This course introduces written communication and readability principles applicable to professional and academic purposes. During this online-based course, students independently view instructional videos, read course materials and complete online exercises.
Course contents
- General principles of communication: audience, purpose and form
- The given-new principle
- The light-before-heavy principle
- Style and word choice
- Use of active verbs
- Use of commas
Learning outcomes
After the course, the students can
- distinguish between formal and everyday English writing conventions, such as vocabulary and sentence structures
- identify the elements of well-structured sentences and paragraphs in academic writing
- apply appropriate strategies for revising ineffective sentences at paragraph level
- use commas in formal writing contexts to avoid ambiguity and group information.
Course material
Provided online by the teacher. Writer’s Guide for Engineers (available in MyCourses). Additional materials available at http://sana.aalto.fi/awe
Teaching schedule
Teaching online, independent study.
Completion methods
Completion of weekly online exercises (50%) and course exam (50%).
More information in the Aalto University study guide.
You can get a digital badge after completing this course.