Polish Your Writing Style
Polish Your Writing Style
How should you structure paragraphs? What factors should influence your sentence length? What is the difference between a topic sentence and a what-next sentence and when should you use these sentences? These are typical questions your course addresses and will give you a flavour of the kind of work you will be tackling.
This is a general overview of the topics covered in this course. However, following the first two assignments your tasks are personalised for you by your tutor based on your personal profile and writing ambitions.
Course Contents
- Polish your writing style:
- Word Functions
- Sentence structure
- Questions of usage
- Brevity and clarity
- Punctuation
- Elements of style
- Achieving balance in your writing
- When you can break the rules
This is a summary of this writing courses main specifications.
| Suitable for: | ✔ Writers starting out ✔ Improving writers |
| Starting: | Anytime |
| Pace: | At your own pace |
| Location: | Study from home |
| Max duration: | 2 Years |
| Course type: | Tutor led |
| Delivery: | Email or Post |
| Deadlines: | None |
| Exercises: | Personalised for you |
Course Description
Polish your writing style
Achieve balance in your writing
You will be shown how to use the rules to achieve a balance in your writing, learning exactly where you can bend or even break the rules to achieve your own lively and interesting writing style with the pace that the modern reader demands.
Polishing your writing
How should you structure paragraphs? What factors should influence your sentence length? What is the difference between a topic sentence and a what-next sentence and when should you use these sentences? These are typical questions your course addresses and will give you a flavour of the kind of work you will be tackling.
Writing styles and techniques
At the end of each unit, you will be set practical assignments. Some of these will involve rewriting entire passages in order to correct stylistic faults. Others will invite you to write sentences, paragraphs and sometimes longer passages, in which you demonstrate the use of certain stylistic devices and techniques.
Practical writing skills for you
As you near the end of your course, you will be able to send manuscripts that you have had rejected as part of your assignment so that your tutor can help you correct style faults. Or, if you are a new writer and have not yet submitted anything for publication, you may send your tutor a manuscript that you hope to have published.
Course Feedback
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The feedback was exactly what I was needing, very fair and full of pointers to work on further. I was always going to struggle with the verb exercise and will go back over this a few times. I also need to think about nouns becoming adjectives as in the example 'aluminium guttering' from the 'View From Window' exercise. I'll be starting assignment two this week and very much looking forward to further feedback (I can't help but feel John may have gone easy on me for my first submission).
From: Graeme Morrice
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My tutor has become like a friend and has been so helpful.
From: D Simkin
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Diana has helped me a great deal and I have certainly gained confidence from her tutorials. Would you kindly send my thanks on to her - she is an outstanding tutor.
From: Margaret Turner
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