Following is a handpicked list of the Top Online Writing Courses & Certifications to gather knowledge about this subject. The list contains both open source (free) and commercial (paid) courses.
BEST Free Online Writing Courses for Creative Writers & Beginners
1) Writing Articles (LinkedIn)
Specs: Duration: 29 minutes | Pricing: 1-month free trial | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Beginner | Mobile apps: iOS and Android Articles effectively communicate complex ideas and stories in a friendly, credible, and easy-to-follow way. This course, Writing Articles, helps you learn how to write and publish an article of your own. This free writing course explains how you can determine your writing approach, pitch your story to a publication, completely research your subject matter, and write and polish your article content. This course also discusses how you can submit a complete package to editors. It is one of the best free online writing courses for new writers. It helps you to learn the skills you need to write a well-crafted article that connects with readers.
Key Topics:
Determining Your Article Writing Approach Gathering Content for your Article Producing Your Article Polishing and Submitting Your Article Promoting Your work
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2) Creative Writing Specialization (Coursera)
Specs: Duration: Approx. 6 months to complete (1 hour/week) | Pricing: Free | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Beginner | Languages: English, Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Serbian, Chinese This Creating Writing specialization course covers three important elements of writing genres: short story, narrative essay, and memoir. In this course, you will master the techniques that any good writer uses to create a story full of memorable characters. This beginner’s writing workshop also helps you to analyze and constructively evaluate peer writing. It is one of the best writing courses designed for anyone, from aspiring short story writers to established novelists.
Key Topics:
The Craft of Plot The Craft of Character Setting and Description The Craft of Style
Features:
Self-Paced learning option for students HD quality course videos Practice quizzes Graded assignments with peer feedback Quizzes with Feedback Programming assignments
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3) Writing with Impact (LinkedIn)
Specs: Duration: 1 hour 1 minute | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Intermediate Writing with Impact is an online proofreading course that shows how to give your writing more impact, regardless of its purpose. In this online course, the writer and journalist Tom Geller help you to search reasons for writing with the demonstration. The writer also teaches you how to use those reasons to drive the words you select and the tone you take. The author of this course also shares his understanding of grammar and sentence structure for writing with maximum impact. After completing this free online writing course, you will be equipped with plenty of practical writing tips to make your writing clear and crisp.
Key topics:
Meaning of writing with impact Learning about your Readers Understanding How People Read Write Short, Clear, and Right
Features:
Helps you qualify for continuing education units. Chapter quizzes. Professional author instructor. Certificate on completion.
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4) Secret Sauce of Great Writing (Udemy)
Specs: Rating: 4.5 | Duration: 41 minutes of on-demand video | Pricing: Free | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Intermediate Secret Sauce of Great Writing is a course designed by Shani Raja. This course will teach you the four main concepts of good writing: Simplicity, Clarity, Elegance, and Evocativeness. It will also help you learn how to add those ingredients skillfully. At the end of this online writing course, you will have a good grasp of how professional writers create powerful and beautiful prose. In this online writing course, you can quickly identify your writing weaknesses, understand the principles, and fix and improve it significantly.
Key topics:
The Secret Sauce of Flair The Four Crucial Ingredients How I Discovered the Sauce The Power of Simplicity Simplicity Exercises The Power of Clarity Clarity Exercises The Power of Elegance Elegance Exercises The Power of Evocativeness Evocativeness Exercises
Features:
Online video content Instructor Q&A Instructor direct message
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5) Essay Essentials: Improve Your Academic Writing (Udemy)
Specs: Rating: 4.4 | Duration: 1hr 14min of on-demand video | Certificate on Completion: Yes Essay Essentials: Improve Your Academic Writing is a video course that helps you learn how to write essays. This free writer’s course will help you find the essay writing success you deserve by learning essay writing foundations.
Key topics:
How the writing situation, process, and classroom resources. Brainstorm to create and use ideas that help you to develop the essay. Develop and structure introduction and conclusion paragraphs. Write a clear, specific, and well-connected thesis. Understand the organization of essay paragraphs. How to create detailed, specific, and appropriate content. Proof-read spelling and grammatical errors using helpful rules and tips.
