Essentials of Writing

Picture of Essentials of Writing
Quick Facts
  • Delivery Method Online
  • Professional Certificate
  • 24hrs Suggested Study Time
  • 3 Months Access
  • Tutor Support
  • Study On Any Device
  • 6768 Students

Master the essentials of writing so you can excel at business communications, express yourself clearly online, and take your creative literary talents to a new level.

Master the essentials of writing, and become the stellar wordsmith you always wanted to be! In this course, you'll develop the skills you need to excel at business communications, express yourself clearly online, and take your creative literary talents to a new level.

Whether you're hoping to get a better job, write for a blog, or publish your short story, this course will give you the writing tools you need for success. It's also a perfect choice for students who speak English as a second language.

You'll gain confidence right away as you practice free writing and discover how to create solid drafts. You'll improve your writing skills by learning to select strong and persuasive words, spell correctly, and choose the right punctuation. Then you'll find out how to put it all together by crafting well-written sentences, building effective paragraphs, and organising your material logically. And finally, you'll explore ways to make the most of e-mails and other forms of electronic communication.

With the knowledge and hands-on practice you gain from this course, you'll be able to express yourself clearly and persuasively in writing—both in your personal life and in the business world.

Courses are delivered to you through expertly executed lessons, online instruction and interaction with like-minded students. Our courses are designed to deliver all of the benefits of studying in a classroom whilst giving you the flexibility to study at a time and place to suit your needs. You can access your classroom 24/7 from any device with an internet connection.

This course has a 3 month duration. You'll complete comprehensive lessons, quizzes and assignments before submitting your final exam at the end of the course to achieve your certificate. Courses must be completed within the 3 month access period.

Welcome to Lesson 1, where you’ll learn important concepts to help you write better today!  You’ll learn a strategy that will free up every bit of your existing writing skills and help you gain confidence when you write. Practice begins now with a new technique that will help you get your thoughts out onto the page so you can work with them.  It’s a great way to start on your goal of becoming a confident, accomplished writer.  Whether you need to write on the job or you’re eager to write for publication, this lesson will help!

Prepare yourself for some major upgrades on your ability to choose effective words!  In this lesson you'll learn to recognize what kinds of word choices work and why.  You’ll come away with an understanding about word choices that cause your readers to feel confused or uninterested.  You'll have the pleasure of discovering how to find the word you want and also how to goof around with words so you enjoy writing more.  Finally, you'll practice, practice, practice.  It’s fun, so feel free to dive in and splash around!

It’s time for spelling practice. Not only will you review problem words, but you’ll get acquainted with 10 helpful rules and five helpful tips to make you a better speller so you can spell better from now on. You’ll identify your own particular spelling demons and learn a strategy to cope with them once and for all.  This lesson is filled with the kinds of resources and spelling practice you’ve been looking for.

Here’s your chance to get acquainted with common word usage difficulties and master them. You’re about to learn to pick the right word at the right time and put it in the right place in your sentence.  You’ll practice choosing between similar sounding words that have different meanings.  You’ll get helpful explanations—at last!—about tricky usages that may trip you up daily.  Feel free to delve into an information-packed lesson that will add to your knowledge of correct word usage.

Your writing ability is building after the first four lessons!  In Lesson 5 you’ll integrate all you’ve learned so far—how how to capture your thoughts, choose effective words, spell correctly, and master word usage—by mastering techniques that will help you write effective sentences.  Here you’ll practice constructing sentences that have energy and precision by learning four simple tips, deciding which words to take out, and communicating your ideas logically.

Whisk through a handy review of the three main punctuation marks used to end sentences: the period, the question mark, and the exclamation point.  But that’s not all.  You’ll benefit from practicing how to identify and fix run-on sentences, sentence fragments, and the overuse of dashes and ellipses.  Round out your exploration with the challenge of combining quotation marks with the ending marks.  You’ll get a fine update on what works and what doesn’t with this first of three full lessons on punctuation.

Commas!  Yes, you can master their use.  Lesson 7 is designed to give you confidence in your comma placement.  You’ll learn how to use commas to create energy and precision in your writing.  Instead of memorizing an intimidating list of rules, you’ll learn by listening, clarifying, and practicing.  You’ll realize that you’re in charge of your commas rather than being a passive victim.  You’ll get answers to all your lingering doubts about using commas here. 

