ELearning is on the rise, and it’s easy to see why. It provides an easy to access way of learning, whether you’re looking to learn a new skill or training up new staff. No matter what you’re doing, you’ll need written materials to complement that writing. That’s where you come in as the writer. Here’s how you can create excellent written learning materials, and help improve training in your workplace.
Give Your Training a Purpose
The first thing you need to know as you’re writing training materials is, what’s the end goal? What are you hoping the trainees will know once they’ve finished reading your material? That’s why creating learning objectives is so important. Give your readers a goal for the material, so they know what they should be getting out of it.
Write to the Audience Directly
It’s a good idea to talk to your readers directly, calling them ‘you’ when you need to. By doing this you’re creating a dialogue between you, the writer, and them, the learner. It’s easier to stay engaged with the material when you’re in a conversation, essentially, with the writer. It makes more sense too, as you’ll be writing more specialised materials, so you’ll probably know exactly who you’re talking to.
Keep Your Writing to the Point
As you’re writing learning materials, you’re not looking to write longer texts. These can be unfocused and not as helpful to a trainee as shorter, more tightly focused pieces. Stick to the point, and break a long piece up into shorter ones if you think it’s needed. You can use tools like Easy Word Count to ensure that you’re sticking to your own word count if you think you’ll need some help.
Watch Your Grammar
Your grammar is incredibly important when it comes to writing training materials. If it’s not quite right, it can make understanding your writing very difficult indeed. If you think you need help with your grammar, there are plenty of options. You can visit State Of Writing or Essayroo to talk to experts about grammar. Via Writing has lots of good tips, and Grammarix will help you run a check on the grammar in your writing.
Provide Context
“It’s hard to really be engaged in learning if you don’t know why you’re doing it” says writer Kayleigh Jones from Paper Fellows. “The best way to help learners is to give them the context for what they’re doing.” This means showing them how that training will help them in their day to day work. Focus on the ‘Why’ first, and then give them the ‘How’.
Use a Conversational Tone
The tone in which you write is important. You’re training your learners, not instructing them. You want them to see that they’re just as involved in the learning process as you are. That means that a conversational tone is usually best. This helps you connect with your readers. Of course though, you should still avoid using any slang or offensive language in your writing. It’s a good idea to avoid jargon as much as you can too, unless it’s essential to the topic at hand. Doing this can just confuse your writing.
Proofread Your Writing
It should go without saying that you need to proofread anything that you write. The writing you put out for training needs to be carefully checked, as even the smallest mistakes can cause a lot of problems further down the road. You can use tools and services to help you do this. For example, the Huffington Post has recommended Boom Essays as a good proofreading service.
Edit Your Work
Of course, once you’ve proofread your materials, you’ll need to edit them. Look critically at what you’ve included. Does everything need to be there? Is there anything that you’ve missed out? You can always ask a colleague to help you decide on the edits you need to make. An editing service like Australian Help can be useful, too.
These tips will help you write training materials that are helpful to the reader, and help them get something new from their learning. Good quality writing leads to good quality learning, so start with improving your training materials today. You’ll soon see the difference it makes.
BIO: Brenda Berg is a professional with over 15 years of experience in business management, marketing and entrepreneurship. Consultant and tutor for college students and entrepreneurs. She believes that constant learning is the only way to success. You can visit her personal blog at Letsgoandlearn.com
