is a literary agent with Liza Dawson Associates in Manhattan.