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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Getting Started with Essay Writing by University of California, Irvine

4.7
stars
3,159 ratings

About the Course

Course 2: Getting Started with Essay Writing This is the second course in the Academic English: Writing specialization. By introducing you to three types of academic essays, this course will especially help prepare you for work in college classes, but anyone who wants to improve his or her writing skills can benefit from this course. After completing this course, you will be able to: - create effective thesis statements for your essays - plan and write compare/contrast, cause/effect, and argument essays - write well-developed body paragraphs Note: The lectures and practice activities are available for free, but you must upgrade to the pay version in order to take the quizzes and get feedback on writing assignments....

Top reviews

EB

Dec 4, 2015

I am only on the second week an have done my essay and feel very powerful. English is not my first language but the instructor made it easy for me by detailing every aspect of essay writing. Thank you

TR

Oct 26, 2021

It is actually quite a simple course, easy to attend as it does not require a long time each week. However it did improve my writing skills, I'm considering to attend the next advanced writing course.

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826 - 850 of 860 Reviews for Getting Started with Essay Writing

By Brylle B

Mar 30, 2023

Honestly, the peer-graded assignments are unnecessary. It takes too much time and is kinda boring. However, the video discussions are easy to understand and knowledgeable.

By Divya A

Sep 2, 2020

It is not for all. Most profitable for school going pupil or college students. But lots to learn. Just not suitable for me.

By Maksim O

Nov 15, 2015

Much better than the first course in the specialization.

Too many dependencies on non-standard data formats, like MS Word.

By Jingfei Z

Jan 9, 2017

It is a good course, but if you want to hand on the assignments, you have to pay. So I am a little disappointed.

By Supantha R

Aug 7, 2020

The course was OK,but it could be better. They could provide us with more information.

By Portia A

Nov 16, 2015

Its ok, I didn't learn a little and I didn't learn a lot.

By 罗詹妮

Dec 29, 2015

Too easy. The example showed is not very academic

By Anwar R

Mar 27, 2019

Don't charge for the quizzes please. :D

By Karen R T

Sep 20, 2020

It was a good course! Well organized!

By Luana B

Mar 16, 2016

The course was great and interesting.

By 匡翔宇

Mar 27, 2017

还行吧。当然只能带入门,学一点理论。要想学会论文写作远非这门课能做到的。

By M T

Dec 21, 2019

Good learning opportunity

By Derrick G

Jul 17, 2019

looks good !!!!!!!!!!!!

By harpa ó

Dec 1, 2015

It was okay.

By Patricia

Feb 26, 2016

I took the first class in this specialization. I liked that enough to enroll in the second class, however I did not realize that it was being taught by the same teacher. Nothing against her, she certainly taught the class and met the objectives, she just speaks too slow/articulates too precisely for me. Also, I was not aware that Coursera changed the auditing policy. As an auditor, I am no longer able to participate in the assignments or quizzes in this class. Without the ability to do the assignments and receive peer feedback, it seems pointless to continue the class. Furthermore, there was a problem with the practice exercises... You need to download an app to do the practice, which I did several times, but the lessons or assignments never worked. I sent notes to coursera about this with no reply. The low rating is primarily based on the fact that I could not do the practice assignments and that coursera took away the ability to complete assignments and take quizes.

By Miriam R

Mar 9, 2017

The video lectures were good, the tests were almost a give away and the essays were an opportunity to practice what I learned from the lectures. My only BIGGEST disappointment is that the essays were evaluated by students like me. I received evaluations that doesn't tell me much or evaluations that doesn't make sense. If I only knew that this course was not an instructor supervised course, I would have been willing to pay extra money just to get a professional to assess my essay and provide me with feedback. At this point, I am disappointed that I decided to just watch the videos but skip the peer-reviewed essays and make the most of what I paid for.

By Lingfei T

Dec 11, 2015

While some of the materials are interesting in this course, it gives a very "high school" feel rather than providing help with college essay writing. It would be helpful to have this course more geared towards college academic writing and have more emphasis on developing ideas, finding resources to support ideas, synthesizing, paraphrasing and all the other skills useful for college academic writing.

I assume most people who come to Coursera are above high school level. Some of the materials like the monkey example are a bit too childish and the sample articles can be too simple to be appropriate to learners at this level.

By Mary L M P

Dec 20, 2021

The course has interesting general topics and covers three types of essays: compare/contrast, cause/effect, and argument. However, the grading system is terrible. Some assessments require a peer-review that focuses only on verifying that the format is respected, i.e., margins, indentation, double-spacing. It means it ignores the content, and therefore, the peer review is pointless. Even worse, some people might evaluate the format wrong, even if it is correct. There's no input or verification of such improper assessment. No much learned here.

By Bradley H

Jul 29, 2020

Although I take many online webinars, conferences, courses, etc. this is the first categorized as a MOOC. There is/was an expectation that writings would be reviewed in some manner. This does not appear to be the case. Either by an instructor or by our peers. The only review is one of format (centered title, font size, etc.) This is not sufficient, for me. I will continue with the Specialization but question the value of the course if this continues. Value is measured in time more than dollars. Thank you. Brad H.

By Muhammad Z

May 13, 2020

Assignments are the core of any course, however, the marking/review criteria, set in this course, for assignments was really disappointing. It only judged, if the document was properly formatted. Looked like a joke!

Apart from that, the course could be more generic and detailed as there remains a number of confusions, regarding the content and direction of the essays, even after taking this course.

By Bruce B

May 24, 2016

I have yet to have ANY of my essays reviewed, although I have finished every requirement of the course. I"m very disappointed. I hope that the directions given to me by the course attendants will correct this problem, however.

By Yuchen L

Aug 6, 2021

I feel like the peer graded activity is useful, but too much used in this course. Would have been nice to have the teacher evaluate your essays.

By Saurabh S

Feb 7, 2016

i think, this course content is a bit dependent on thought process..

it changes with individuals

By SUSAN S H

Feb 18, 2016

I am learning a lot but I can not afford to pay.

By Hannah T

Feb 4, 2016

Perhaps this class would be good for a non - native english speaker. I went through the first, maybe, five videos. From what I could tell, I learned all of the stuff in this class by the age of 10. If this class is for people who english is a second language, it should be more obviose.