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Seven Online Courses That Will Make You a Better Writer

Nov 8, 2010 Jennifer Williamson, Distance Education.org Columnist | 1 Comments

No matter your job, writing skills are important.  Whether you’re writing a memo to your team or an email to the boss, you can’t get away with writing on the job. And if you don’t communicate well in writing, people at work could be getting a negative impression about your level of education, or even your intelligence—fair or not.

Not everyone is a great writer. But no matter your skill level, you can improve it with a little work. Here are a few online classes that can make you a better writer.

Business Writing

This course gives students practical, hands-on lessons and activities that draw from real-life business situations. You’ll learn how to write better memos, emails, proposals, and business letters. The focus in this course is to help students develop a clearer and more confident writing style.

Writing Web Content

Writing on Computer

Writing for the web isn’t like writing in print. On the web, readers can click away instantly if you fail to hold their interest—or give them the information they need right away. Good web writing skills focus on clarity of writing, effective organization, and readability—all writing skills that will improve your workplace communications as well.

Writing Saleable Articles

Print and online magazines and newspapers have high expectations from their writers. If you’re good, you can write articles that inform, entertain, and provide in-depth commentary—on subjects you already know about. This class will help you develop your writing style to appeal to magazines—and find ways to make money writing mass-market articles such as custom assignment services like thepensters.

Editing and Proofreading

Writers get all the glory—but editors and proofreaders make sure there are no errors, the writing is smooth, and the organization makes sense before the book or article hits the presses. Unless you’re a high-paid magazine or novel writer, chances are you’ll have to be your own editor and proofreader. This class will teach you how to edit and catch grammar and spelling mistakes—useful skills if you want to be sure your communications are error-free.

Fiction Writing

Writing fiction is a learned skill—and it’s not for everyone. The demands of writing fiction include excellent command of the English language—but beyond that, a distinctive and readable writing style, a command of narrative structure, ability to create compelling characters, and more. The successful fiction writer will also have a good sense of their market, conventions of their genre, and what makes a book marketable.

Poetry Writing

Poetry is one of the most difficult writing genres out there. Good poetry requires intense creativity and masterful command of the English language. It requires the ability to communicate complex thoughts and evoke powerful feelings in a few lines. And it requires a strong affinity for symbolic and metaphorical language. Learn to write poetry well, and you’ll be able to write well in all areas of your life—at work and at home, or in a creative environment.

Grant Writing

Grant writing is a demanding field. Funding organizations have exacting standards for winning grants, and successful grant proposals do several things very well. These include expressing the financial need, describing the program and organization clearly, and making the case compelling enough that donors feel an emotional connection—and a desire to see the program succeed. In addition, successful grant writers know how to express how their project or program fits in with the funding organization’s goals—and how it epitomizes the type of work they want to fund. Good grant writing requires clear communication, evocative writing skills, strong organization, and precision of language.

Strong writing skills can help you communicate with co-workers, supervisors, customers, clients, and even family members—clearly and persuasively.  Most people know how to write—but writing well is a rare talent. Most people aren’t born with it. But you can learn to improve your writing by taking classes that help you develop your skills. An online class in grant writing, business writing, online or print article writing, or even creative fields such as fiction writing and poetry can improve your writing skills in all areas of life.  Learn to write clearly and compellingly, organize your document, present information in an easy-to-understand way, and edit your own work—and there will be few writing tasks you can’t handle.

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Comments:

Noah Vox Over a year ago

What is meant by "you can’t get away with writing on the job"?

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