It’s likely been a long time since your school days, and your knowledge of the correct use of all the punctuation marks may be a bit vague now.  Lesson 8 to the rescue!  The emphasis here will be on how to use punctuation marks like semicolons, colons, dashes, parentheses, ellipses, apostrophes, quotation marks, italics, and hyphens.  You’ll acquire a new understanding of the way these marks help you.  You’ll gain this understanding by discovering, through practice, how to punctuate for clarity and how to help your readers hear the way you want your words to sound.

You’re building your knowledge brick by brick, and now it’s time to tackle the most powerful organizing tool of all writing—the paragraph.  Here you’ll find tips on how to organize a paragraph, where to break one paragraph and start another, and how to sequence paragraphs for optimum understanding.  As always, you’ll get to practice these skills as you go, solidifying your knowledge and gaining new confidence.  Dive in!

Now it’s time to find out how to put all your good writing into the right format so you can communicate with power and precision.  Formatting appeals to the eye of your readers and draws them into your content.  It’s a powerful tool and one that involves some creative choices on your part.  Get ready to learn about your choices for overall form, as well as how to use basic and specific formatting tools to make your writing highly readable.

Learn how to write effectively in today’s electronic world. Explore how the techniques of writing various types of electronic media such as e-mail, instant messages, and text messages, for example, differ from the techniques used to prepare messages that will be read on paper. It’s a new world, and new rules are necessary to help you communicate well. This lesson will help you discover what works and what doesn’t in these exciting and evolving media.  You’ll gain a new understanding of how to write powerful e-mail, since it’s the most common of all electronic message systems.

Time to wrap up all you’ve learned!  Lesson 12 will help you practice using your new skills, working from freewriting to a finished document.  You’ll practice how to use both your creative and your critical skills while writing.  You’ll find out what kind of attitude will help you use your new skills and what good habits will help you continue to improve each time you write.  You’ll focus on revision, work with a revision checklist, and review good tips on proofreading.  You’ll put together all you’ve learned so your writing continues to improve from this point forward. 

Ann Linquist

Ann Linquist

Ann Linquist is a popular continuing education tutor, at corporations, and with non-profit organisations. She has helped thousands of adults learn to tackle their writing tasks with enthusiasm. Having written everything from novels to newsletters,... Read more

Read Ann Linquist's Profile

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you've made the payment, we'll send you a confirmation email with a link to start your course. Feel free to get started whenever you're ready!

You'll have 3 months access to your course. In that time you are free to study at your own pace. The course duration is 24 hours.

Online learning is a flexible way to study that fits around your schedule, giving you the freedom to learn at your own pace from anywhere in the world. You'll have 3 months to complete the course and can take the multiple-choice questions and final exam whenever it suits you.

If you need help, you can contact us anytime. You can also join the discussion area where you can interact with other students. The discussion area for each lesson is open for the entire duration of the course.

Of course! We offer a 7-day money back guarantee. As long as you haven't completed the course, you can get a full refund within 7 days of enrolling.

We do not offer extensions or transfers for this self-paced course. However, you will have 3 months to complete the course, and if you need to cancel within the first 10 days of enrolment, we offer a money back guarantee.

The Learning Environment

From the moment that you enrol in the Essentials of Writing you will become an integral part of our learning community. You'll find yourself with the freedom to learn at a speed that suits you, on any device, from anywhere in the world. Achieving your career goals no longer has to mean compromising family and work commitments.

Our Values

Learn At Your Own Pace

We believe in personalised learning. That's why we provide all the tools and support you need to succeed at your own pace. With flexible learning, you'll stay motivated and retain more information. Plus, you can balance your studies with work and family commitments to make your dreams a reality.

We Won't Break The Bank

Education should be accessible to anyone who wants to learn. That's why we offer some of the most competitive prices in the industry with payments plans for just $25 per week. Investing in your future is a smart choice and doesn’t have to break the bank.

Industry-Led Courses

There's no better way to learn than from experts with years of experience in your field. That's why each of our 200+ industry-led courses are designed to give you a real-life perspective on your industry. With our expert mentors, you'll learn from people who have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and who are passionate about sharing it with you.

