If you are looking to hone your writing skills you would find these ten free online courses, some of them offered by well known universities, very useful. There are, presently, ten universities which offer writing courses. Among them are Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit.edu), Utah State University (usu.edu), Open University (open.ac.uk), University of Utah (utah.edu), Western Governors University (wgu.edu), Purdue University (owl.english.purdue.edu), UCLA Writing Course (lifewrite.com), News University (newsu.org), E-Zine University (ezineuniversity.com), and Wikiversity (wikiversity.org).
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit.edu) offers dozens of free writing courses online through its MIT OpenCourseWare initiative. The course topics include: Introduction to Fiction, Writing and Reading Short Stories, Poems, Advanced Essay Workshop and more. The lecture notes, videos, suggested reading lists and more can help you become the writer you've always wanted to be. The Department of English at Utah State University hosts three free courses devoted to the art of writing through the school's OpenCourseWare program. The curriculum includes: Intro to Writing Academic Prose, Research Writing (Intermediate) and Technology for Professional writers. The courses are extensive and may take up to 16 weeks to complete if you pursue it at an average pace. The courses at the Open University (open.ac.uk), UK's largest academic institution, comprises a number of different writing courses through their OpenLearn website. Among them are Fiction Writing Course, Descriptive Course and Essay Writing Course. The free curriculum includes both undergraduate and graduate level courses that are available to everyone, anywhere in the world. The University of Utah (utah.edu) offers two free courses to beginners viz Introduction to Shakespeare and Introduction to Creative Writing. The Western Governors University (wgu.edu) provides course materials through an open content license. There are several free writing courses offered by the university's Liberal Arts Department. These include Rhetorical and Critical Writing, Language and Communications, and Literature Course (Parts I and II). All courses are split into convenient self-study modules. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) of the Purdue University (owl.english.purdue.edu) offers writing instruction, grammar and usage information, individualised help from tutors and much more. The courses include: Pattern and Variation in Poetry, Proof reading your writing, and conquering the Comma. The Steven Barnes' UCLA Writing Course at (http://www.lifewrite.com/html/index2.htm) offers a 9-week Introduction to Screenwriting, an in-depth instruction on writing. This course is by author and screenwriter Steven Barnes who has been teaching for many years at UCLA. Steve's success has been earned by understanding the dynamics of personal performance. He presents tools and technologies he has used and which can help you reach your goals whether or not your goals are specifically about writing. Journalists would find the e-learning programme of The News University (newsu.org) quite useful. The courses include: Cleaning Your Copy, Beat Basics and Beyond, and Covering Breaking News. News U also offers a newsletter, a blog and other great resources. The E-Zine University (ezineuniversity.com) offers quite a few courses for web writers and e-zine writers. These include: Writing Clearly and Effectively, Conquering Confusing Words, and Quick Ways to Clean Up Your Writing. The courses are designed by Internet publisher Kate Schultz and a few other visiting professors. Courses are of short duration and can be completed in a very short time. Lastly, the Wikiversity (wikiversity.org), an active learning project which encourages people to create and benefit from online courses and tutorials. There are currently several different writing courses that can be found at Wikiversity. Among them are Composition, Rhetoric, Creative writing, and Technical Writing.
Although these courses vary in length and content, there's something for everyone. No registration is required for any of these free online university courses, except for the News University (newsu.org) which offers its courses free to everyone after registration.
