Writing contest winners

writing contestby Jody Bruner

Thanks to everyone who took on the challenge of rewriting the sentence below to make it clearer and more concise:

“The purpose of this guidance is to inform pension plan administrators of the ABCD supervisory approach regarding certain requirements associated with the defined benefit (DB) provision of a pension plan, which is frozen and has purchased annuities in respect of all of the DB entitlements under the plan and almost all of those annuities meet the requirements of Section 43.1 of the Pension Benefits Act (PBA).”
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How to Give Feedback Diplomatically

giving feedbackby Jody Bruner

Have you ever had a colleague eagerly ask for feedback on a document only to have her face fall as you point out all the ways she could improve it? Why, you wonder, did she ask for help in the first place if she doesn’t really want it? Read more

Happy 50 Years to Wavelength!  

Back in 1969, Wavelength started by helping business people communicate more easily, clearly, and persuasively. Our first workshops were delivered to oil field workers in Alberta. 

Fifty years later, we keep this vision alive by helping our learners wherever they work: in banks, governments, airports, mines, insurance companies, engineering firms, pharmaceuticals—you name it. After all, everybody benefits from better communication skills.   Read more

Plain Language for Better Written Communication

written communication skillsby Lesley Nevills

Have you ever had to read a message several times just to understand it? We’ve all been on the receiving end of emails like that, and our impulse is to hit delete. But what if that email includes information you need, or it comes from someone you can’t ignore?

Many writers fall into the trap of writing in a vague and bureaucratic style because they think it makes them sound more formal or professional, but it confuses and challenges the reader. So, if you don’t want your readers to hit delete, use a modern written communication style that engages your reader with a friendly, conversational tone. To be effective, let your human voice come through.

Who would you prefer to work with – Writer A or Writer B? Read more

Should You be Branding Yourself?

branding yourselfby Leigh Geraghty

Most of us understand the benefits of branding our business-it helps build recognition, credibility, customer loyalty and a competitive edge. But what about branding yourself? What is personal branding, and why is it an increasingly important area of employee development?

Personal branding is how you define and portray yourself as a person and a business professional. Your brand expresses your interests, talents, personality, and expertise. It portrays the person you are and the person you want others to see. You want to make sure that you are using a custom SEO for your brand to hone in on the target customers that you ideally need for your business, for example, if your brand was of luxury items like furniture, then you would look into seo for luxury brands and how it can help you. Read more

PBW: An Instructional Design Story

by Jody Bruner

Wavelength is the result of merging two communication skills training companies, IWCC and BrunerBiz. In 2017, we blended our two flagship business writing courses (IWCC’s High Impact Business Writing and Bruner’s Effective Business Writing) to deliver a course that combines the best of each: Professional Business Writing. Creating this new workshop was a great learning experience, and everyone—our team and clients who have piloted the course—is happy with the results.  

This is an instructional design story, in which we share how this redesign revealed what each workshop assumed about the learner, and about reconciling two different approaches to writing.  

Different assumptions about our learners  Read more