Coaching & Mentoring

Knowing how to communicate effectively through writing is essential for anyone who wants to develop as an information worker and fulfil their potential in their chosen profession. In a business environment, well-written communications and other documents project a positive image and have a beneficial effect, both on your business and on relationships with colleagues and customers.

Our Coaching & Mentoring services are an attractive option for those professionals who have attended English-language courses and now need to develop their business or technical writing skills. Coaching can be delivered in the context of a mentoring programme for your staff.

These services are managed by our Director, John Durham, who is a certified TEFL and Teaching Business English coach. They can be organized either in your own working environment, in an external office space, or remotely using Teams, Zoom, Skype or Webex.

Whether you’re part of a communications team, or are expected to create English-language content as part of your job – for example, instructions for users of products or services – you can benefit from our skills, insights and vast experience in this area. Whatever your starting point, you can develop your skills further and reach a high level of competence, right up to professional level if required.

Task-based Coaching

Our Task-based Coaching service is a pragmatic solution for professionals working in companies and institutions who wish to take their English-language writing skills to a higher level. Wherever possible, we use real authoring and publishing tasks, so that the trainee not only learns the required skills, but also gets the task or project completed efficiently.

We now also offer tutorials and writing courses that can be customized to suit the employee’s specific requirements. These courses cover a range of topics, from awareness-creation tutorials for CEOs and managers to our entry-level course for those employees who are just starting to write content in English.

Presentation

As well as developing clear and concise text, it’s essential to ensure that the presentation of your content is of a high standard. Designing for online content – on a variety of screen sizes – requires additional expertise in responsive design techniques and user experience (UX). The principles we use to create effective online content are included in our Copywriting for the Web course.

As well as addressing the linguistic and presentational aspects of content creation, we provide coaching in Microsoft Word. Most employees only use a fraction of the features of this software, which is regrettable, as Word now has an abundance of interesting options. We can help you to become more productive in its use, while introducing best practices in the formatting of your documents, whether for print or online.

Case studies

We have delivered coaching and training for several leading companies, including a one-day course for novice technical authors, a workshop on report writing for a medical technology company, and training in Europe and the USA on an authoring application that we documented for a multinational life-science company.

The employee drafts content for analysis and review by the coach, who then edits the text – including tracked changes and comments using Microsoft Word – and provides verbal and written feedback, with a concise report if required.

This approach is highly effective because the employee puts the theory into practice immediately, and the coaching is tailored to his or her specific requirements. A variety of media supports are used, in line with the employee’s individual needs, to make the learning as rich and interesting as possible, and to keep the student motivated.

Generative A.I. prompts
Where appropriate, the coaching can include expert advice on the creation of briefings (prompts) according to best practices, ensuring that you get optimal results from your preferred generative AI tool.

Wherever possible, we use real authoring and publishing tasks, so that the employee not only learns the required skills, but also gets the task completed efficiently. The employee also benefits from the spoken dialogue with the coach via telephone or videoconference.

Task-based Coaching can be delivered as part of a mentoring programme.

Do you have a writing task or project to complete?

Request our factsheet and checklist: call us on 032 724 51 71 or e-mail us at editing@alphadoc.ch.

There are many excellent courses on Communications, where you can learn about all aspects of human communication. Such courses are offered by a wide range of institutions, both in Switzerland and abroad.

These courses are high-level and – understandably – mainly theoretical, and therefore don’t equip the student for the varied hands-on tasks he or she may be asked to undertake at work, whether in a communications role or as an information worker.

Our solution

For those who don’t wish to undertake such a course of study, we can provide tuition and mentoring for professionals who need to improve their awareness of communication principles and their English-language writing skills. Our mentoring is highly customized, and the rhythm is determined by the client and his or her manager.

Our mentoring service covers a wide range of topics, providing valuable insights into all forms of written communication. It’s made up of modules, ranging from tutorials that address basic principles to courses on specific aspects of developing high-quality content. The employee also benefits during the mentoring from the spoken dialogue with the coach.

We also offer a range of structured courses.

As well as Task-based Coaching, we offer structured English-language tutorials and writing courses designed to increase awareness and enable employees to improve their content-creation skills, whatever kinds of document they need to create.

All tutorials and courses are delivered by our Director, John Durham – a certified TEFL and Teaching Business English coach. They can be delivered online, at the client’s premises, or at a business centre in Switzerland.

Creating Content in the Digital Age

This tutorial is intended to create awareness among CEOs and managers, in their role as stakeholders in the creation of high-quality content throughout their organization.

Demystifying Content Strategy

This tutorial is intended for CEOs and managers who want to understand the benefits of implementing a content strategy and content operations, and the key factors to be considered.

Creating Modular Documentation

This course is designed to enable business and technical authors to move away from complex, hierarchical structures and to adopt a modular technique when creating content. This approach brings many benefits, in particular the possibility of re-using content.

Copywriting for the Web

This course is intended for all those who need to create Web content, whether they work in a communications role or as information workers who need to create web and other online content.

Journalism in the Digital Age

This course is intended for those employees who are expected to write articles or other content requiring journalistic skills. It also covers writing for social media, as well as newsletters and blog posts.

Content Creation for Beginners

This is an entry-level course for those who have been given responsibility for creating content in English. This course is highly customizable, depending on the level of the employee. It includes Task-based Coaching and tuition in Global English.

For a prospectus, call us on 032 724 51 71 or e-mail us at editing@alphadoc.ch specifying the course(s) you’re interested in.

Microsoft Word is used in companies throughout Switzerland to create content of various kinds, and most information workers have this application on their PC. However, most employees only use a fraction of the functionality of the software, which is regrettable, as Word now has many interesting features.

We can help you to become more productive in its use, while introducing best practices in the formatting of your documents, whether for print or online. It’s now possible to work together on your document in real-time using AnyDesk, the desktop-sharing application.

Improving productivity

How long did it take you to create your last document using Microsoft Word? If the application isn’t used correctly, these tasks can take up hours – even days! – of your time.

We show you how to be more productive in developing the kinds of content that you’re expected to create.

Improving quality

With our unmatched expertise in typography and design, we help you to ensure that your documents are not only of an excellent linguistic quality, but also presented in a highly usable and attractive way.

Templates

Are you creating documents from scratch each time? We can show you how to create templates that present your content in the best way, and enable you to create documents quickly.

So if you’re interested in becoming more productive in Microsoft Word, and in exploring its features, we can help!