Speak Clearly. Write Effectively. Win Credibility.
Effective communication builds trust, strengthens professional relationships, and helps great ideas gain the attention they deserve.
We help people in government, business, and nonprofit organizations achieve career success by learning the fundamentals of effective writing.
About Us
A Common Challenge Across Every Industry
Language Matters president Anne Cole Johnston has enjoyed careers in education, social work, business, and nonprofit leadership. In each career, she quickly discovered that while writing skills are significant and valuable assets, many lack the level of proficiency needed to thrive in the workplace.
Regardless of industry or profession, the ability to communicate clearly and effectively often determines whether ideas are understood, opportunities are realized, and careers advance. That realization inspired Anne to create Language Matters and help professionals strengthen one of their most valuable workplace skills.
Core Competency
Course Development Expertise
Designing practical, results-oriented writing courses that address a wide range of writing skills, experience levels, and professional communication needs. Each course is thoughtfully structured to improve confidence, clarity, and effectiveness in workplace writing.
Customized Training Solutions
Consulting closely with clients to develop and deliver training programs tailored to the unique needs, goals, and challenges of their workforce. Course content is adapted to ensure relevance, engagement, and real-world application.
Proven Training Outcomes
Drawing on extensive teaching and training experience across government agencies, corporations, and nonprofit organizations to deliver measurable improvements in writing proficiency. Programs are designed not only to build skills, but also to help professionals communicate more clearly and effectively on the job.
Our ApproachWe begin in an organization’s computer lab where participants provide a writing sample that is carefully reviewed by an instructor who has writing expertise and teaching experience.
Next, the instructor provides feedback on the writing sample and returns it to the adult student to be re-written.
The instructor’s review and the student’s re-writing continue until the writing meets the standards of good writing.
The keys to our success are teaching writing skills by the “hard work” method and customizing instruction to meet an organization’s particular needs.
We teach writing skills using the “hard work” method.
Why It Works
Unlike one-size-fits-all training programs, our approach emphasizes active learning and individualized feedback. Participants learn by writing, revising, and refining their work under the guidance of an experienced instructor, helping them develop skills that transfer directly to the workplace.
Benefits of Our Approach:
Personalized feedback from experienced writing instructors
Practical exercises based on real-world workplace writing
Customized instruction tailored to organizational needs
Measurable improvement through guided revision
Increased confidence, clarity, and professionalism in written communication
“Your success in life will be determined largely by your ability to speak, by how well you write, and by the quality of your ideas, in that order.”
Patrick Henry Winston,
Make It Clear: Speak and Write to Persuade and Inform
© 2020 Patrick Henry Winston, by permission of The MIT Press.
Let’s begin the conversation.
Every organization has unique communication challenges. Tell us about yours, and we'll explore how Language Matters can help.