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Course Description
Essays are a vital part of writing, both in academic circles and in many professions. Being able to write good essays is a rare ability and those that can demonstrate a mastery of this writing form will quickly distinguish themselves from those who write poorly. In school, this can be the difference between a good or bad grade; in industry, it can mean being passed over for a promotion, creating a safety hazard, or even limiting an applicant's prospective job pool.
Learning to write good essays will boost academic performance in school and college, but will also be a valuable skill in today's increasingly competitive job market. Creating concise, informative, and compelling essays can form the basis of many careers, such as authoring non-fiction books, getting into print journalism, writing legal briefs, rendering judicial opinions, or just creating some persuasive advertising text for a business. The ability to write a good essay is a foundational block that can unlock numerous opportunities.
This course will examine the nature, history, and structure of essays; the various types of essays; and provide a refresher course in English grammar, focusing on the parts of speech and rules for good syntax. Furthermore, examples will be provided of both good and poor writing, as well as common mistakes to avoid when creating an essay. When completed, this course will enable the student to better understand how good essays are written and how to go about writing them for academic or professional use.
Course Lessons
Lesson 1: Anatomy of an Essay
For the purposes of this course, an essay is defined as "a short written piece of non-fiction, often expressing the author's own personal and well-reasoned viewpoint, presented in an organized and professional way".
Lesson 2: Grammar Basics, Part I -- The Parts of Speech
In English, there are eight distinct parts of speech: adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs.
Lesson 3: Grammar Basics, Part II -- Capitalization & Punctuation
With a basic review of the parts of speech completed, we can now turn our attention to other crucial grammatical issues: capitalization and punctuation.
Lesson 4: Grammar Basics, Part III -- Subject-Verb Agreement & Other Writing Mishaps
This lesson will examine the common errors made with regard to subject-verb agreement, as well as a number of other common and troublesome writing errors.
Lesson 5: Types of Essays
This lesson examines each of the major types of essay based on these rhetorical modes, providing a brief definition for each and further notes on using each style to the writer's advantage.
Lesson 6: Topic & Thesis Selection
This lesson delves into the methodology for selecting and narrowing an appropriate topic for your essay.
Lesson 7: The Argument, Research & Citations
This lesson provides insights into creating a rationale for the thesis statement backed by other sources and sound thinking.
Lesson 8: Outlining the Essay
This lesson covers the basic organizational structure common to many essays, as well as the role of reason in establishing a coherent, logical framework from which to base the actual written text.
Lesson 9: The Introduction
This lesson will examine various details of the introduction, including how to capture the readers' attention and some poor introductory styles to avoid.
Lesson 10: The Body and Conclusion
This lesson will take a closer look at paragraph structure and how to create a satisfying conclusion for an essay.
Lesson 11: Revisions & Finishing Touches
This lesson discusses the process and techniques used for revising and polishing essays for maximum impact when they are finally read by the intended audience.
Lesson 12: Some Final Writing Pitfalls To Avoid
This lesson examines each of these pitfalls and provides suggestions for the aspiring essayist on how to avoid them.
Optional Certificates Awarded
Certificate of Merit
Certificate of Academic Excellence
In addition to the standard Certificate of Course Completion, Merit Awards may be issued by the instructor at his/her own discretion and are based on student achievement. Merit awards also incur an additional $30.00 processing fee that covers the customization, printing, and delivery of the award, as well as access to the UniversalClass™ Portfolio Service that documents your achievements online. Official Merit Awards have a serial number that verifies the authenticity of the award (great for employers to verify your achievement).
This is a non-credit course, and is provided for your personal enrichment.
This course is not intended to be a substitute for any state, government, licensing, or educational requirements.
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