Business Writing

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/writing-for-business

Introduction

### Course Review: Business Writing on Coursera In the modern business world, the ability to write clearly and effectively is not just a necessity; it is a competitive advantage. Coursera's "Business Writing" course stands out as a robust resource for anyone looking to enhance their writing skills and maximize their professional impact. With contributions from Dr. Quentin McAndrew, alongside graphic design and presentation professionals, this course offers a holistic approach to effective communication. #### Course Overview The "Business Writing" course is designed to equip learners—ranging from professional writers and new employees to non-native English speakers and seasoned executives—with essential writing techniques. Leveraging insights from over seventy companies and thirty thousand students, this course claims to unlock the potential of business writing to communicate ideas powerfully. The course centers around fundamental principles that can enhance one's ability to present ideas compellingly. #### Syllabus Breakdown The syllabus is structured into four comprehensive modules, each building on the last to create a well-rounded educational experience: 1. **Building Great Business Writing**: This introductory module familiarizes you with the effective communication specialization, capping with essential principles of great business writing. You’ll meet the course's instructors and understand the synergy between writing, design, and presentation in cultivating your personal brand. 2. **The Formula for Writing Success**: Here, the focus shifts to organization—often overlooked, yet vital for effective writing. This module teaches a universal organizational formula designed to enhance the clarity and appeal of your documents. By utilizing organizational principles laid out in the first module, you'll learn to scaffold your writing for greater impact. 3. **Crafting Powerful Writing**: This module dives deeper into applying the principles learned, guiding you through the creation of real business documents (like memos). Here, you’ll confront common grammatical pitfalls that detract from professional writing. With engaging videos, you’ll not only grasp the importance of clarity but also know how to fix common mistakes, fostering confidence in your writing skills. 4. **Activate Your Voice!**: Ending with a focus on elevating your writing style, this module teaches specific tips and techniques to energize your language. With actionable insights applicable to various forms of business writing—be it emails or extensive reports—you will learn how to make your ideas stand out, ensuring your communications leave a memorable impression. #### Recommendations I wholeheartedly recommend the "Business Writing" course on Coursera for several reasons: - **Comprehensive Content**: The course not only covers the "what" of writing but importantly digs into the "how," providing learners with practical tools they can immediately implement. - **Expert Instructors**: With a diverse range of expertise among the instructors, learners benefit from a multifaceted perspective that ties together writing, design, and presentation. - **Diverse Application**: Whether you're just starting in your career or looking to refine your executive communication skills, this course is tailored to accommodate all proficiency levels. - **Interactive and Engaging**: The use of short videos and real-world application exercises keeps learners engaged while reinforcing core concepts. #### Conclusion In a world where communication can make or break professional opportunities, the "Business Writing" course on Coursera is a must-take. It empowers you to harness the art of writing effectively, helping you polish your personal brand and communicate your ideas clearly. By the end of this course, not only will you be a more confident writer, but you will also be able to effectively convey your message to the varied audiences you encounter in the business realm. Whether for career advancement or personal growth, investing time in this course is a decision that will undoubtedly pay dividends. Sign up today and transform your writing into a powerful tool for success!

Syllabus

Building Great Business Writing

The first lesson in this module introduces the Effective Communication specialization, the capstone project, and the Business Writing course. You'll meet the writing instructor, Dr. Quentin McAndrew, and her counterparts Dave Underwood and Professor William Kuskin, who teach Graphic Design and Successful Presentation. Dave and William join Quentin to offer insights into how writing, design, and presentation relate to a process of continuous personal branding that we call Effective Communication. In this module, you'll discover the simple principles that inform all great business writing and that serve as the foundation of this course. These lessons set the stage for the deeper exploration and specific techniques that follow, not just in Business Writing, but in Graphic Design and Successful Presentation as well. Let's get started!

Did you know that the most important element of good writing isn't good writing? It's good organization. If you haven't organized your documents for maximum effectiveness, you've wasted an opportunity to present your ideas--and yourself--with power. This module teaches you the universal organizational formula that allows you to optimize your business writing. You'll understand how the principles you learned in Module One build to this formula, and you'll see how a scaffold gets created and applied to a real business document. By the end of this module, you'll be able to wield your organizational knowledge in service of your ideas and personal brand, and you'll have built the foundation that allows you to generate powerful sentences in Module Three.

In the first lesson of Module Three, we'll apply our writing principles and our scaffold to creating an actual memo. You'll see, step-by-step, how the scaffold guides the writing process to make it easier to create a forceful business document. You'll understand how to apply the scaffold to guide sentence and paragraph creation, and you'll have a chance to test and reinforce your new skills. The second lesson covers common grammatical errors that sap many writers' professional brands. Short videos explain each error, why each hurts your clarity, and how to correct your writing--even if you don't remember the grammar rule. You'll understand why these changes are important to your goal of Effective Communication and why it's important to eliminate these common missteps from your own writing.

So, you've started to write a document . . . Module Four takes you beyond the scaffold and good grammar to provide you with specific tips that will elevate your language, infuse your writing with clarity, and amp up your ability to communicate your ideas effectively. Every lesson in this module is based on the principles you learned in Module One, and they form a checklist of techniques that you can apply to any business document to insure your ideas shine on the page. Short videos on emails and longer documents give you simple techniques for applying the lessons of this course to a broad range of your work.