Teaching Hill+Knowlton Strategies the importance of attention to detail and helping them to reduce overlooked errors

Because the PR experts at H+K Strategies work with so many diverse companies, the copy they produce is similarly varied. They are called on to write about many subject matters, from food and drink to financial services, and to deliver many document types, from creative advertorials to strategic reports.

It’s a fast-paced agency and consequently there’s not much time for giving finished documents a final read-through. As Head of Business Development at H+K Strategies, Sam Lythgoe, explains: “I was noticing that sometimes documents went out with unseen mistakes.” Sam wanted a course that would point out the key pitfalls and explain how to avoid them.

Also, the training had to be suitable for individuals for all the teams across the business, with varying proofreading skills.

The training solution: A take-away method for spotting mistakes that can be applied to every document type and style

Sam was impressed with the outcome of Writing Machine Academy’s practical approach to teaching proofreading skills: “The Grammar and Proofreading Quick Wins course was great, as it clarified our grammar and punctuation queries, and helped delegates to appreciate why it’s so important to take the time out of their busy day to pay attention to detail.”

On the day, the delegates were highly receptive to the training and very engaged with the subject matter. They asked many questions on detailed grammar and proofreading issues, which the trainer cleared up in full. “The trainer was very knowledgeable and very entertaining, and answered all the delegates’ questions,” says Sam.

Client feedback

Delegates were asked to give a score out of five on a list of feedback questions such as ‘Quality of the training content’, ‘Quality of the trainer’ and ‘I have learned new techniques that will enhance my writing’. The average score was 4.2 out of 5.