Business Writing
University of Colorado Boulder via Coursera
This course will teach you how to apply the top ten principles of good business writing to your work, how to deploy simple tools to dramatically improve your writing, and how to execute organization, structure, and revision to communicate more masterfully than ever.
★★★★☆ (5 ratings)
Writing in First Person Point of View
Wesleyan University via Coursera
If you have always wanted to tell your own story—in a memoir, first-person essay, or any other form of autobiographical non-fiction—but felt you lacked the tools or the framework, this is the class for you. We will learn how successful first-person writing is structured to offer the reader a sense of propulsive motion, and is guided by a narrator who is deliberately crafted.
Advanced Grammar & Punctuation Project
University of California, Irvine via Coursera
In this course, you will create a grammar portfolio of the difficult or interesting English grammatical structures that you studied in the previous courses.
How to Write a Successful Research Paper (free trial available)
via Skillshare
Whether you are writing a manuscript for scientific publication, a doctoral thesis, or Bachelor/ Master thesis, this course can help you to achieve a better paper in less time.
Business Writing
Writing Stories About Ourselves
Wesleyan University via Coursera
In this course, creative nonfiction writers will explore traditional storytelling methods, especially those which overlap between fiction and memoir. By looking at examples from a wide range of genres, including film, song, painting—even the theme music for Jaws!—we’ll practice exercising the creative muscle that sees ourselves as characters and the experiences we’ve had as tales.
An Introduction to Screenwriting
University of East Anglia via FutureLearn
This online course explores the key concepts and fundamental principles involved in the process of screenwriting.
★★★★★ (3 ratings)
A Beginner’s Guide to Writing in English for University Study
University of Reading via FutureLearn
Learn how to use English for study at university or college and develop your writing skills, vocabulary and grammar.
★★★★☆ (22 ratings)
Writing and Editing: Drafting
University of Michigan via Coursera
This third course in the “Good with Words: Writing and Editing” series will give you a number of strategies to help with what is often the most intimidating, even paralyzing part of the writing process: getting started. You’ll learn about the “planning fallacy” and “temptation bundling.” You’ll get a chance to experiment with “freewriting” and “writing before you are ready.” And you’ll continue to benefit, through our ongoing “Good Sentences” and “Takeaways” segments, from the models and advice of a diverse set of writers.
Next up on my list is a great course that aims to teach you some of the fundamentals of engaging and impactful writing. From learning these skills and habits, you will be able to apply them to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, copywriting and the list goes on!
Grammar and sentence structure are important, but there are subtle nuances that you will learn to identify and implement after finishing this instruction. You’ll learn the goals “write short, write clear, and write right.”
I’m a writer. (But I really want to direct.) Writing seems to come naturally for some people. Even if doesn’t, free online writing courses for beginners can train you to write well. If you are already a good writer, these same courses will help you do a better job.
Some of the core modules included in this course are writing skills, plot details, finding an audience, marketing, creative strategies, and more!
1. Crafting Personal Essays with Impact (Skillshare)
- All levels
- 1 hour on-demand video
- Taught by successful writer
- Includes editor insights
- Downloadable resources
- Class projects
Even filling out a job application needs good writing skills if you want your application to make it to the right pile of papers.
- Beginner to intermediate level
- 3 hours
- Course assessments
- Professional instructors
- 124,000 students enrolled
- Certificate of completion available
Introductory | If you want to build your freelance career, you need to know how to interview. How do you find and interview a source when your editor wants your draft by Friday? What questions should you avoid? What do…
Jennifer Haupt's essays have been published in O, The Oprah Magazine, The Rumpus, Spirituality & Health, The Sun and elsewhere. Her debut novel, In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, was published in April 2018, and she is currently working on an autobiographical novel that takes place in Haiti. She teaches at workshops around the country.
Becky Mandelbaum is the author of Bad Kansas (University of Georgia Press, 2017), which received the 2016 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and is a finalist for the 2018 High Plains Book Award for First Book. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Georgia Review, Electric Lit, The Rumpus, Necessary Fiction, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. Originally from Kansas, she currently lives in Washington’s Skagit Valley.
