Our story

We’re mad about words. We’re especially mad about words that get in the way of people understanding what other people write. So we’re doing something about it.

We are an Auckland, New Zealand-based, boutique training company that specialises in helping people to write well at work. We’ve been in business since 2006, and have had the pleasure of training thousands of people to craft documents that other people can – and want to – read.

We train front-line troops. We train managers. We train public sector people, business people, and those from the consulting and service industries. The organisations we work with are large, small and in between.

We are crusaders for putting plain language to work, so everyone’s job gets easier, and readers get a much better deal.

Lynne Laracy, director and trainer

With 25 years of writing – from newspapers, to magazines, to specialist health and local government publishing – under her belt, Lynne feels like she has a thing or two to share about writing well under pressure. And as a former local government manager, she knows from the inside the challenges of writing at work.

Lynne set up Laracy Communications to help writers at work express themselves clearly and concisely. Leading up to that, here’s a few of the other roles she’s had.

 

• Publications manager, Auckland City Council.
• Deputy editor, Directions, NZ Automobile Association magazine.
• Online content manager, everybody, consumer health website.
• Managing editor, Asian Medical News (Hong Kong).
• Senior writer and news editor, New Zealand Doctor newspaper.
• Journalist, Eastern Courier; and contributor to Grace, Next and More magazines.

Oh, and before that, she was a physiotherapist. This taught her a lot about the importance of communicating complicated information in plain language, so her patients could better manage their health and wellbeing.

Memberships and other stuff

• Guest lecturer, AUT Professional Writing Course, and advisory board member for the AUT Professional Communication major.
• Member, Plain Language Association International. 
• Member, Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand. Contributor to their journal, and occasional presenter at their meetings. 
• Member, New Zealand Association of Training and Development. 
• Member, Clarity, a plain legal language advocacy group. 
• Judge, the WriteMark Plain English Awards 2010. 

Lynne clearly has a comprehensive understanding of not only the content but the best way to train it. Her background as a journalist gives her instant credibility and myriad examples to draw on to reinforce the training. She has a great sense of humour and I was impressed with the way she expertly managed the group to keep us all on track.

Tom Spratt, Technical Operations Manager – Applications, Fonterra

We all enjoyed Lynne’s lively and engaging presentation style and we have seen great improvements in our team’s written abilities. I feel that anyone who writes as part of their day-to-day work can benefit from attending one of Lynne’s sessions.

Ben Hutchison, Team Leader, Customer Services, Auckland Council

Sarah Johnson, trainer and editor

Having qualified as a barrister and solicitor, Sarah worked in law in New Zealand and the UK, before retraining in publishing. She completed an MPhil in Publishing at Stirling University, Scotland, then worked as a technical writer and editor.

As well as training, Sarah is responsible for editing all our programme training materials and helps our clients develop clear, plain language pro forma documents and text blocks.

She specialises in writing and editing public sector and organisational documents, and loves the challenge of transforming turgid text into documents that are a pleasure to read. And in her spare time, she writes award-winning children’s books.

Mary Morel, affiliate trainer

We are doing our bit for closer trans-Tasman relationships. We have formed an affiliate relationship with fellow writing training provider and online grammar superstar, Sydney-based Mary Morel.

Mary has been working with words all her career as a trainer, freelance writer and author. She now specialises in two areas – helping people write better board papers and online courses.

Everyone needs a Mary on their team. She’s helped me gain confidence in my writing voice.

Jennifer Straughan, Instinctive Business

Our service is:

• based on experience – we’ve helped thousands of people write better and more confidently. As experienced writers, editors and managers ourselves, we know what it’s like to write under pressure. We’ve been there.
• client focused – we work with our clients over time to improve their writing standards. We work with large and small organisations, in the public sector, and in the manufacturing, service and consulting industries.
• specialised – we think training people to write well at work is so important that it deserves our total focus. We’ve chosen depth over width for our business.
• personal – we don’t think big is always beautiful. We’ve stayed boutique, so that you know exactly who and what you get, and we get to know you.

Our training is:

• practical and task-based – it’s all about you and what you write every day.
• fun and interactive – the ghost of English teachers past is banished forever. Yes – we promise that learning to write well can be fun.
• customised – our courses reflect your learning and writing needs, and your workplace culture.
• modular and blended – we help you build skills in different writing areas over time, using a variety of methods, including online learning.

Off-the-shelf isn’t in our vocabulary
Our customised, modular programmes are built to reflect your brand and company culture, and to provide a clear training track for staff. We work with your own documents and templates, and assess your particular writing needs to develop and deliver fully customised training.

Tell us what you want and we will build it for you.

We make the learning fun
Many of our participants expected a writing course to be something to endure, not enjoy. But after the course, they described it as ‘fun’, ‘engaging’ and ‘inspiring’. And they frequently describe us as ‘knowledgeable’, ‘passionate’ and ‘enthusiastic’. We like that, because we know that bored people don’t learn. We consider it our job to inspire writers to want to write better, then give them the tools to do it.

Our training is also practical and targeted, so participants walk away knowing how to do everyday writing tasks better and faster.

It’s not all about the training on the day
Our blended learning approach prepares participants before they attend our workshops, and supports them after the training has finished. This includes:

• pre- and post-training questionnaires and reading
• individual feedback on participants’ documents (when, and how often, is up to you)
• regular writing tips and reminders
• planned follow-up sessions.

Your staff will have ongoing access to our blog, and we can provide self-directed online learning modules to reinforce their learning.

We help you raise the bar on your writing standards
Good writing happens when everyone agrees what good looks like. We will work with you and your people over time to raise writing standards across your organisation. We will develop style guides or work with you to revamp any templates or form documents that don’t reflect your clear communication values or reinforce good writing practice.

We work with organisations of all sizes and from all sectors. Here's a selection of clients we are proud to do business with.