Do you feel that your training Modlettes should contain all the information you have available? Are you scared that if you leave something out the learning will be incomplete? Are your sentences so long they have grown into paragraphs? We continue this series on editing your writing for learning. Wordiness slows readers down. They have […]
Have you ever looked back on your training initiatives? The handouts or workbooks or what you’ve written for eLearning. You may slowly lose your optimism about your work. You may well think that much of it is no good. Why was I such a bad writer? But, that’s the wrong question. We are all bad […]
Freewriting With freewriting, you start writing without quite knowing where your content will end up. You write as fast as possible to uncover new ideas. The process usually works like this: Use a mindmap to record your ideas as fast as possible Find the essence of your content Revise your content to build on your […]
Has it happened to you yet? In your mind you have assembled your Modlette. Perhaps while driving home or walking the dog. You feel excited and want to get writing. Then suddenly its time to prepare the meal. Then when you sit down to write for your Modlette . . . . You can’t put […]
Hayley sighs. If only she had an extra hour in her day . . . She’d dedicate that extra hour to designing her own training programme. Hayley is an accountant, has always wanted to write a book or a training course on how to prepare your accounts for year end. Unfortunately she has too many […]
In writing for learning, we don’t need to write sentences as poetic as Mr Wordsworth. We can add a touch of poetry by using one or two sensory words . . . to make our writing more vivid and shape a stronger writing voice. You can find opportunities to spice your writing up. You can […]
Why are learning texts usually so formal and often boring? Why are we afraid to show ourselves in our writing for learning? Why do we stick with text book styles? Is it because we are afraid to leave a standard format? Let’s be different and write something our learners enjoy but still meets learning objectives. […]
A strong voice makes us stand out from the mundane of the manual. A strong voice helps us bond with our learners, encouraging them to make the changes we are advocating But how? Your writing voice develops over time ,and you can accelerate that by following these tips . . . Tip 1: Decide who […]
Every trainer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas to make their training engaging. Around the 1980’s we introduced classroom games like icebreakers. Now we are writing for eLearning we need new ideas to engage invisible learners. Where are these ideas, how do I get them, and how do we keep them coming? If […]
A couple of years ago I took a course on fiction writing (hopefully), I wondered if it would help me with writing for learning so I fished it out. And . . . ta da! It was all there, a great writing technique that works even better for what we do than in fiction. And […]
