ADV.14.4. TRAINING NEEDS

I. COMPARING TRAINING OPTIONS 

2. GETTING TO INFORMATION FAST

Ways of organizing text
When we read articles for specific information, we may want to navigate the text quickly to find it. In product reviews, for example, there are some common ways information is organized:
	• Whole-to-whole comparison: Various products or services are reviewed, in all their aspects, in separate sections of the article.
	• Feature-by-feature comparison: Products are compared in sections divided by criteria, such as cost, quality and design.
	• Similarities-and-differences comparison: Products are compared all at once, divided by how they're alike in one section and how they differ in another section.
Recognizing the type of structure a product review has can save time getting to the information needed.

II. TALKING ABOUT LEARNING STYLES

3. INTRODUCING IDEAS

Introducing opinions

When you are communicating an idea, you can preface it with a phrase that tells someone how you feel, or that prepares them in some way for it. Maybe it's just me, but I find it very difficult. I don't know if you've tried it, but I think it's great. Without wanting to alarm you, I don't think it's going to work.

III. MAKING A RECOMMENDATION

2. FORMAL CONSTRUCTIONS

Formal constructions
You may have noticed that some grammar looks more formal than other grammar. For example, which of the following sentences is more formal?
	A plan should be made.
	We need to make a plan.
If you said the first one, you were right, and you'll probably remember hearing the term passive voice to describe this kind of construction. So how do we make it? Can you change this sentence into the passive?
	They have attended the courses.
Put the thing receiving the action – in this case, courses – first, followed by have, then the verb be in the same tense as the original sentence. Then put the main verb in the third form – for example, the gone in go-went-gone. Let's see if you got it right:
	The courses have been attended.

It's not always easy to get the form of the verb be correct. Can you make this one passive?
	They are using the products.
	The products are being used.
How would you change these sentences to make them more formal?
	We should decide on a budget.
	They didn't seem to accept it.
	When we told them what to do, they liked it.

When you see a verb like should, could or would, remember to put be after it:
	A budget should be decided on.
And when there are two actions, look at how the verbs combine, and choose either to be or being as the form of be:
	It didn't seem to be accepted.
	They liked being told what to do.

IV. DEALING WITH FEEDBACK

1. ACKNOWLEDGING A POINT

Acknowledging a point

In complex discussions, we may want to show that we agree with someone to some degree, but not entirely. You may hear expressions like these: I can understand why you think that, but it's not always true. That's a valid point, but it's not the focus of this meeting. I can see where you're coming from, but that's not the only issue here. 2. CHANGING THE FOCUS Responding to comments   There are several things you can do when people make comments you may not directly agree with or find useful. As we have seen, we might acknowledge a person's comment, but we could also use phrases like these ones below – what for? If you look at it from the position of a trainee … But from a different perspective … And if you look at it that way … As you probably guessed, you can use the phrases to encourage someone to consider another viewpoint. Alternatively, you might decide the conversation has gone beyond its scope and use phrases like these to refocus it: The aim of this meeting is to discuss the details of the plan.Now I'd like to take the discussion back to implementation.I'm going to need to go back to the topic in hand.