Writing and Editing: Structure and Organisation
Become a skilled architect of written communication, whether you’re putting together a major project or sending a text message.
Duration
4 weeksWeekly study
6 hours
Writing and Editing: Structure and Organisation
Other courses you might like
This course isn't running right now. We can email you when it starts again, or check out these other courses you might like.
Browse more in Study Skills and Law
Develop your writing skills to include impactful text layout and flow
This is the second course in the Good with Words: Writing and Editing series from Michigan University, and directly follows the Word Choice and Word Order course.
On this four-week course, you’ll learn the importance of text structure and organising your written words to deliver effective results.
Whether you’re a lawyer, student, or simply looking to hone your writing skills, this course will help you develop your style for any written communication, including legal.
Generate and organise content with text structure
Over the duration of this course, you’ll see how the structure you put into your writing can influence the message your work delivers.
By placing corresponding ideas in corresponding forms, you’ll learn to generate questions, ideas, and ultimately more high-quality content.
Create structures that maximise the impact of your writing
You’ll also learn to refine sentence flow, sentence structure, and paragraphing during your writing process, to maximise the impact of your finished work.
Through exploring text structures, you’ll master both showing and telling your readers what you want them to know. Importantly, you’ll also be able to balance these approaches well.
Be guided and supported as you learn more about the writing process
With the University of Michigan providing a solid academic structure and a specialist lead education, you’ll have all the guidance and support you need to grow your writing skills and reach your full potential.
What topics will you cover?
During this course, you’ll look at:
- Sentence flow and structure
- Corresponding ideas in corresponding form: how structure can be used to generate content
- Showing and telling when you write
- Paragraphing
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Learn how structure can be used to generate content
- Place corresponding ideas in corresponding forms
- Add nuance to your writing by using anadiplosis
- Identify and assess when to use sentences with varying lengths
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for anyone interested in exploring the writing process to develop their written communication skills. Lawyers and law students will find it especially valuable.
Who will you learn with?
Patrick Barry is an assistant clinical professor and the director of digital academic initiatives at the University of Michigan Law School. He also teaches at the University of Chicago and UCLA.
Who developed the course?
University of Michigan
As the #1 public research university in the United States, U-M has been a leader in research, learning, and teaching for more than 200 years, with 102 Grad programs in the top 10 — U.S. News & World Report (2019).
Established
1817Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USAWorld ranking
Top 30Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn
Learner reviews
Learner reviews cannot be loaded due to your cookie settings. Please and refresh the page to view this content.