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Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking

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26 Best Online Free (and Partially Free) English Courses in 2024

If you’re looking for online English learning resources, but aren’t sure where to start—or you’re not sure how to choose—this is the post for you.

Below you will find a list of the 26 best free online English courses, including MOOCs, self-study lessons, and skills practice websites, with additional information to help you decide which one could fit your learning style and schedule best.

Best for Formal Classes: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

1. best for all levels: alison, 2. best for british english: futurelearn, 3. best for courses from big universities: edx, 4. best for variety of courses: udemy, 5. best for advanced learners: coursera, 6. best for tech and science: udacity, 7. best for college credits: saylor, 8. best for short courses: my mooc, best for flexibility: self-study lessons and courses, 9. best for live english classes: perfectly spoken, 10. best for one-to-one classes: oxford online english, 11. best for grammar guides: leo network, 12. best for authentic content: fluentu, 13. best for specialized topics: open learning, 14. best for text-based courses: esol courses, 15. best for american english: usa learns, 16. best for variety of formats: bbc learning english, 17. best for number of lessons: engvid, 18. best for focus on details: dave’s esl cafe, best for additional learning: skills practice websites, 19. best for beginners: englishhelper, 20. best for visual learners: languageguide.org, 21. best for hearing different accents: elllo.org, 22. best for practical listening: randall’s esl cyber listening lab, 23. best for educational listening: tedxesl, 24. best for k-12 students: readtheory, 25. best for world news articles: news in easy english, 26. best for casual learning: duolingo.

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MOOCs , as the name suggests, are online courses that are open to an unlimited number of students. They are formal classes taught by real teachers, and are often created by prestigious universities or other educational institutions. They allow anyone to take a high-quality English course for free, and may allow you to earn college credits or a certificate as a paid service.

There isn’t much individual student-teacher interaction in a MOOC. Teachers communicate with students through online message boards, pre-recorded video lectures and a limited number of live web broadcasts.  Still, this is a good way to learn English from a real instructor, and you’ll have chances to join online study groups with classmates.

Keep in mind that not all MOOCs are immediately available when you sign up for them. They generally have a start date that you might need to wait for in order to enroll. It’s a good idea to subscribe to the course via email to receive an alert when it opens.

Most MOOCs allow you to study at your own pace, but work best if you follow the course’s schedule. If you’re someone who prefers that kind of structure, one of these could be for you.

Summary: Well-established site with free online courses and certificates

Opened in 2007, Alison is considered by most to be the first MOOC. They have a whole section dedicated to learning English .

• Thousands of learner friendly videos (especially beginners)
• Handpicked, organized, and annotated by FluentU's experts
• Integrated into courses for beginners

They’re one of the best MOOCs for starting your English studies from the very beginning, as they have courses for each level, from beginner to advanced. 

The website has over 4,000 total courses and 192 language courses. Its goal is to help learners improve their existing skills, switch careers, or pursue hobbies they’re passionate about, all for free.

After you complete a course, you are given either a diploma or certificate depending on the length of the course.

Some courses I suggest are English for Business and Entrepreneurship , for those who need to use English with clients, and Fundamentals of English Grammar , for a basic grammar review. 

Summary: Learn British English from expert teachers and by socializing with your classmates

The courses offered come from 40 places all across the world, including some top British institutions like the British Council and the British Museum .

• Interactive subtitles: click any word to see detailed examples and explanations
• Slow down or loop the tricky parts
• Show or hide subtitles
• Review words with our powerful learning engine

FutureLearn has no partners in the United States, so if you’re looking for American English, you might want to try a different website!

FutureLearn works like many MOOCs—lessons are given every week for a certain number of weeks. You can learn along with the class, which is highly encouraged (so you can talk to other students). But if the class doesn’t fit into your schedule, you can take it at your own pace.

FutureLearn has different membership levels, including a free option, course upgrade options and a subscription option for unlimited access. 

A course I recommend is Exploring English: Language and Culture . With this course, you can learn about British culture as you improve your English.

Summary: A variety of college-level courses taught by real professors

edX is one of the biggest MOOC websites out there. It was created by Harvard and MIT, two very famous, elite universities in the United States.