Features:
Online video content Certificate of completion accredited by universities. Instructor Q&A Instructor direct message
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6) Writing Ad Copy (LinkedIn)
Specs: Duration: 59 minutes | Pricing: 1-month free trial | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Intermediate | Mobile apps: iOS and Android Writing Ad Copy is an online course that helps you create ad copy that effectively conveys your brand and drives traffic to convert clicks into sales. The course designer Michael Duquet also teaches you the rules for writing ads for different platforms. The author of this course, Michael, explains how you can change your message and tone according to your target audience and customer personality. In the last chapters, you will learn about some common dos and don’ts and explains about the future of advertising holds for copywriters.
Key topics:
Rules of Ad Copy Writing Ad Copy Goals Writing Ad Copy for various media Understanding Your Audience Personas and Tone Do and Don’ts.
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7) Craft Your Cover Letter (Udacity)
Specs: Duration: Approx. 1 Day | Pricing: Free | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Beginner Craft Your Cover Letter is a short course where you will learn to use proven writing techniques to show why you are the best person to do this job. In these writing classes for beginners, you will also learn how to research company values, target your writing pitch, and develop an authentic story. It offers the research and writing tools you need to show why you are the best person for the specific job!
Key topics:
Target your applications to specific opportunities. Students are able to understand the purpose of a cover letter. Write an effective introduction, body, and conclusion.
Features:
Rich Learning Content Interactive Quizzes Instructor videos Learn by doing exercises. Taught by industry professionals.
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8) Write a Book! (Udemy)
Specs: Rating: 4.3 | Duration: 30 hours on-demand video | Certificate on Completion: Yes Write a Book is an online writing course offered by Udemy. This course explains how to organize and begin writing a short story, novel, or nonfiction book with concepts similar for each form. This online course is ideal for someone looking to grasp the fundamentals of writing using the English language.
Key topics:
Learn to write basics, like including punctuation, sentences, paragraphs, etc. Learn about advanced writing techniques. Learn to write short nonfiction books. The advanced dialog to draw the reader into your story. How to use MS PowerPoint to create a book cover. How to discover your writing style. Learn how to self-edit your book manuscript.
Features:
28 articles Full lifetime access for students Access on mobile and TV Certificate of completion
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9) The Complete Freelance Writing Course (Udemy)
Udemy offers a wide range of writing courses. This Complete Freelance Writing Course can be viewed on all devices connected to the Internet. You do not require any prequalification to take this course. Udemy is an online platform that helps you create courses for business, writing, design, marketing, etc. You can develop new skills and achieve your goals by taking training and learning from the extensive library of various Udemy courses.
Features:
Understand different forms of writing styles and methods as per target audience. Learn best practices for Blog Writing. Learn how to do screenwriting to tell a compelling story. Develop methods that help you to stay productive as a writer.
Key Courses:
Grant Writing for Nonprofits and Freelance Writers The Complete Freelance Writing Course How to Start a Freelance Writing Career The Complete Freelance Writing Online Freelance Copywriting: Write Dirty. Go Big How to Start Profitable Freelance Writing Business in 5 Weeks
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10) Online Creative Writing Classes (Skillshare)
Skillshare is an online course platform that is focused on education. It includes various topics related to graphic design, data science, e-commerce, analytics, etc. This online course will expand your horizons to learn more about creative writing. You can try these online classes that teach about creative writing techniques, tools, and topics like character development, outlining, storytelling, creating a compelling plot, and how you can make your words more artful. This course helps you to enhance and helps you to create character-driven stories with creative writing prompts. This online class is broken down into short lessons that include hands-on projects to complete and share.
Features:
Learn creative writing in various genres like fiction, poetry, humor, etc. It helps you to find classes that are designed for real life. Get ideas for writing daily journals. Real creators teach the classes. You can learn from any device.
