Business Writing

Product type

Business Writing

Coursera (CC)
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Description

When you enroll for courses through Coursera you get to choose for a paid plan or for a free plan

  • Free plan: No certicification and/or audit only. You will have access to all course materials except graded items.
  • Paid plan: Commit to earning a Certificate—it's a trusted, shareable way to showcase your new skills.

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 Presen…

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Didn't find what you were looking for? See also: Business Writing, Reading & Writing, Communication Skills, Written Communication, and Report Writing.

When you enroll for courses through Coursera you get to choose for a paid plan or for a free plan

  • Free plan: No certicification and/or audit only. You will have access to all course materials except graded items.
  • Paid plan: Commit to earning a Certificate—it's a trusted, shareable way to showcase your new skills.

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 Coursework

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

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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.

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 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!


13 videos, 3 readings, 3 practice quizzes expand


  1. Video: The Effective Communication Specialization
  2. Video: What's So Great About the Capstone?
  3. Video: What is Good Writing?
  4. Reading: A Few Important Points About This Course
  5. Discussion Prompt: Introduce Yourself and Meet Other Learners!
  6. Video: Be the Windowpane
  7. Video: Waste No Time
  8. Practice Quiz: Simplifying Sentences
  9. Video: Don't Sound Smart; Be Smart
  10. Video: Own Your Ideas
  11. Practice Quiz: Edit out the Wishy-Washy
  12. Video: Everyone Needs an Editor; or, the Story of My Failure
  13. Reading: Why Johnny Can't Write and Employers Are Mad
  14. Reading: You Can Never Be a Worse Writer Than I Was
  15. Discussion Prompt: Have You Noticed Good or Bad Writing?
  16. Video: Who are you?
  17. Video: Appearance Matters
  18. Video: Looking Your Best
  19. Video: Dave Gives Pointers: Type is the Message
  20. Practice Quiz: Improve Memos with Design Elements
  21. Video: Success!
  22. Discussion Prompt: Have You Noticed Bad Design?

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 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.


9 videos, 2 readings expand


  1. Video: Organize or Die
  2. Video: Great Writers Are Great Revisers
  3. Video: The Organizational Scaffold You Need for Everything
  4. Video: Quentin, William, and Dave Brainstorm the Memo
  5. Discussion Prompt: How Do You Get Ready to Write?
  6. Reading: Have No Fear of English as a Second Language
  7. Video: Bonus Video: The Basics of Greatness
  8. Video: A Blank Page: Facing the Void
  9. Video: Say it: The Body Paragraphs
  10. Video: Building Out the Scaffold
  11. Video: The Conclusion Concludes
  12. Reading: New York Times: "What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence"
  13. Discussion Prompt: Share an Example of Poor Organization

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 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.


15 videos, 2 practice quizzes expand


  1. Video: It's Go Time!
  2. Video: The First Paragraph Roadmap
  3. Video: Signposting with Topic Sentences
  4. Video: William on Voicing Writing: How Does it Sound?
  5. Video: Writing a Paragraph
  6. Video: Revising a Paragraph
  7. Practice Quiz: Rubric Training Quiz
  8. Video: The Conclusion Concludes (Reprise)
  9. Video: Does Good Grammar Matter?
  10. Video: Grammar Blast: I vs. Me
  11. Video: Grammar Blast: Mangled Modifiers
  12. Video: Grammar Blast: Serial or Oxford Comma
  13. Video: Grammar Blast: Pronoun Problems
  14. Video: Grammar Blast: Apostrophe Abuse
  15. Video: Grammar Blast: Your, You're, Their, They're, There
  16. Video: Grammar Blast: That vs. Which
  17. Practice Quiz: Rubric Training Quiz

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 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.


15 videos, 1 reading expand


  1. Video: Writing IS Revision
  2. Video: Check Your Scaffold
  3. Video: Keep It Simple
  4. Video: Brevity is the Soul of Wit
  5. Video: Dave on How Logo Design Reflects Brevity and Clarity
  6. Discussion Prompt: Edit My First Paragraph
  7. Video: Always be Specific; Avoid Generalities and Jargon
  8. Video: The Power of Active Voice
  9. Video: Limit Crutch Verbs
  10. Video: Cut Prepositional Phrases
  11. Video: Don't Repeat Words
  12. Video: Always Proofread
  13. Discussion Prompt: How Have You Changed Your Writing?
  14. Video: A Word on Email
  15. Video: Long Documents, in Brief
  16. Video: In Conclusion
  17. Video: Time to Design: Dave Takes the Memo
  18. Reading: Credits

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
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