APS Writing Skills

A full-day workshop for teams who write for a public sector audience.

Clear, concise, and purposeful writing is one of the most useful skills in the APS. This workshop covers the general principles of workplace writing and how to apply them to the documents your team actually produces — briefs, emails, submissions, reports, and correspondence.

Duration: Full day  ·  Delivery: Online or in the ACT  ·  Cohort: 8-20 participants

Aligned to the APS Craft Capability Framework and APS Workforce Strategy 2025.

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What your team will learn

Short Courses → APS Writing Skills

Practical writing skills that participants can apply to real workplace documents from Monday morning.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to apply the essential principles of workplace writing. They will communicate clearly to different audiences using formats and styles suited to purpose. They will structure information for a variety of stakeholders. And they will use practical writing tools to draft clear, concise, and purposeful documents.

What we cover

    • Purposeful writing — Targeted, concise, and clear written communication that meets business needs.
    • Structure and flow — Sentences and paragraphs that introduce, connect, develop, and conclude ideas.
    • Voice and tone — Writing that has a clear voice and a tone that suits the reader and the context.
    • Reviewing and editing — Reviewing text so it is clear, concise, complete, and correct.
    • Document formats — Drafting different documents (briefs, emails, submissions, reports) using different structures.
    • Applied practice — Applying writing skills to real work documents from your team’s environment.

Workshop format

One full day, delivered to your team as a closed cohort.

McMillan’s APS writing skills full-day course provides an overview of the general principles of writing required in the workplace and can be delivered specifically to your workplace context. Participants undertake practical activities across the day and apply the skills to real work examples.

At a glance

    • Length: 1 day
    • Audience: All — tailored to audience as required
    • Delivery: Online (live, facilitated) or in-person in the ACT
    • Cohort size: Minimum 8, maximum 20 participants
    • Approach: Facilitated instruction, group discussion, and applied practice on your team’s own writing examples

Who the workshop is for

Suitable for any team member who writes for a workplace audience — tailored to the level of your cohort.

APS Writing Skills is designed for team members at any level who write as part of their role. We tailor content and examples to your cohort’s seniority and function before delivery.

Typical cohorts

    • Policy, program, and operational teams writing briefs, submissions, and reports
    • Communications and engagement teams writing for internal and external audiences
    • Graduates and new starters learning workplace writing conventions
    • Mixed teams building consistent writing standards across a work area

When this workshop is a good fit:

    • Written work coming out of the team is inconsistent in quality, tone, or structure
    • The team writes briefs, submissions, or correspondence for internal or external audiences
    • You want a shared language and standard across your work area
    • New starters need to build writing skills specific to your workplace

How McMillan delivers

An evidence-based delivery approach grounded in adult learning principles and applied consistently to every workshop.

Every workshop follows the same delivery cycle—a consistent approach we apply to every workshop we run.

Our delivery cycle

    1. Initiate — We confirm outcomes, audience, delivery mode, schedule, and success measures. You get a Delivery Plan covering scope, responsibilities, evaluation, risks, and dependencies before we start.
    2. Design and tailor — Where contextualisation is needed, we shape content, scenarios, and activities to your workplace. You get finalised session materials before delivery.
    3. Deliver — We deliver online or face-to-face at your location. Sessions are interactive, practical, and designed for the roles and settings your team actually works in.
    4. Evaluate and close — We capture participant and stakeholder feedback and agreed measures of impact. You get an evaluation summary you can share with your executive.

This same delivery discipline sits under every workshop McMillan runs — non-accredited short courses and nationally recognised qualifications alike.

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Let's talk about your training needs

Tell us who you are and what you’re after — Ben or Lauren will get back to you.

Prefer to call? Phone us on (02) 6230 0266.

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