You can find a lot of college-level courses here, created and taught by professors from top universities. 

• Learn words in the context of sentences
• Swipe left or right to see more examples from other videos
• Go beyond just a superficial understanding

You can even do courses that will count toward the completion of your degree on edX, through Arizona State University. It’s not free, but it’s cheaper than being in an actual college.

Some of the courses have certificates you can get for completing them. Most of these cost some money, so make sure you check the details before you sign up!

A course I’d recommend taking is Academic and Business Writing for those who want to improve their writing for university or work.

Summary: A wide variety of either free or affordable video courses 

Udemy wants to teach everything and is one of the biggest MOOCs out there. 

There are tens of thousands of courses, and even though not all of them are from well-known universities, they have some great ones to choose from.

Not all the courses on Udemy are free, but there’s a good number of free ones. Even the courses that aren’t free can be pretty affordable.

• FluentU builds you up, so you can build sentences on your own
• Start with multiple-choice questions and advance through sentence building to producing your own output
• Go from understanding to speaking in a natural progression.

Udemy uses video lectures, written materials and quizzes to help you learn. You can watch a video or read a lesson, then test yourself to make sure you understand. You can also go as fast or as slow as you want!

A great course to take is English Grammar Pro | Beginner to Advanced (A1 to C1) Grammar , which covers a wide range of grammar topics, as well as pronunciation and conversation skills.

Summary: A wide variety of self-paced and university courses, particularly good for advanced learners

Recommended for advanced learners, Coursera is another MOOC that lets you learn at your own pace (as fast or as slow as you want).

Coursera has a huge number of partners, institutions and universities offering courses. You can complete courses as they take place, or just look over the material when they’re over.

Each course has instructional videos, followed by quizzes and exercises you can take to make sure you understood the materials.

• Images, examples, video examples, and tips
• Covering all the tricky edge cases, eg.: phrases, idioms, collocations, and separable verbs
• No reliance on volunteers or open source dictionaries
• 100,000+ hours spent by FluentU's team to create and maintain

There are a few peer-rated (graded by your fellow students) assignments, so it’s a good place to exchange information with other students who are learning just like you.

Some of my course suggestions are Essentials for English Speeches and Presentations , which is a course specifically aimed at Chinese learners of English and will teach you English public speaking skills.

Another one is English Composition I , taught by Duke University, which teaches college-level writing.

Summary: Courses about science and tech topics, taught in English for advanced learners

If you’re an upper-intermediate or advanced learner of English and want to practice the language while learning something else in English, you’re going to love Udacity.

Udacity offers comprehensive career development programs in the fields of tech and science. You’ll feel like a real native speaker of English while you take courses on computer science, AI, coding and more, all of them completely in English!

If you want to take a full program and get a certificate, the courses can be quite pricey (but worth it, if you need one!). There are also many (300+) free classes to get you started!

A course I would suggest is Refresh Your Resume , which will help you have the best English resume in town.

Another one is Introduction to Artificial Intelligence . From machine learning to robotics, after you finish this course you’ll be one step closer to calling yourself The King/Queen of AI.

Summary: Take courses on your own time for free or paid courses for college credit

Another advanced-level option, Saylor offers courses for free. This website is a non-profit, meaning it doesn’t make any money from teaching online courses.

Here you can take courses online that will count towards your American university degree. Many universities around the world have this, but in the U.S., you collect college credits during your studies, and you need a certain number of them to graduate with a degree.

There is a small $5 fee if you’d like to take exams to get the college credits, but otherwise the courses are free. Even if you don’t need the credits, it’s still a great option! There are no start dates here—all courses can be taken at any time. 

For those planning to study in English at university, the course Pre-college English prepares you for college-level writing.

Summary: Quick, focused English courses that include subtitles

My MOOC is more like a portal to other bigger MOOCs, and covers a wide range of subjects. The majority of English courses here focus on British English.

You will see courses offered by British universities, the BBC and even the British Council. Most of the courses offered are self-paced. 