Get The Personal Support You Deserve

At Vibe Learning, we're real people who are dedicated to providing you with personal support every step of the way. Our industry experts are not only professional and knowledgeable but also incredibly passionate about sharing their expertise with you. With their guidance, you'll gain invaluable insights and practical knowledge to help you succeed.

Photoshop Elements 12 Digital Photography II Online Course | Vibe Learning
 

Photoshop Elements 12 Digital Photography II

Picture of Photoshop Elements 12 Digital Photography II
Quick Facts
  • Delivery Method Online
  • Professional Certificate
  • 24hrs Suggested Study Time
  • 3 Months Access
  • Tutor Support
  • Study On Any Device
  • 86 Students

Master the advanced features of Adobe's Photoshop Elements 12, and learn to edit and enhance digital images, restore old photos, and merge images.

Bring out the best in your digital images! If you have a basic working knowledge of Adobe's Photoshop Elements 12, these lessons will help you take your skills to the next level. Gain ability and confidence as you master the advanced features of this award-winning software, specifically designed for photo enthusiasts. Packed with hands-on activities and step-by-step instructions, this course will make you an accomplished user after graduating. 

Adobe combines the power of their award-winning technology with the ease of use and quick results you want. You'll be amazed at how effectively you can use artistic filters, layering techniques, and advanced editing tools. Before long, you'll be creating collages, turning images into text, merging images, and restoring old photos like a pro.

Photoshop Elements 12 gives you room to grow while allowing you to create exciting effects right from the beginning. Because it offers you more features and tools than you'll find in simpler programs, it broadens the options available to you as an amateur photographer. With the techniques you'll learn here, you'll be able to edit and enhance your photos with ease, and you'll have the power to transform any shot from ""okay"" to ""wow""!

 

Courses are delivered to you through expertly executed lessons, online instruction and interaction with like-minded students. Our courses are designed to deliver all of the benefits of studying in a classroom whilst giving you the flexibility to study at a time and place to suit your needs. You can access your classroom 24/7 from any device with an internet connection.

This course has a 3 month duration. You'll complete comprehensive lessons, quizzes and assignments before submitting your final exam at the end of the course to achieve your certificate. Courses must be completed within the 3 month access period.

Photoshop Elements 12 is an excellent program for photographers to enhance and edit digital images, and in this class, we'll move into the advanced features for photographers. In the first lesson, we'll dive into a workflow for digital editing. Photographers often wonder where to start when working with an image, so today, you'll get a good idea of the options available and a sequence to follow.

In this lesson, we'll look at tools you can use to perfect portraits. Although you can use these tools to fine-tune any type of image, you'll find them especially helpful with the detail work associated with portraiture. You'll see how to smooth away wrinkles with the Surface Blur filter, remove red eye, and even turn gray hair brown! If only it were so easy in real life. . . .

Distortion. It's not something you'd think would be desirable in photography, but with the options in Elements, you'll discover how distortion can help you work wonders! In this lesson, you'll see how to slim a waistline, trim loose edges, and accentuate the positive with distortion tools. You'll also find out how to correct an image by combining parts of two different photos, and you'll have a chance to get creative with the many brushes available in Elements.

By this point, you'll be familiar with lots of the options Photoshop Elements provides for editing images. In this lesson, we'll turn to the task of restoring old and damaged photographs. You'll see how to turn back the effects of time as well as how to add hints of color to black-and-white images.

Many computer programs allow you to include clip art in your documents. But did you know that with Photoshop Elements, you can make your own? In today's lesson, you'll see how to extract small portions of a photograph without any surrounding border and how to use them in other images and documents. You'll also find some great ways to merge text and imagery to create outstanding photographic impressions and how to customize the new Elements 12 panel display.

Editing your images isn't all about painstaking details and procedures. It can be a lot of fun, too! Photoshop Elements offers countless special effects, filters, and styles that you can use to show off your images. In this lesson, we'll explore how to add frames, backgrounds, clip art, and shapes to expand your creativity. You'll see how to sharpen and blur photos as well as how to salvage an image with these miraculous fixes!

Working with layers is one of the most powerful aspects of Photoshop Elements. In this lesson and the next, you'll see how layers work from beginning to end. You'll build a quickly modifiable business card and a collage as you learn how to use Adjustment and Fill layers to your advantage. You'll also put the Smart Brush tools to work with quick edits that leave you with stunning images.

