Course Highlights
This writing workshop for government writers will:
- Establish what readers need from government documents and why so much government writing fails to deliver it.
- Build practical skills in word choice, sentence structure, and organization that writers can apply immediately.
- Address the Plain Writing Act and what compliance looks like in practice on the documents participants produce every day.
- Examine how AI writing tools are changing government writing workflows, where they help, and where they consistently create problems.
- Introduce the AI Humanizer as a tool for reviewing and revising AI-generated content before it goes out under a writer’s name.
- Close with an editing pass that gives participants a repeatable process for improving their own drafts quickly and effectively.
Program Overview
Government writers face a specific and persistent challenge. They produce documents for a public audience that did not ask to read them, under obligations that require clarity, often using language that their organization has been writing in for decades and that no one has stopped to question. The result is a recognizable style: formal, cautious, dense, and harder to understand than it needs to be. Most government writers know this. What they often lack is a practical process for doing something about it.
This half-day onsite workshop gives them that process. The session opens by establishing what readers actually need from a government document and what writing habits most reliably get in the way. From there, the workshop moves quickly through the practical skills that produce clearer writing: choosing direct language over bureaucratic phrasing, using active voice consistently, organizing information so that the most important content reaches the reader first, and cutting the wordiness that accumulates in drafts without adding meaning.
A dedicated section addresses AI tools, which have entered the government writing workflow faster than most agencies have developed standards for using them. This workshop examines what AI writing assistants produce reliably, where they fall short on accuracy and tone, and what specifically tends to go wrong when AI-generated content goes out without adequate human review. Participants will work with the AI Humanizer to revise AI-generated passages, restoring the voice, precision, and appropriate register that these tools routinely lose. The session closes with a fast, structured editing pass that participants can use on any document before it leaves their desk.
The following outline highlights some of the course’s learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).
Program Objectives
At the program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Explain what readers need from government documents and identify the writing habits that most often prevent those needs from being met.
- Apply plain language principles to produce documents that the public can understand and act on.
- Use active voice consistently and restore hidden verbs to their direct form.
- Organize information so that the most important content reaches the reader at the beginning of a document or section.
- Identify what AI writing tools produce reliably and where they introduce tone, accuracy, and voice problems in government documents.
- Apply the AI Humanizer to review and revise AI-generated content before publication.
- Use a structured editing process to improve the clarity and conciseness of their own drafts.
Workshop Modules
The Government Writing Problem: What Readers Need and What Gets in the Way
The session opens with an honest look at why government writing has the reputation it does. Dense sentences, buried main points, passive constructions that hide who is responsible for what, jargon that insiders no longer notice but that stops a public reader cold — these patterns did not develop randomly. They developed because government writers learned to protect themselves from criticism, defer to convention, and prioritize precision over accessibility. This part of the day examines what public readers actually need from a government document, what the Plain Writing Act requires agencies to deliver, and the specific habits that most reliably produce writing that fails both standards. Participants will evaluate sample documents and identify the patterns that make them difficult to use. The group will also examine when writing is the right choice and when another form of communication would serve the reader better, a question most government writers never stop to ask.
Writing Clearly: Word Choice, Voice, and Organization
This part of the workshop builds the practical skills that produce clearer government writing. The group will work through the word choice decisions that most often slow a reader down, including how to replace bureaucratic phrasing with direct language without losing precision, how to eliminate redundancy that inflates sentences without adding meaning, and how to choose the specific word over the vague one when both feel available. The discussion then addresses active voice directly, examining the passive constructions that appear most consistently in government documents and practicing the revisions that restore the actor and the action to the sentence. The group will also work through organization, including how to identify the main point of a document or section and lead with it rather than building toward it, and how to use headings, transitions, and short paragraphs to make a document easier to navigate. Participants will revise passages from real government documents and evaluate their revisions against the plain language standard.
AI in the Government Writing Workflow: What It Does and What It Costs You
AI writing tools have changed the way government writers draft, summarize, and revise documents, and most agencies are navigating that change without a clear standard for doing it well. This discussion gives participants a realistic picture of where AI tools help and where they hurt. The group will examine what these tools produce reliably — organized first drafts, quick summaries, faster turnaround on routine documents — and where they consistently fall short, including accuracy problems, tone that reads as generic and institutional in ways that plain language standards specifically reject, and a kind of smooth vagueness that satisfies a word count without informing a reader. Participants will examine AI-generated government documents and identify the patterns that signal text that has not received adequate human review. The group will then apply the AI Humanizer to revise those passages, working through the specific corrections that restore voice, accuracy, and appropriate register. Writers who leave this discussion will have a clear and confident approach to using AI tools without compromising the documents they produce.
On the Chopping Block: A Fast Editing Process for Government Writers
The session closes with a structured editing process that participants can use on any document before it goes out. This part of the day examines what a fast self-editing pass requires: how to read for structure before editing for sentences, how to identify the one or two patterns in a writer’s own work that account for most of the problems, and how to use the Passive Voice Checker and Word Audit tools to eliminate the language habits that accumulate across a draft without the writer noticing. Participants will apply this process to a document in the room and leave with a repeatable editing approach sized for the time constraints government writers actually work under.
Target Audience
This workshop is designed for groups that want to:
- Produce government documents that public readers can understand and act on.
- Build practical writing and editing skills that writers can apply immediately to documents already in progress.
- Develop a shared standard for using AI tools in government writing workflows without sacrificing accuracy or compliance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this workshop designed for?
This workshop suits writers at federal, state, and local government agencies who produce public-facing documents as a regular part of their work. It fits writers at any experience level, including newer staff building foundational habits and experienced writers who want a faster, more deliberate process for the documents they produce every day.
How does this course differ from the plain language workshop?
The plain language workshop goes deep on the Plain Writing Act, the federal guidelines, and the specific obligations those standards create across document types. This workshop uses plain language principles as a foundation but focuses on practical writing and editing skills, with significant attention on AI tools and how to use them well on government documents. Teams that need thorough grounding in federal compliance should consider the plain language course. Teams that want faster, more practical skill building, especially around AI, will find this session a better fit.
Does the course cover the Plain Writing Act?
Yes, in the opening discussion. The workshop establishes what the act requires and how plain language principles apply to the documents participants produce. It does not go as deep on the federal guidelines as the dedicated plain language course, but participants leave with a clear understanding of their obligations and a practical set of skills for meeting them.
How much of the session focuses on AI tools?
A full module addresses AI tools directly, and the AI discussion runs through the editing section as well. The workshop treats AI tools as part of the government writing reality rather than an optional add-on. Participants will examine what these tools produce, where they create problems in government documents specifically, and how to review and revise AI-generated content using the AI Humanizer before it goes out.
Do you offer a full-day version of this program?
Yes. We expand this workshop to a full day for teams that want deeper practice time, more work on specific document types, or additional focus on any of the session’s topics. That conversation happens before we schedule.
Do you offer a virtual version of this program?
Yes. We deliver a virtual version of this program in a multi-segment format. Contact us to discuss options.