Academic Writing Made Easy

Language: English
Location: Online
Duration: Flexible, approx. 6 weeks
Start: Anytime
Cost: 65 EUR
This MOOC takes you through the basics of academic writing step by step. From structuring and organising an academic text to avoiding common pitfalls that can negatively affect your credibility, this 6-week course offers a guide for those who want to improve their writing. It looks at various components that will make your academic writing stand out for all the right reasons, including paragraphing, style, tone, paraphrasing and punctuation. Using samples of student writing it also gives you tips on what to avoid and explains why. Each week is comprised of video lessons, followed by exercises and peer-review tasks, taking you through various aspects of academic writing.

Quick Info

Here you will find all the information you need for this course.

Benefits

01

1

Master Academic Writing

Gain a clear understanding of essential writing principles, including structuring your ideas, maintaining coherence, and aligning your work with genre expectations.

02

2

Enhance Your Credibility

Learn how to use appropriate tone, improve sentence clarity, and employ persuasive techniques to make your writing more convincing.

03

3

Essential Technical Skills

Identify and eliminate typical mistakes such as plagiarism, improper punctuation, and awkward sentence structures. Refine your writing, ensuring your work is polished, credible, and ready for academic submission.

Program Overview

You can find all the important information about the certificate program here. Below you can find out the objectives of the program, the exact details of the process, what you will learn and which lecturers will teach you the content.

As researchers, scientists, professors and students, our jobs significantly rely on our ability to explain our ideas to others. Whether it is a grant proposal, a research paper, a motivation letter or a thesis, an impactful and clear text is guaranteed to open more doors for you. Therefore, this program aims to teach the principles of effective communication to help anyone working with the English language. The program not only offers a holistic view on improving the structure, style and cohesion of a text, but also focuses on the smaller details like punctuation, paragraphing, vocabulary and much more. This makes our program useful for non-academics as well, because these rules can be extrapolated to suit other kinds of writing. So whether you are an aspiring researcher or a blooming blogger, this course provides valuable insights to help you refine your writing.

Program:

Academic Writing Made Easy

Target group:

This course primarily focuses on academics but is not limited to them. Whether it’s a university application, course design, management report, or manuscript – this course supports everyone who works professionally with texts, from students and those returning to academia to professors and executives.

Format & Timing:

Flexible, self-paced, approx. 6 weeks when investing 3-4 hours per week

Study location:

Online (edX)

Language:

English

Admission requirements:

The course requires upper-intermediate (B2) to advanced English (C1)

Graduation:

After successful completion of the final exam, you will receive a certificate from the Technical University of Munich

Program fees:

65 EUR for the Verified Track

Discounts:

Free of charge in the Audit-Track (no Certificate or graded assignments). For more information about pricing models and packages, please visit edx.org.

Dr. Heidi Minning,
English Lecturer at Technical University of Munich
Jeremiah Hendren,
ProLehre / Media and Didactics at Technical University of Munich
Dr. Stephen Starck,
English Lecturer at Technical University of Munich
Dr. Aparna Bhar,
English Lecturer at Technical University of Munich
Susan O’Byrne,
English Lecturer at Technical University of Munich
Rose Jacobs,
English Lecturer / Coordinator of the English Writing Center at Technical University of Munich
Ruth Shannon,
Coordinator of English Writing Center, English Lecturer at Technical University of Munich
Elizabeth Hamzi-Schmidt,
English Lecturer / Coach WZW at Technical University of Munich
Tina Schrier,
English Lecturer / Coach GAR at Technical University of Munich
Part 1: Improve your writing

Week 1: Rhetorical Preferences – Meeting the expectations of your target group

Week 2: Genre – Differentiating between types of scholarly texts

Part 2: The Writer’s Process – Overcoming Writer’s block

Week 3: Cohesion – Making your ideas flow logically

Week 4: Sentences – Writing reader-friendly sentences

Week 5: Credibility – Convincing your peers to accept and believe what you write

Week 6: Punctuation – Polishing your text

Part 3: Putting it all together & Overcoming the last hurdles

Testimonials

  • Dear Academic-Writing-Made-Easy team, Thank you for the course! I am not a student at uni. I took part in this course out of interest in English writing in all its forms. However, I can say that I am happy to have completed this MOOC. I am taking many interesting concepts and helpful ideas with me. Thanks again for the interesting course. All the best to all the team!

    Former participant in the course Academic Writing Made Easy

  • The course was extremely well-designed and useful. I have been writing academic papers for several years and yet, in each video, there was something new to learn. Thank you, teachers. I am presently doing a report for the World Bank and I find that the entire course has been extremely helpful, especially the sections on genre, cohesion, nominalisations, active and passive voice, credibility and formal writing. A huge thanks to those who designed the course, presented the videos and planned the exercises.

    Former participant in the course Academic Writing Made Easy

  • Your contact

    Vesna Gajic
    Senior Program Manager, Digital Programs
    Phone: +49 89 289 28474
    Get in touch

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