<P>As we continue our discussion of layers in this lesson, you'll see how to add patterns, blend layers with colors and effects, and group them for great framing options using Elements' tabbed windowing feature. Photoshop Elements with layers is like supercharging a race car&mdash;and you'll be in the driver's seat. You'll also have a chance to work with Photoshop Elements' features,&nbsp;<EM>Text on Shape</EM>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<EM>Text on Custom Path</EM>&mdash;it just gets better and better!</P>

So far, we've done a lot with still photos, but in this lesson, we'll look at moving pictures.&nbsp;You'll see how to create an animated presentation from a sequence of images. And if that isn't enough, you'll also see how to create dazzling slide shows with special effects, text, and music to showcase your images.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to achieve beautiful ranges of color and contrast (sometimes referred to as High Definition Range) by combining multiple exposures of the same subject using Photomerge Exposure. We'll also discuss how to enlarge any image, correct vignettes, and create custom, colored borders of many sizes and shapes around your work. Your friends and family will be impressed by the professional-looking enlargements you create!

Panoramics are a beautiful way to show off wide scenic shots. But did you know that you don't need a special camera or lens to get these shots? Today you'll see how the Photomerge feature in Elements helps you blend several photos to provide seamless panoramic imagery, as well as other Photomerge options. We'll also look at some quick options for watermarking groups of photos all at once, including the Elements Recompose tool&mdash;an exciting feature with fast and easy results as well as the new Content Aware Move tool.

Our last lesson will fill you in on a few remaining tools, like the Cookie Cutter tool and the Shape tools, and you'll see how to use both to create more variations of clip art. You'll also work with Adobe's Camera Raw tool and discover the benefits of working with these large, uncompressed files. You'll find yourself with lots of knowledge and hours of practice under your belt as you finish up this class&nbsp;about the advanced features of Photoshop Elements.

Beverly Richards Schulz

Beverly Richards Schulz

Beverly Richards Schulz is a graduate of the New York Institute of Photography and an award-winning photographer. She has been teaching photography for more than 15 years. Since her first class with ed2go in 2000, she has written more than 30 onli... Read more

Read Beverly Richards Schulz's Profile

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you've made the payment, we'll send you a confirmation email with a link to start your course. Feel free to get started whenever you're ready!

You'll have 3 months access to your course. In that time you are free to study at your own pace. The course duration is 24 hours.

Online learning is a flexible way to study that fits around your schedule, giving you the freedom to learn at your own pace from anywhere in the world. You'll have 3 months to complete the course and can take the multiple-choice questions and final exam whenever it suits you.

If you need help, you can contact us anytime. You can also join the discussion area where you can interact with other students. The discussion area for each lesson is open for the entire duration of the course.

Of course! We offer a 7-day money back guarantee. As long as you haven't completed the course, you can get a full refund within 7 days of enrolling.

We do not offer extensions or transfers for this self-paced course. However, you will have 3 months to complete the course, and if you need to cancel within the first 10 days of enrolment, we offer a money back guarantee.

The Learning Environment

From the moment that you enrol in the Photoshop Elements 12 Digital Photography II you will become an integral part of our learning community. You'll find yourself with the freedom to learn at a speed that suits you, on any device, from anywhere in the world. Achieving your career goals no longer has to mean compromising family and work commitments.

Our Values

Learn At Your Own Pace

We believe in personalised learning. That's why we provide all the tools and support you need to succeed at your own pace. With flexible learning, you'll stay motivated and retain more information. Plus, you can balance your studies with work and family commitments to make your dreams a reality.

We Won't Break The Bank

Education should be accessible to anyone who wants to learn. That's why we offer some of the most competitive prices in the industry with payments plans for just $25 per week. Investing in your future is a smart choice and doesn’t have to break the bank.

Industry-Led Courses

There's no better way to learn than from experts with years of experience in your field. That's why each of our 200+ industry-led courses are designed to give you a real-life perspective on your industry. With our expert mentors, you'll learn from people who have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and who are passionate about sharing it with you.

Get The Personal Support You Deserve

At Vibe Learning, we're real people who are dedicated to providing you with personal support every step of the way. Our industry experts are not only professional and knowledgeable but also incredibly passionate about sharing their expertise with you. With their guidance, you'll gain invaluable insights and practical knowledge to help you succeed.

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