Writing Briefing Notes Training

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This one-day course teaches participants how to write effective briefing notes for use in corporations or government agencies. Participants will learn how to write concise and comprehensive documents that summarize complex source materials.

If your organization uses specific templates or models for briefing notes, we can incorporate those into our standard instructional materials.

Participants are also encouraged to bring sample documents to class for review and critique.

This seminar is designed for executive assistants, project leaders, managers, and anyone responsible for writing issue, action, or status summarizations that provide briefings.

Introduction

  • What is a briefing?
  • How to write a briefing

Briefing Notes Preparation

  • Preparation checklist
  • Information and idea gathering checklist
  • Briefing organization checklist
  • Briefing arrangements checklist
  • Briefing presentation checklist

The Body

  • What is your thesis?
  • Organizational Techniques for Different Types of Briefings
    • Informative briefing
    • Persuasive briefing
    • Arousing briefing
    • Entertaining briefing
  • Supporting statements
  • Supporting claims
  • Transition statements
    • Examples of transition statements
    • Examples of transition words

The Introduction

  • Five ways to begin a briefing
  • Introduction checklist
  • Opening statement

The Conclusion

  • Conclusion checklist

Practicing your Briefing

  • Eight tips
  • Practicing checklist

Special Briefings

  • Impromptu briefings checklist
  • Award acceptance checklist

Improving all of your Briefings

  • Nine ways to improve clarity in your briefing
  • Fifteen tips to add sparkle to any briefing
  • Nine rhetorical techniques for more memorable and persuasive briefings

Using Humor

  • Eight ways to use humor in briefings
  • Six rules on using humor in briefings
  • Five great tricks for using humor

Internet Resources for Writers

Use the following resources to assist you in writing briefing notes:

Dictionaries

  • www.oed.com

    The online version of the seminal dictionary of the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary

  • dictionary.reference.com/translate/text.html

    Excellent and fast translation dictionary

  • nhd.heinle.com

    Contains over 40,000 entries and is based on the best selling Newbury House Dictionary of American English; provides simple and clear definitions, and a wealth of sample sentences, idioms, and a wide array of cultural facts and figures

Dictionary and Thesaurus Combinations

  • www.m-w.com/home.htm

    Web site by Merriam-Webster that features a dictionary and thesaurus

  • www.wordsmyth.net

    American English dictionary and thesaurus contains 50,000 headwords, and very precisely defined and hyperlinked synonyms

  • www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn

    An online lexical reference system whose design is inspired by current psycholinguistic theories of human lexical memory; English nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs organized into synonym sets, each representing one underlying lexical concept

References and Writing Help

Software

Schedule This Training

For groups of 3 or more participants

Cypress Media Group presents this seminar as an on-site offering at your work location or at an off-site location of your choice. We can customize this training program to suit your precise training needs.

For economic reasons, this seminar is only offered to groups of roughly three or more people with the same training needs. If you have a group with similar training needs, please call us at 770-640-9918 or E-mail to discuss your interest.

For fewer than 3 participants

We do not offer this course as an open enrollment public offering for individuals. If you have fewer than three participants who are interested in this course, the cost will be the same as for a larger group.

Please call us at 770-640-9918 or E-mail to discuss your interest.

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About the Instructor

Randall P. Whatley

Randall P. Whatley is a 30-year media veteran with diverse business experience. He is president of Cypress Media Group , an Atlanta-based advertising, public relations, and training firm. He has extensive experience advising government officials, political candidates, public officials, and corporate executives.

Whatley teaches the practical, real-world skills that he has acquired and refined over three decades as an advertising and public relations practitioner. His presentation and media relations skills were honed as a lobbyist and political consultant on over 50 campaigns in four states. He has written two books, two syndicated newspaper columns, and many magazine and Internet articles. He has also hosted his own television and radio program and appeared often as a TV and radio program guest, including a CNN appearance. Whatley has also produced TV and radio ads.

He has been a government relations consultant for over 30+ years and has served as a political campaign consultant (over 50 campaigns with 30+ victories in four states) and lobbyist. Additionally, he has served as an RFP consultant to both government agencies and contractors, administered government contracts, written proposals, and authored handbooks that address government/layperson relations.

Randall P. Whatley teaches the following courses to companies and government agencies worldwide:

He can be reached by e-mail at randy@cypressmedia.net.

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