A new session of each course opens each month, allowing you to enroll whenever your busy schedule permits!
How does it work? Once a session starts, two lessons will be released each week, for the six-week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends.
Keep in mind that the interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes 2 weeks after each lesson is released, so you’re encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The Final Exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the Final Exam has been released, you will have 2 weeks plus 10 days to complete the Final and finish any remaining lessons in your course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.
Week One
Lesson 01 - The Role of Business and Marketing Writing
Wednesday
The first lesson starts off with a discussion about the purpose of marketing and the goals of writing, and then talks about the unique roles, responsibilities, and challenges of business and marketing writing. You'll learn exactly what business and marketing writers do as you begin exploring this exciting field.
Lesson 02 - The Ins and Outs of Image
Friday
Before you can write or recognize successful copy, you'll need to understand your corporate identity: who the company is and what the company offers. In this lesson, you'll delve into all the aspects of corporate image that writers and marketing professionals need to ponder before producing effective projects.
Week Two
Lesson 03 - Writing Approaches and Strategies
Wednesday
Now that you understand image, what can you do with it? In this lesson, you'll analyze business and marketing goals—and the needs of your audience—to figure out the appropriate writing style for any project.
Lesson 04 - Media
Friday
It's a creative field, but certain projects require certain conventions. In this lesson, you'll see how a particular medium or project type can guide your writing style and approach, helping you save time and stay on target.
Week Three
Lesson 05 - Putting It All Together: Writing Project
Wednesday
This lesson will gather up the information you explored in the previous four lessons and put it all together. It will illustrate how to apply everything you've learned so far as you develop an original writing project from start to finish.
Lesson 06 - Complete and Incomplete Sentences
Friday
Do you need to write in complete sentences? What is a complete sentence, anyway? This lesson will give you a brief refresher on sentence construction and then go over some guidelines for using fragments in business writing. You'll also learn to recognize and fix one of the most common errors in modern writing: the comma splice.
Week Four
Lesson 07 - Word Choices
Wednesday
You can't write without words! In this lesson, you'll learn to make accurate word choices. The lesson will discuss the level of vocabulary appropriate for business writing and show you how to choose words that reinforce a project's theme. It'll also clarify some tricky word pairs and discuss word-choice problems whose usage can undermine the professionalism of your writing.
Lesson 08 - Internal Communication
Friday
In this lesson, you'll take a critical look at the inside of a company. First, you'll see how to develop "marketing" projects for audiences within a company. Then you'll explore the roles of the various specialists who contribute to a single marketing piece—bosses, clients, editors, junior writers, artists, and designers. You'll learn how to work with all of them to create smoother relationships and better projects.
Week Five
Lesson 09 - Banishing the Bureaucracy
Wednesday
For even the most experienced writers, bureaucratic influences can creep in to reduce creativity and impede communication. In this lesson, you'll take a look at buzzwords and jargon, and then explore some ways to achieve maximum power and effectiveness by keeping your writing clear, concise, and active.
Lesson 10 - Editing, Proofreading and Evaluating
Friday
In this lesson, you'll explore the final steps. You'll learn to enhance and refine business and marketing projects during the editing and proofreading processes. You'll also learn to evaluate finished pieces and even test their effectiveness in the real world!
Week Six
Lesson 11 - Putting It All Together: Editing Project
Wednesday
In this lesson, you'll once again be putting it all together, but this time as an editor. You'll apply everything you've learned so far in the course, editing a project from beginning to end.
Lesson 12 - Marketing Ethics
Friday
Marketing involves images, and it's easy to lose sight of the truth. In the final lesson of the course, you'll go over some important considerations that marketing professionals need to think about.