Online publishing may be easier and faster than print publishing, but it still takes a great deal of writing skill to garner any measure of success. For those without a professional writing background, there are online writing courses that teach writing to beginners and intermediate writers.
Online College Courses
Some courses are taken purely for developing personal writing skills, but online college courses are also taken for college credit. These online writing courses may be a part of an overall online degree or they may count toward a degree at a land-based university.
There are a number of regional colleges that offer college credit courses online as part of an English, writing or journalism degree. These can be taken alone or as part of the degree curriculum. There are also online writing courses that are part of the curriculum at virtual universities. The University of Phoenix and Kaplan University are accredited online schools that offer a variety of online college courses.
Specialty Online Writing Courses
Some of the large websites devoted to writing and freelancing have their own specialty courses for specific types of writing. Sites such as the Renegade Writer and Absolute Write have several online writing courses that can help with both technique and marketing.
Through online writing courses it's possible to learn from a successful writer that specializes in one specific type of writing or marketing. Courses in writing query letters, romance novels, mysteries and writing magazine articles are all available.
Free Online Courses
There are also websites and universities that offer completely free online writing courses. These courses are offered for personal knowledge and are generally not offered for college credit. The types of free online courses available include creative writing, business writing, academic writing and proofreading.
Universities offering free online writing courses include:
- Utah State University
- Purdue University
- Western Governors University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Western Kentucky University
- University of Utah
Websites offering free online writing courses include:
- Suite101.com
- Write101.com
- U.about.com
Podcast Courses
Oculture.com offers free podcasts of courses taught in major universities. The available lectures include courses from UC Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, Oxford and Yale. Some of the podcasts are individual lectures and some are presented as free courses online.
The fastest way to lose credibility online is to write poorly. Bad grammar and a confusing copy structure makes readers see the writer as an amateur who may not be a person to trust. Learning as much as possible about writing is important for making the best possible impression on readers.
Lizz Shepherd - I am a freelance writer specializing, for now, in Web writing. The Web is an enormous place and I have been carving out my own little ...
