Good online writing courses?
Anna Smirkin-Blazejewska
Wednesday, 03 September 2008 07:49 UTC
Hello, I’ve read the previous post, and I would like to ask about good online writing courses. I am going to finish my phD in near future and I would like to learn how to write well (medical writing) and get some kind of certificate etc. I would like to change my career to more ‘alternative’ one, but I’m not an English native speaker and I do not have writing skills, thus I was thinking of taking a course. Could you recommend a good and not extremely expensive online writing course? Thank you.
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I’d just add that I think it might be hard to find a credentialled, academic course that is at the same time free. Actually writing gives one a great deal of experience and allows one to develop skills. If you cannot yet get any of your articles published on a freelance basis, blogging is particuarly good for this purpose. Many nascent writers start a blog to develop their skills and showcase their writing. The discipline of a daily (or regular) post of a set length on a certain topic is a good learning process, and your readers can provide feedback.
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Anna,
I understand that you are a post-doc, but you should look at this training as a investment in your future. In addition, for that length of course, and the depth of that course, the fee is very low. (Again, I am not associated with the course in anyway.)
Have you asked your PI if there is any training dollars (on any lab grant) that can be used?
However, if you insist on FREE, I think the following links will get the highest quality of training, but won’t give you any practice because it wasn’t designed to be an online course.
If you go to this link
http://www.training.nih.gov/trainees/documents/
you’ll see MANY courses, not just in writing.All post-docs should watch all the programming here. It is quite good.
Specifically, you’ll find two recorded video of talks/workshops that were delivered at the NIH.
Workshop: Scientific Writing from the Reader’s Perspective (There is video and handouts from this 2 day workshop)
Workshop: Written Communication Skills
(There is video for a 3 hour seminar)Finally, for comparison to the first course I mentioned (the $900) one. (I am not familiar with this one.) Look here at this series of online courses. They are slightly less money per course but I don’t know if it would be the same value. You’ll need to confirm for yourself. This one also seems to be aimed at ESL student.
http://www.elp.washington.edu/elp/programs/2323/
I agree with the other response,
practice is the best way to improve.Good luck and tell us what you decided to do.
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Thanks again, for Your help and patience;) No, it not like I insist on free course, but I am not a post-doc, I’m a PhD student (scholarship) and I do not plan to do any post-doc. Thus I do not want to ask for lab money for my somehow private course. I just got my first paper checked and it was written not perfect but well enough, so I theoretically do not need this kind of course to do my job now (and at lab we do not have so much many this year). I know that probably for You my problems sound silly, but I want to get some skills before I finish my PhD and do not have any job, because I do not want to go for a post-doc. I think I will start blogging, as Maxine recommended, and check smaller, free courses to develop the writing skills now. And think what to do next. Thank You all for Your advice and support.
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Anna,
Sorry, I misread your post.
I learned the majority of my writing skills from my sister. She would go through draft after draft of corrections. At times 6-9 drafts FULL of red ink! At times I was very frustrated, but it the long run it paid off!Practice (with feedback) really is the best way to get improve.
Good luck.
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Check out the courses at http://writerwebinars.info.
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Thanks again!
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