Course: Effective Communication Skills for Professionals

Capitals Capitals are often overused, but they are actually rarely needed outside of the main functions of beginning sentences and identifying proper nouns. When referring to generalised titles, it is …

The apostrophe has two main jobs: to create contractions and to signify possession. To focus the discussion on apostrophes, only the common mistakes will be discussed. There are often questions …

Writing well matters because it communicates your professional identity. Whether you are writing reports, proposals, emails, or texts, the way you construct sentences, use tone, and adhere to grammar conventions …

How you structure any piece of written communication will influence how your reader receives it. A well-structured essay/email/proposal will help the reader follow your line of thinking and follow the …

There is a misconception that the hyphen is used for everything because it is the only dash on the keyboard; however, the em dash, en dash, and hyphen all have …

Subject-verb agreement means that the subject and the verb agree with one another in number. The subject and its verb must be either both singular or both plural. For example, …

What are the usage rules when using “fewer” and “less”, “amount” and “number” in a sentence? Believe it or not, the rules are simple. A good place to start is …

At the beginning of this course, you read about the power of writing and the influence it can have on how you think and learn. This concept applies to oral …

When to use “which” and when to use “that”. The key between knowing when to use “which” or “that” is knowing the difference between a restrictive and non-restrictive clause. A …

Watch the Ted Talk given by Wendy Suzuki below to examine how these conventions are applied to an oral presentation. There is a transcript in the Downloads section also. While …

Tone is the attitude behind the writing, and it gives more context to the words used by conveying the writer’s mood. It can reveal intention or hide it, and it …

Voice is a component of style because it is how you present yourself to the reader and how your personality is captured in your communication. Each of us have a …

Writing style is the unique way a writer communicates with words. Style is created with two main elements: voice and tone. However, the way you use grammar, spelling, and structure …

Grammar Grammar extends to spoken language, and while there is no visible punctuation, we still punctuate our speech by pauses or intonation (the rise and fall of the speaker’s voice). …

Watch this video to understand the different sentence types. This knowledge is essential for properly understanding punctuation.