Business and Marketing Writing

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you 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 two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
We'll start off our first lesson with a discussion about the purpose of marketing and the goals of writing, and then we'll talk about the unique roles, responsibilities, and challenges of business and marketing writing. You'll learn exactly what business and marketing writers do, and where we stand as we begin our exploration of this exciting field.

Lesson 2
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, we'll delve into all the aspects of corporate image that writers and marketing professionals need to ponder before producing effective projects.

Lesson 3
Now that you understand image, what can you do with it? Building on Lesson 2, today we'll analyze business and marketing goals?and the needs of your audience?to figure out the appropriate writing style for any project.

Lesson 4
It's a creative field, but certain projects require certain conventions. In today's lesson, we'll discuss how a particular medium or project type can guide your writing style and approach, helping you save time and stay on target.

Lesson 5
In this lesson, we'll gather up all the information we explored in the previous four lessons and put it all together. I'll illustrate how to apply everything you've learned so far as we develop an original writing project from start to finish.

Lesson 6
Do you need to write in complete sentences? What is a complete sentence, anyway? In today's lesson, we'll go through a brief refresher on sentence construction, and we'll 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.

Lesson 7
You can't write without words! In Lesson 7, you'll learn to make accurate word choices. We?ll discuss the level of vocabulary appropriate for business writing, and you'll learn how to choose words that reinforce a project?s theme. We?ll also clarify some tricky word pairs and discuss word-choice problems whose usage can undermine the professionalism of our writing.

Lesson 8
In today's lesson, we'll take a critical look on the inside. First we'll discuss how to develop "marketing" projects for audiences within a company. Then we'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.

Lesson 9
For even the most experienced writers, bureaucratic influences can creep in to reduce creativity and impede communication. In this lesson, we?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
In Lesson 10, we'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!

Lesson 11
Today, we?re back to putting it all together, but this time as editors. In Lesson 11, we?ll apply everything you?ve learned so far in the course, editing a project from beginning to end.

Lesson 12
Marketing deals with images, so it's easy to lose sight of the truth. In this, the final lesson of the course, we'll go over some important considerations that marketing professionals need to think about.