Jennifer De Leon is the author of Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, 2020) and the editor of Wise Latinas (University of Nebraska Press). An Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Framingham State University and a faculty member in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at Bay Path University, she has published prose in over a dozen literary journals and is a GrubStreet instructor and board member. Her essay collection, White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, & Writing, is the recipient of the Juniper Prize and will be published by UMass Press in Spring 2021.
Living Nations, Living Words
*Applicable to specific scholarship fund donations made between member registration of the previous quarter and Scholarship Donation Day each quarter. Donors who gave $250 or more during GiveBIG 2021 can register on this day.
Her collection of poetry, Rose Quartz will be published by Milkweed.
Section III: Due to great interest in this class, we have opened up a third section of this class on 6/9. Registration is open now. All Levels | Is your writing life a junkyard of started projects, scattered notes, and…
Intermediate | Whether your goal is securing an agent for your book or querying small presses directly, a stand-out query letter is essential. You only have one shot so make it count with a concise, intriguing description of your book…
This course will also inspire you, giving you the tools to transform your thoughts into a readable personal essay. Take yourself seriously and give your ideas a real voice. Being hosted on Skillshare, users can this course for free on a 2-month free trial.
This is a great course for anyone aspiring to be a writer as well as established writers wishing to hone their skills to a higher quality level. Being hosted in Skillshare, this course is completely free!
Advertising is one of the hardest genres of writing. It seems so simple, just tell what it is or does in a few short words. But which words? What part of the product or concept to highlight? That’s vitally important information to dispense.
While this course isn’t for everyone, it may be ideal for those in the early stages of writing who are hitting writing blocks.
1. Crafting Personal Essays with Impact (Skillshare)
- All levels
- 53 minutes
- Focuses on industry and business article writing
- Professional writer trainer
- Exercise files
- Certificate of completion
- Intermediate level
- 1 hour on demand video
- Qualifies for continuing education units
- Chapter quizzes
- Professional author instructor
- Certificate of completion
Even filling out a job application needs good writing skills if you want your application to make it to the right pile of papers.
As many homeschooling parents know, writing can be a difficult subject to teach. Even if your student understands grammar and can write well, many children simply do not like writing, resulting in poor content and a lot of complaining. It can be hard to teach writing if your student does not like it, or if you do not enjoy the subject either, for that matter.
You can rest assured knowing they are learning grammar rules correctly. They might be more motivated when they have to turn in assignments to someone other than their parent.
San Diego Scribblers offers online classes for different age groups. These classes are not comprehensive but based on a theme. For grades four through eight, there is a short story writing class, and high school students can take a journalism class. The online courses do not teach grammar but are a fun addition to your writing curriculum. Assignments are given each week and teachers provide detailed critiques of each student’s work.
I often see writing classes for homeschoolers that impress me. Here are some of the best I’ve come across:
Institute for Excellence in Writing
At Grammarly, where I work, we grammar check hundreds of documents of all types. I often look at online writing classes to see how they’re teaching. This helps me see how people best learn English so I can improve our product strategy.
Home 2 Teach offers college-prep writing classes for students aged 8-18. Sessions are six weeks and offered four times per year. It is exclusively for homeschoolers, and students must submit a writing sample for placement. These courses are a great way to give your advanced writing student an edge.
Nikolas Baron discovered his love for the written word in Elementary School, where he started spending his afternoons sprawled across the living room floor devouring one Marc Brown children’s novel after the other and writing short stories about daring pirate adventures. After acquiring some experience in various marketing, business development, and hiring roles at internet startups in a few different countries, he decided to reunite his professional life with his childhood passions by joining Grammarly’s marketing team in San Francisco. He has the pleasure of being tasked with talking to writers, bloggers, teachers, and others about how they use Grammarly’s online proofreading application to improve their writing. His free time is spent biking, traveling, and reading.