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11) Write A Feature Length Screenplay For Film Or Television (Coursera)
Specs: Rating: 4.5 | Duration: Approx. 93 hours to complete | Pricing: Free | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Beginner | Mobile apps: iOS and Android | Mobile Compatible: Yes Write A Feature Length Screenplay For Film Or Television teaches you how to write a feature-length screenplay for film or television or web-series. In this screen playwriting course, you will also learn to break down the creative process into components. You will also discover a structured process that helps you produce a polished and pitch-ready script. Completing this online course helps you to improve your confidence in your ideas and abilities. After learning this online course, you will feel prepared to pitch your first script and start with the next one.
Key Topics:
Creating The Idea. Logline and Dramatic Question. Create your character profile. The Three Act Story Arc. Screenplay Formatting and Software. Begin your screenplay. Write the final section. Table read your entire script. Finishing things up.
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12) Start Writing Fiction (Future learn)
Specs: Rating: 4.7 Start Writing Fiction is a course that helps you to create how to develop your ideas, which reflect on your writing and editing. This online writing class is intended for those interested in writing fiction or improving their fiction writing.
Key Topics:
Creation of characters in fiction Different sources for characters in stories Ways of presenting characters in stories Reading as a writer Writing skill like creativity, research, observation, and editing
Features:
It provides the freedom to keep access to any online course you’ve achieved a digital certificate of. It offers the flexibility to complete your choice of short courses in your own time within the year.
Link: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/start-writing-fiction
13) English Writing Skills–Revised (Alison)
Specs: Rating: 2.5 | Duration: 1.5-3 Hours | Pricing: Free | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Intermediate | Mobile apps: iOS and Android | Mobile Compatible: Yes English Writing skills is a free online English language course that will guide you through the most important English writing styles. It shows you how and when to apply each one verb and improve your knowledge about the correct usage of punctuation and grammar. This online writing course helps you express yourself clearly and effectively in your writing. This online learning material also helps you fulfill your dream of becoming a professional writer or improving your English writing.
Key Topics:
English Writing Skills English-Writing Story Writing Descriptive Writing Science Fiction, Nonfiction, Instructional, Opinionative Reflective Writing
Link: https://alison.com/course/english-writing-skills-revised Other Useful Programming Resources you may like to explore
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FAQ:
🏅 How to choose an Online Writing Course?
❓ What are the Pros And Cons Of Online Writing Courses?
⚡ What is the best app for writing letters?
❗ What can you expect from a Free Creative Writing Class?
A. Identity your goal: First, you need to find out your goal. Like you want to learn basic writing skills like improving your grammar, you want to learn notification writing, fiction writing, nonfiction writing, etc. B. Set your course budget: Then you need to decide yourself how much money you want to spend, both in terms of time and money. There are many free online writing courses. However, if you want to learn an advanced creative writing course, then you need to pay for that. C. Pick a Commitment Level: It is certainly the most important aspect for selecting the online writing course. How much daily or weekly time can you spend learning the course. There are many online courses that are completely self-paced, which means you work through the material on your own and take time as much as you want. Pros:
These courses are meant for independent study, so you can learn at your own pace. Some courses do not even have homework assignments, writing exercises, or time constraints. Online courses give you exclusive information and learning materials. You are able to interact and learn with other writers using online communities, which helps you learn to write skills.
Cons:
Online writing course sometimes not allows any personal touch of classroom writing courses. You will never have face-to-face interactions with associate learners. Some online writing courses have no instructor feedback. The quality and price of online writing courses vary greatly.
Grammarly: Grammarly is a widely used writing enhancement tool. It offers numerous writing styles, suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. You can use this tool via the website, as a browser extension, or as an app that you can download to your computer. Prowritingaid: Prowritingaid is a tool that offers a world-class grammar and style checking facility. It helps you to edit documents faster. This software includes more than 1000 styles to improve your writing skills. Microsoft Word: Microsoft Word is a writing app that helps you transform documents into web pages. It offers a real-time translation facility with just one tap. This program enables you to read and edit documents attached to the email. Calmlywriter: Calmlywriter is free writing software. This online application is designed to help you focus on your writing skills. It has a “focus mode” option that can highlight the paragraph you are writing. FocusWriter: It is a writing tool that enables you to access the interface by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen. The software helps you to translate the content into more than 20 languages. It helps correct spelling effortlessly.
