Better Writing

About this course

Successful learners are able to communicate what they are learning, both verbally and in written formats. This course will provide a review of the basics of writing so that learners can effectively organize, draft, revise, edit, and finalize written informational documents, including school assignments. The course will instruct learners how to support their ideas with appropriate information, recognize the types of source material they are considering, distinguish fact from misinformation, and summarize material from informational sources, as well as avoid plagiarism by employing paraphrasing and implementing citations correctly. The course will help students avoid biased and offensive language in written documents, and appropriately utilize punctuation and rhetorical techniques such as persuasion. The course also includes techniques for staying motivated when working on written documents and overcoming writer’s block. Writing is a skill that can be improved with practice. Different situations require different types of writing. This course will assist learners to develop various ways to express ideas in writing, so those ideas can be shared with others.

Course objectives

• develop effective writing techniques
• support ideas with appropriate information
• summarize information accurately
• utilize techniques to stay motivated when writing