List of Free Online Editing Courses
See our list of the top free online editing courses. Learn about what courses are available and what topics they cover to find the course that is right for you.
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Free Online Course Info and Requirements
While free online courses strictly in editing are scarce, several free online courses and learning materials are available in the mechanics and style issues both writers and editors need to master. The providers of these learning materials don't confer credit for using them, and students don't have access to instructors. Most course and materials websites list the technology requirements to download files. Updated Web browsers and Adobe Acrobat are usually enough to download any PDF, audio and video files included in the courses.
Free Online Editing Course List
How to Revise an Essay at Education Portal
This chapter is part of a full course in college composition offered by Educational Portal, which offers several free online courses designed for Web learners. Completion of the full course may lead to college credit in college composition through passing the CLEP exam, accepted by many colleges. This chapter offers lessons that range from broad writing and editing concerns, like structure and argumentation, to techniques for detecting mechanical errors. Presented by instructors with a strong background in the field, these lessons include short videos with transcripts and quizzes.
Guide to Writing in History at Utah State University
These text-based lessons address a variety of style and content issues. Style topics are related to grammar and spelling, tone and word choice; content topics fall within the categories of theme, organization and argumentation. Some lessons include downloadable exercises with answer keys. A sample outline and essay are also available for reference.
News Writing at Annenberg Learner
This series of 15 videos, each about 30 minutes in length, is appropriate for high school through adult learners, even practicing journalists. These instructional videos focus on the nuts and bolts of reporting, writing and editing in addition to the legal aspects, ethics and history of journalism. The videos feature commentary by top journalists in broadcast and print journalism, and learners can download text versions of several interviews with well-known journalists. A download or DVD version of the program, in addition to a textbook, study guide and teacher's guide are also available for a fee.
Paramedic Method: A Lesson in Writing Concisely at Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Learners may find this method, first presented by Richard Lanham in Revising Prose, to be useful in editing various types of academic and professional writing. This handout illustrates techniques to tighten up prose, like using action verbs and eliminating unnecessary words. Students can apply these techniques using the practice sentences on the handout.
Purdue's OWL offers abundant writing and editing resources. In addition to the paramedic method resource in its section on academic writing, learners can access links to additional relevant topics, including the reverse paramedic method, ways to add emphasis, strategies for increased sentence variety and comparisons of the active and passive voices.
Professional and Technical Editing at New Jersey Institute of Technology
This upper-level seminar course is presented through 4 lecture videos. Topics include how to communicate effectively with writers and support edits with evidence. The course covers editing in print and electronic media in several professional fields. The syllabus lists 4 texts, including style guides like The Chicago Manual of Style.
Proofreading at Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Also from Purdue's OWL, these printable online resources focus on strategies for detecting typos and grammatical errors that slip by grammar and spell checkers. Some common grammatical errors covered are faulty parallel structure, comma splices and run-on sentences. Practice exercises in areas such as grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and paraphrasing are also available.
What Is Good Writing? at Open University
Writers and editors interested in honing their crafts can study the attributes of essays and compare several writers' works, looking at consistency, word choice, style and presentation. This 12-hour, introductory text course may be viewed online, downloaded or printed. The course webpage includes a list of dictionaries and other reference works for various subject areas, such as Classical studies, literature, media studies and philosophy.
Writing on Contemporary Issues: Culture Shock! Writing, Editing and Publishing in Cyberspace at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
These OpenCourseWare materials come from a 2008 course originally based on in-class workshops through which students developed critical personal essays for an online literary journal on American popular culture, Culture Shock. Lecture notes aren't part of the course materials; available materials include a reading list, which features links to online articles and texts that can be purchased through vendors like Amazon.com. While the assignment list includes oral presentations and workshops not designed for online learners, descriptions of essay assignments are available as well as sample student essays from Culture Shock.
Earn Real Credit from Free Courses
While the free courses above don't award credit directly, you can earn credit by passing an exam and transferring credit to your college. There are two widely recognized and affordable options for exams that award credit.
Option #1: CLEP Exams
The College Board's 33 CLEP exams allow you to test out of your general education requirements. Credit is accepted at 2/3 of colleges and universities in the U.S.
Option #2: Excelsior College's Credit-by-Exam
Excelsior College offers over 40 exams that lead to transferable credit. You can also earn three full degrees by taking free online courses and earning your credit by exam.
Learn how Education Portal Academy will pay you to earn credit!
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11 Popular Schools
The schools in the listing below are not free but are popular choices among our users. Tuition and costs will vary across programs and locations. Be sure to always request tuition information before starting a program.
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be a high school graduate or have completed GED
Online Programs
- Bachelor
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be a high school graduate or have completed GED
Online Programs
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Master
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- MA in Communication
- MA in Communication: New Media & Marketing
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- Master of Arts in English
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- Bachelor
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be a high school graduate or have completed GED
Online Programs
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be a high school graduate or have completed GED
Online Programs
- Bachelor
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be 21 years of age or older and have completed some college or 24 years of age or older and a high school graduate for a Bachelor's degree
- Masters degree applicants must have a Bachelors degree
- Doctorate degree applicants must have a Masters degree
Online Programs
- Bachelor
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be a high school graduate or have completed GED
Online Programs
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Applicants must have some prior college credit.
Online Programs
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Bachelor
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- BS - Communication
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be a high school graduate or have completed GED
Online Programs
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be 17 years of age or older
Online Programs
- Non-Degree
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Minimum eligibility requirements:
- Must be 18 years of age or older
Distance Learning Programs
- Non-Degree
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