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Learn new concepts from industry experts
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Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate
There are 4 modules in this course
Writing well is one of the most important skills you can develop to be successful in the business world. Over seventy companies and thirty thousand students--from professional writers to new employees to non-native English speakers to seasoned executives--have used the techniques in Business Writing to power their ability to communicate and launch their ideas. 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. From the very first lesson, you'll be able to apply your new learning immediately to your work and improve your writing today. Your ideas are powerful. Learn how to deliver them with the clarity and impact they deserve.
"Thank you for giving me the knowledge I need in life. [Business Writing] was helpful, life changing, and has made a huge impact in my writing." -- Message from a Business Writing student
The principles you'll 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.
This course can be taken for academic credit as part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Data Science (MS-DS) degree offered on the Coursera platform. The MS-DS is an interdisciplinary degree that brings together faculty from CU Boulder’s departments of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Science, and others. With performance-based admissions and no application process, the MS-DS is ideal for individuals with a broad range of undergraduate education and/or professional experience in computer science, information science, mathematics, and statistics. Learn more about the MS-DS program at https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master-of-science-data-science-boulder.
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 Kuskin, who teach Graphic Design and Successful Presentation. Dave and William join Quentin to offer insights into how writing, design, and presentation relate to a process of continuous personal branding that we call Effective Communication. In this module, you'll discover the simple principles that inform all great business writing and that serve as the foundation of this course. These lessons set the stage for the deeper exploration and specific techniques that follow, not just in Business Writing, but in Graphic Design and Successful Presentation as well. Let's get started!
The Effective Communication Specialization•3 minutes
What's So Great About the Capstone?•4 minutes
What Is Good Writing?•3 minutes
Be the Windowpane•3 minutes
Waste No Time•3 minutes
Don't Sound Smart; Be Smart•4 minutes
Own Your Ideas•4 minutes
Everyone Needs an Editor; or, the Story of My Failure•5 minutes
Who are you?•3 minutes
Appearance Matters•4 minutes
Looking Your Best•4 minutes
Dave Gives Pointers: Type is the Message•6 minutes
Success!•2 minutes
8 readings•Total 57 minutes
Course Updates and Accessibility Support•1 minute
Earn Academic Credit for your Work!•10 minutes
Course Support•10 minutes
Important Background on Business Writing•1 minute
About the For-Credit Version of this course •10 minutes
A Few Important Points About This Course•5 minutes
Why Johnny Can't Write and Employers Are Mad•10 minutes
You Can Never Be a Worse Writer Than I Was•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 36 minutes
Simplifying Sentences•6 minutes
Edit out the Wishy-Washy•6 minutes
Improve Memos with Design Elements•4 minutes
Writing Principles and Design•20 minutes
3 discussion prompts•Total 30 minutes
Introduce Yourself and Meet Other Learners!•10 minutes
Have You Noticed Good or Bad Writing?•10 minutes
Have You Noticed Bad Design?•10 minutes
The Formula for Writing Success
Module 2•2 hours to complete
Module details
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 module teaches you the universal organizational formula that allows you to optimize your business writing. You'll understand how the principles you learned in Module One build to this formula, and you'll see how a scaffold gets created and applied to a real business document. By the end of this module, you'll be able to wield your organizational knowledge in service of your ideas and personal brand, and you'll have built the foundation that allows you to generate powerful sentences in Module Three.
The Organizational Scaffold You Need for Everything•5 minutes
Quentin, William, and Dave Brainstorm the Memo•4 minutes
Bonus Video: The Basics of Greatness•6 minutes
A Blank Page: Facing the Void•7 minutes
Say It: The Body Paragraphs•6 minutes
Building Out the Scaffold•5 minutes
The Conclusion Concludes•1 minute
2 readings•Total 15 minutes
Have No Fear of English as a Second Language•10 minutes
New York Times: "What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence"•5 minutes
4 assignments•Total 33 minutes
The Elements of the Scaffold•6 minutes
Compare Openings•6 minutes
Starting with the Most Important Point•6 minutes
Practicing the Scaffold•15 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 20 minutes
How Do You Get Ready to Write?•10 minutes
Share an Example of Poor Organization•10 minutes
Crafting Powerful Writing
Module 3•6 hours to complete
Module details
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 understand how to apply the scaffold to guide sentence and paragraph creation, and you'll have a chance to test and reinforce your new skills. The second lesson covers common grammatical errors that sap many writers' professional brands. Short videos explain each error, why each hurts your clarity, and how to correct your writing--even if you don't remember the grammar rule. You'll understand why these changes are important to your goal of Effective Communication and why it's important to eliminate these common missteps from your own writing.
What's included
15 videos12 assignments2 peer reviews
Show info about module content
15 videos•Total 51 minutes
It's Go Time!•3 minutes
The First Paragraph Roadmap•5 minutes
Signposting with Topic Sentences•5 minutes
William on Voicing Writing: How Does it Sound?•3 minutes
Your vs. You're, There vs. Their vs. They're: Test Your Skill!•6 minutes
That vs. Which•6 minutes
2 peer reviews•Total 180 minutes
Second Paragraph of Coursera Pitch•120 minutes
Writing an Intro Paragraph•60 minutes
Activate Your Voice!
Module 4•3 hours to complete
Module details
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 effectively. Every lesson in this module is based on the principles you learned in Module One, and they form a checklist of techniques that you can apply to any business document to insure your ideas shine on the page. Short videos on emails and longer documents give you simple techniques for applying the lessons of this course to a broad range of your work.
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.
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Learner reviews
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SR
5·
Reviewed on Feb 5, 2019
The course did fulfill my expectations. Just a note for the future, the continuous camera angle changes caused me distractions. Except for that the contents were very clear and easy to follow.
N
NQ
5·
Reviewed on Jun 27, 2020
Easy to follow, funny and well-designed progression! Don't expect to have a lot of further information resources, this course is practical, awesome quizzes and useful specific suggestions.
K
KG
5·
Reviewed on Jul 7, 2020
One of my favorite classes on Coursera. If you need to polish your writing skills, I recommend this course. The instructor did an amazing job covering the challenges we have with grammar and style.
What kind of software will I need to complete this course?
A word processing program, like Microsoft Word, will be helpful for completing this course.
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.