5 Free Online Writing Courses for Freelancers
Whether you’re writing content for a website or you are just composing a proposal for a client, good writing is essential. Maybe you missed a few lessons in school or you want a refresher. Either way, these online writing classes can help you craft your words for maximum impact. I’ve scoured through a bunch of online writing course materials to bring you those I think will be most valuable for freelancers. Best of all, these are absolutely free online writing courses.
English Grammar in Context. The Open University in the UK has a huge assortment of writing classes. English Grammar in Context is one of them, and it offers a great overview of grammar basics and the importance of good grammar. Because grammar is such an important aspect of writing, you can start with this if you want to touch up on your grammar know-how.
Intro to Tech Communication. Whether you are drafting a proposal or another technical report, this course taught by MIT instructor Kimberly De Vries includes a great background on technical communications. And you don’t have to be a tech writer to benefit. While it’s geared for scientific writers and researchers, anyone can find this course useful.
Communicating in Cyberspace. I know many freelancers work online, so I had to mention MIT’s course as well. You won’t just learn about the art of writing here. Concepts of design, information architecture, communication, and community are also covered.
Cleaning Your Copy: Grammar, Style and More. Everyone has to edit their work, so this will likely be a useful course for many freelancers–especially those that don’t write. It will help anyone develop a sharper editorial eye and remain aware of common flaws that can ruin an entire project.
HTML Basics. Because non-writers need to know about writing, writers also need to know about things other than the craft of writing. That’s why I liked the idea behind University of Washington’s HTML course. If you are doing any writing on the Web, knowing more about basic HTML is a great skill to acquire.
Any of these courses would be ideal for just about every freelancer to take. So if you’re looking to expand your skill set and don’t want to spend a ton of money, consider perusing online resources to find out more about the many free online classes out there.
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Great resource Kristen. Was looking for such courses.
Thanks for sharing.
Sweet! I’m always looking for free classes and webinars to continue my education and help me stay on my game. Thanks!
Kristen, I review Strunk and White’s Elements of Style at least once a year, but it’s always important to keep learning more about how to write well.
I do most of my freelance writing for college textbook publishers, and there’s an expected style there. But I’m currently working on a more technical science project, so I’ll have a look at the Intro to Tech Communication.
Thanks a lot for this links, i’m mexican and I can read perfectly in english, but i have some problems with the writing, so this littles course will be a really long push up to me on the grammar of this language and it’s going to help me too with the communication with clients that just speak in english.
=)
Thanks for the list Kristen! Hopefully I’ll find the time to try out the two grammar courses.
Awesome collection! I was recently looking for something just like this!
Thanks for the info!
This is a great list of resources I will be sharing with others. Thank you.
Kirsten, this is a great list, thanks! It’s so good I’m going to recommend it to my colleagues in SENSE – Society of English Native Speaking Editors – based in the Netherlands (www.sense-online.nl).
Thanks guys–it’s so cool how the Internet brings us useful, FREE things! I want to take the tech course, too:)
I found this list very interesting but on links of MIT courses i have not found any link for courseware… any guess??
Cool! I am wondering how the awesome bloggers like Brian Clark on CopyBlogger.com learns to write their blog posts? To be able to express an idea in the way that it captivates people – i think that is an extremely valuable skill for many people today.
Copywriting courses? Or?
These are great resources- thanks! The grammar resources in particular are great- I don’t think our national educational system is putting enough emphasis on grammar and/or writing. So many students at the college level have a lot of difficulty writing correct grammar.
Thanks!
Great resource! In these days of frequent (and often compulsive) e-writing we can all benefit from a writing course or ten especially when they’re at my favorite price.
I know this an older post but thanks for the resources. I will definitely look into each course!