Master essay writing with a structured approach. Learn essential techniques for organization, analysis, and effective communication, guided by an experienced college professor.
This course demystifies essay writing, offering a roadmap from brainstorming to a polished draft. With insights from a seasoned professor, students will master the structure of successful essays and build essential writing skills.
Learn the tips and tools of successful writers from a college professor with twenty years of experience grading essays.
Many students become anxious at the prospect of having to write an essay or term paper. They don't understand the conventions for organizing essays, and they don't know how to manage their time and the writing process.
The result is that many students enter college without the skills necessary to succeed simply because they were never properly taught how to write essays.
This course aims to overcome this problem by offering a systematic framework for essay writing that removes the mystery and presents a clear path for moving from idea to outline to completed first draft.
A STRUCTURED APPROACH TO SUCCESSFUL ESSAY WRITING
The most efficient way to improve your essay writing is to focus on the key structural features that define successful writing at the essay level. An essay can be written beautifully, but if it's missing key structural elements (like a well defined thesis statement), it will fail as an essay.
This course provides a set of concepts and tools for thinking about, analyzing and fixing problems with the structural elements of your essay.
CONTENTS AND OVERVIEW
Students in this course will learn how essay writing skills are related to "deep reading" and "deep thinking" skills, and why this is increasingly important in today's world. You will also learn how standards of good essay writing are related to standards of good written communication more broadly. You'll learn why academic essays are structured the way they are, how essay style is related to essay structure, how to approach the writing process, and how to organize your time so that you can actually get the work done before the deadline.
But the centerpiece of the course is two detailed case studies. In one of them I take a short student essay that has some serious problems, analyze the structural issues and rewrite that essay from start to finish.
In another case study I take an actual essay assignment from an actual college class, that I don't teach, and take that essay from initial brainstorming and researching to a detailed outline to a completed first draft with a reference list and inline reference citations.
At the end of this course you will feel more confident about your ability to successfully complete essay assignments in school, and you will have a greater understanding of the skills and habits of successful writers.
NOTE: ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS LOVE THIS CONTENT
I have a lot of positive feedback about this content over the years. College and universities from around the world have paid me thousands of dollars to license the use of these videos on their institutional servers (libraries, academic integrity programs, etc.).
Here are some of the institutions that have purchased copies of these videos for use on their own institutional servers:
Michigan State University
University of South Florida
Forest Train Academy
Harvard Kennedy School
Lawrence High School
Wayland Public Schools
Wentville School District
… among others.
But I would like to share this content with as wide an audience as possible, and Udemy is a fabulous platform for hosting it.
By the end of this course students will be able to ...
Analyze an essay assignment to determine exactly what is being asked and how to proceed.
Organize and manage your time to complete your essay assignment well in advance of the deadline.
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9 Lectures
I'm a philosopher of science by training, and I've taught philosophy and critical thinking at the university level for twenty years. From 2009-2013 I was Chair of the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies at Iowa State University. In 2015 I left my tenured academic job to pursue a career as an independent online educator. I produce video tutorial courses...
Very comforting for someone who is anxious about writing 😊
It is so good
It's all just talk at this point and I feel left out. Perhaps a writing module between these videos would be beneficial, something to keep me engaged?
Now that I'm halfway, I'm still feeling like there's nothing for me to do except absorb information and take notes. Again, I think the course would benefit from a writing module to practise some of these things followed up by a video that asks you to go through it to make sure you added them into your own work. I'm not saying I know how it could all work, but I just feel like I'm passively learning and I would like more active learning.
Very eloquently put together. Makes the student excited to get to work and write with learned skills.
I am an adult learner and a returning college student. I haven't written an essay in over 25 years, and I have been nervous about this aspect of being a college student. For this reason, I had high hopes this course could help me, and it delivered. I especially appreciated the ideas and explanation of the writing process and the dissecting of real college essays. I am analytical and often overanalyze while I am learning new ideas. This is especially true when it comes to my writing, but the way the writing process was taught in this course was very beneficial to me. I immediately began to relax when thinking about writing an essay. I even told myself I could do this while watching the videos about the writing process. My only wish is that I had teachers like this in high school and my first attempt at community college. Maybe it wouldn't have taken me 25 years to make a real run at my college degree.
The structure and style lessons helped me to improve my writing.
No practical information given for the student and no practice available. Not a helpful course.
学生だけでなく一般人にもやくにたちそうだから。
This course sounds helpful not only for students but also for people who finished their school long time ago.
I, too, wish they had this when I was in college. It would have made my academic life a lot easier. Thank you for making this course.
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Padmapriya
Excellent