Business & Professional Development >> Communication & Writing

American Sign Language (ASL) is the visual-gesture language used primarily among the American deaf communities. Using the immersion method, all teaching is done exclusively in ASL. You will acquire basic vocabulary and grammar by using ASL receptive and expressive skills in class. No prior knowledge of ASL is needed to join!  

This class is a continuation of the first American Sign Language course introducing more vocabulary and moving along with sentence structure.  The first session or two will be a refresher of content learned previously then adding new content from that point expanding your American Sign Language abilities.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? Do you have creative ideas for a blog, essays, or articles? Do you dream of seeing your name on the spine of a book? Widely published author and blogger, Mary Potter Kenyon, will jumpstart your writing career with this three-hour course that teaches the basics of successfully writing for publication. Topics include breaking into the market by writing shorter pieces, writing for anthologies, and the importance of social media. With concrete examples and ideas for common markets, you'll leave this class motivated to submit your work for publication or begin a blog. If desired, students have the option of submitting up to two, double-spaced pages of their writing for critique, at least one week prior to class.  

The majority of non-fiction books are sold by a book proposal, not a completed manuscript.The book proposal is a business plan that sells your book concept to a prospective publisher or agent, and includes a market analysis, competitive titles, an overview, outline, sample chapters, and ideas for marketing and promotion. This intensive, two-hour workshop is not for the faint-hearted writer, but one who is ready to begin pitching a non-fiction book project. The power point includes generous handouts and examples from Mary's own proposals that have resulted in book contracts.   

Would you like to provide better customer service to the Hispanic population in your workplace? If so, conversational Spanish will enable you to learn key phrases so you can communicate on a basic level with Spanish-speaking customers. This minimal grammar class concentrates on conversational techniques and basic word phrases. Emphasis is on pronunciation and oral exercises in a learner-friendly environment. Improve your Spanish and reduce communication barriers! Textbook is included.

Take away the key practices you need to develop and hone your business writing communication effectively and successfully. Get the best practices for crafting effective, professional business documents. Find out how to avoid grammatical pitfalls. Acquire business writing principles that will be good for years to come. Agenda Unit 1 Writing as a Process - Audience, Purpose, and Medium -Outlining for Successful Writing -Organization Models (Choosing a Model that Works) - Principles of Business Communication Unit 2 Written Communication in the Workplace -Writing Reports (formal and informal) -Drafting and Revision -Writing the First Draft -Constructing Openings and Closings that Work Unit 3 Writing a Proposal -Writing for Your Readers -Writing Effective Content - Safeguarding Users -Ethical Considerations Unit 4 Collaborative Writing and Research -Research and Team Writing -Collaborating Across Departments -Working Through Conflict

You will learn strategies to write documents faster and better. You will learn how to customize your documents for a specific reader and to accomplish your writing purpose. You will discover ways to create documents when time is limited. You will also master models to organize and format letters, emails, and reports in order to make them clear, direct, and reader friendly. Conversational writing style and parallel structure will also be covered. One of the keys to success in any business is good communication skills and one of the most common ways to communicate in business is through writing. In the second half of the course, we look at the importance of grammar and tone to good writing and approaches to rewriting. We will also look at specific types of documents we might create. Details

Discover the keys to successful writing for the workplace. Whether you are writing a report, memo, letter or publicity notice, business writing has some defined characteristics for success. Successful communicators in the workplace move forward, others move back. Enhance your career by improving this critical communication skill. Begin with understanding the format, construction, and successful techniques of writing good business reports and proposals. Then improve your skills with editing and proofreading. Finally, discover what good journalists know. Learn how to write a news story, press release or other publicity notice that zings. Help your organization stand out with your new skills in business writing. This certificate will take you to the next level where business writing is a skill for personal and organizational success. Three one-month courses

Presentation media are key to communication, sales, speeches and any other effective presentation today. Whether your presentation is online or in-person, presentation media not only enhance your message but often make your message successful. Find out how to use Prezi, the new slide software that goes beyond one-dimensional presentations, and the finer points of Photoshop for presentations. Then discover the design elements to creating visual presentations for success using any media. Take away critical skills for both training yourself and others in your organization. You will come away with the latest, most advanced practical design knowledge in presentation media. Three one-month courses.

A publication or book can help you expand your business in a way no form of advertising can. Whether you are with a small or large organization this practical certificate is designed to help entrepreneurs, businesses, and organizations self-publish non-fiction to promote and enhance your core business goals such as customer retention and building your brand. Get unique insights into finding your niche and developing customer oriented information that build customer relationships. Find out about self-publishing print publications and books. Then discover how to go about creating, formatting and publishing an eBook. Finally acquire the keys to marketing your print hard copy publication, book or eBook. Most importantly, you will create a marketing plan so you can map out your marketing steps from start to finish.

Good communication in the workplace is more important than ever. And critical to your career advancement and success. Come get a comprehensive and intensive preparation with skills and techniques you can put to use on Monday morning. Take back a workable conflict management model, along with successful and practical conflict management strategies. Then work with a pro to learn how to improve your negotiation skills for a win-win outcome, including helping others to get what they want, so you get what you want. Finally, find out more about yourself and others using personality profiles for better work performance. You will be learning from some of our more popular instructors, and taking away new how-to skills that work.

Webinars are a hot new meeting format that save money and reach more people than in-person meetings. Use them for customer education, staff meetings and training, presentations, virtual seminars and much more. The technology is simple, but good webinar presentation techniques are critical. Discover the power of successful webinars for your business organization. Then learn the four key strategies to make your webinars more successful. Acquire techniques and tips that will make your webinars winners with your audiences. Agenda Unit 1 Keys to Successful Webinars -What your participants want in a webinar -Choosing the right format for your program -Choosing the right length for your webinar Unit 2 Effective Slides and Presentation Techniques for Webinars -The 4 Keys to a Successful Webinar Presentation -The 5 best webinar presentation techniques -Making slides powerful and visual -Timing your speaking, what to say when, for how long -Voice techniques to keep your listeners interested Unit 3 Involving Your Webinar Participants -How to schedule and initiate questions -Selecting questions to read -How to respond to questions -Using polls Unit 4 Preparing and evaluating webinar presenters -Choosing your presenters: who to pick, who to NOT pick -Ways to train presenters -How to prepare your presenters -Evaluating your webinar success