Courses and training

In person or online

Do you find writing a report or paper, a letter or an email difficult?   You need more time…  You struggle with the first sentence…  You have too many ideas…  You get stuck half way through…   You are not even sure what effective writing is…

These are common problems for people whose main occupation is not writing: you might be in IT or in the City;you might be an economist or civil servant; you might be a scientist, a doctor or other health professional. How many hours of corporate time are wasted by people writing reports that never get read – either because they do not have a clear message or they are not sure who their audience is?

Olivia Timbs is part of a network of trainers who can teach ANYONE to write effectively. Grammar and spelling are part of the course but the main aim is to give you confidence that, with some planning, there is no assignment that you cannot tackle – from tweets of 50 characters to 500-word letters and 5,000-word reports.

For many of you, the last time you were taught anything about the English language was when you were at school – and now you are faced, 10 or 15 years later, with regularly having to prepare reports for your colleagues. The prospect is enough to bring you out in a cold sweat. 

The Effective writing course is best delivered in one day, although it can run over a long half-day (4/5 hours) plus an online assignment. In response to the pandemic, the course can be delivered as a webinar over three two-hour sessions.

If you and a group of colleagues would like an in-house course, send Olivia an email via the Contact tab and outline your needs. You will learn most if you aim for a group of 12 although up to 16 people can be accommodated.

One-to-one mentoring or small group work is also available, usually in hour-long sessions.

Whichever route you choose, the good news is that at the end of the course you will be able to reach your target readers and they will grasp your message.

Olivia also offers a course on How to write an academic paper and get it published. This course is aimed at anyone embarking on postgraduate work and is designed to help you market yourself and your department, collaborate constructively with co-authors and target your paper at the most appropriate journal.

If you and a group of fellow postgrads would like an in-house course, send Olivia an email via the Contact tab and outline your needs. You will learn most if you aim for a group of 12 and you do not need to be researching in the same discipline.

We can also run courses for scientists and healthcare professionals who would like to try their hands at journalism.

All trainers are accredited by Tim Albert Training.

And if you are talking at an international conference for the first time and want to improve your presentation skills or you have to speak at a press conference and need advice and support beforehand, or you want to understand how the media works, TimbsComms can direct you to other specialist trainers through Clear Say and John Illman.

Send an email via the Contact tab on the menu, outlining your needs and we will get back to you.