Professional Writing in English

Online course 15 weeks

This course is specially designed for non-native English speakers working as marketing, creative, or information directors, account managers, and others who simply wish to improve their skills and confidence in English writing. The course assignments and instruction will focus specifically on working and writing across national and cultural borders. 

The objective of this course is to give participants the skills to write English texts for a variety of media and for cultures other than their own. The course will provide a framework for understanding the complexities of international communication in an effort to help participants bring their work and their clients’ business or products to target audiences around the world.
The course work combines practical writing assignments with readings and case studies.

Main topics

• Types of writing – correspondence, research papers, proposals, copy, etc.
• Composition – titles, planning your writing, paragraph writing, introductions, conclusions, referencing, plagiarism
• Style – objectivity vs subjectivity, clarity, catchiness, formality vs informality
• Language functions – agreeing and disagreeing, classifying, comparing and contrasting, defining, emphasising, paraphrasing, selling
• Grammar – passive voice, punctuation, verb tenses, word order, etc.

Course directors

Naoko Watanabe, freelance editor and publisher

Facts

Online course, 15 weeks
Self study about 10 hours per week
Fall 2010: start Saturday August 28 – concludes Saturday December 11 August 10