About this course: Writing well is one of the most important skills you can learn for success in the business world. Knowing how to write well allows you to deliver your ideas with the power they deserve. Good writing also conveys a sense of your professional excellence to the world around you. In this course, you'll master the simple, effective skills that drive all successful business writing. You'll create impactful documents that not only showcase your ideas, but showcase your own professionalism to your audience. The principles you learn in this course enable you to become a great business writer. They also provide the foundation for moving into Graphic Design and Successful Presentation, so that you can unleash your best professional self whenever--and however--you present your ideas in the workplace.

Created by: University of Colorado Boulder

Taught by: Dr. Quentin McAndrew, Instructor
Department of English, University of Colorado Boulder

Basic Info	Course 1 of 4 in the Effective Communication: Writing, Design, and Presentation Specialization.
Level	Beginner
Commitment	4 weeks of study, 1-3 hours/week
Language	English
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.7 stars Average User Rating 4.7See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Building Great Business Writing

The first lesson in this module introduces the Effective Communication specialization, the capstone project, and the Business Writing course. You'll meet the writing instructor, Dr. Quentin McAndrew, and her counterparts Dave Underwood and Professor William Ku...

13 videos, 3 readings, 3 practice quizzes

Graded: Writing Principles and Design

WEEK 2

The Formula for Writing Success

Did you know that the most important element of good writing isn't good writing? It's good organization. If you haven't organized your documents for maximum effectiveness, you've wasted an opportunity to present your ideas--and yourself--with power. This modul...

9 videos, 2 readings

Graded: The Elements of the Scaffold

Graded: Compare Openings

Graded: Starting with the Most Important Point

Graded: Practicing the Scaffold

WEEK 3

Crafting Powerful Writing

In the first lesson of Module Three, we'll apply our writing principles and our scaffold to creating an actual memo. You'll see, step-by-step, how the scaffold guides the writing process to make it easier to create a forceful business document. You'll understa...

15 videos, 2 practice quizzes

Graded: What Goes in the First Paragraph?

Graded: Writing Strong Topic Sentences

Graded: Second Paragraph of Coursera Pitch

Graded: Critique These Conclusions

Graded: I vs. Me

Graded: Fix These Modifiers

Graded: Serial Comma Practice

Graded: Pronoun Placement

Graded: Apostrophe Practice

Graded: Your vs. You're, There vs. Their vs. They're: Test Your Skill!

Graded: That vs. Which

Graded: Writing an Intro Paragraph

WEEK 4

Activate Your Voice!

So, you've started to write a document . . . Module Four takes you beyond the scaffold and good grammar to provide you with specific tips that will elevate your language, infuse your writing with clarity, and amp up your ability to communicate your ideas effec...

15 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Simplify Sentences

Graded: Edit Out Generalities and Jargon

Graded: Identify Passive Voice

Graded: Change from Passive to Active

Graded: Remove "to be" and "to have"

Graded: Edit out Prepositional Phrases

Graded: Finding Repeated Words

Graded: Final Editing Quiz

FAQs

How It Works

Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

Help from Your Peers

Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.

Certificates

Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.

Creators

University of Colorado Boulder

CU-Boulder is a dynamic community of scholars and learners on one of the most spectacular college campuses in the country. As one of 34 U.S. public institutions in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU), we have a proud tradition of academic excellence, with five Nobel laureates and more than 50 members of prestigious academic academies.

Pricing

	Audit	Purchase Course
Access to course materials	Available	Available
Access to graded materials	Not available	Available
Receive a final grade	Not available	Available
Earn a shareable Course Certificate	Not available	Available

Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.7 out of 5 of 230 ratings

Excellent profressor and writing course.

A quick review of core concepts to add clarity. Just wish it had more practical assignments that enabled us to test our skills.

Excellent course about business writing with really helpful insights. I've worked as an editor at newspapers for 20 years – but yet I learned a lot about clarity, grammar, active voice and more during this course. As I am not a native speaker, some of the quizzes and assessments are tricky. But it's worth to spend the extra time to pass the tests.

It was a good course. Very clear explanations and simple to follow. Many of the techniques taught were obvious, but once you actually consistently apply them to your writing they will undoubtedly make a big difference. It is a good foundation course for effective writing.

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