The main difference is that most of the courses here take from one to 30 hours, so they’re short and to the point. It’s the perfect solution for learners of English who don’t have a lot of free time but want to improve their resume or CV fast.

My MOOC focuses on speaking and writing, but everyone can find a course that adapts to their needs. The best part? Most of the courses include subtitles!

One course you should be taking is English pronunciation in a global world . In this course, you’ll learn everything about English pronunciation and the differences between global English accents. 

If you’re looking for structured English lessons that you can take on a flexible schedule, you’re in luck, because there are lots of free and mostly-free resources like this.

Some of these websites offer full courses you can complete on your own. Others are collections of lessons you can pick and choose to suit your needs. If you’re a self-directed person who prefers to march to the beat of your own drum, one of these might be for you.

Different resources offer lessons in a variety of formats, including video and text-based, so you’re sure to find something that fits your learning style.

Summary: Video lessons for all learner levels, taught by experienced English teachers

Perfectly Spoken features over 500 video lessons, all taught by experienced English teachers. It’s a great place to start your online English learning journey!

Each course is separated by learner level, and you can find out which course is best for you with a free English test. The best thing is that you can attend live classes, get actual speaking practice and even join a writing club.

There are two learner plans: student and pro. You need to pay for both plans, but the costs begin at around $8.25 a month which is completely worth it for the quality of material you get. 

As a bonus for learners, Perfectly Spoken also provides extra learning materials and practice tests. Once you complete a course, you can even get a fancy certificate of completion!

Check out their courses by level or specialty courses, such as English for Job Applications and Interviews , to prepare for your English-speaking job.

Summary: Detailed lessons covering a wide variety of skills, with new lessons uploaded frequently

Oxford Online English has many free lessons that teach different English skills.

They cover many different topics and are surprisingly quite detailed. There are even lessons that focus on Business English and IELTS preparation. Free lessons are uploaded weekly, so you can keep looking forward to new content!

Besides free lessons, Oxford Online English also offers personal paid lessons with teachers on programs like Skype, Google Hangouts or whatever else works for you. Your teacher can also give you feedback and tell you what you can improve on.

To further practice your speaking, the section Free Spoken English Lessons has several free video lessons about various topics such as describing people, shopping and telling a story in English. 

Summary: Mostly text-based material on a variety of themes

Leo Network is a relatively simple mostly text-based website, but it’s packed with learning material and focuses entirely on English!

Most of it is not actual course material, but divided into different themes, such as grammar, vocabulary, basics, pronunciation and even tests and quizzes.

There are several guides, such as the  guides to spelling  (the correct way to write a word),  capitalization  (when to write in uppercase letters) and  punctuation  (the use of symbols to separate words and sentences) to become a master of English writing.

If you want something with a clear beginning and end, there are about 60 lessons from beginner to intermediate available. 

You can also become a member of the English forums and Discord server so you can practice speaking with other English learners like yourself!

Summary: Video-based lessons and multimedia flashcards with material that adapts to your learning

FluentU is a language learning program that uses videos to teach English by showing you how native speakers use it. It technically isn’t a free course, but you can try it out with a free trial.

The videos on FluentU include short video lessons as well as authentic clips from around the English-speaking world like commercials, music videos and scenes from popular TV shows.

All the videos have interactive subtitles that let you click on words you don’t know to learn more. This way, you understand more of what you’re hearing.

You can add any word you see to custom flashcard decks to review later, or practice with pre-made flashcard decks. You can also review phrases and slang terms, which textbooks and other courses often leave out.

FluentU lets you review what you’ve learned with personalized quizzes, which change as you learn and focus on what you most need to improve. There are also iOS or Android apps, so you can study on the go.

Summary: Mix of professional courses and free courses open to anyone

You’ll find a very friendly environment at Open Learning.

Here, anyone can take or create a course. You might not find as many college professors, but you’ll find experts who want to share their skills.

Open Learning does work with a number of universities, so you can find a good mix of both professional and more casual courses. Not all the courses on Open Learning are free, but there are some that are free and open to anyone.

There are also not as many language courses, but if you’d like to take specialized courses taught in English, then this is a good option for you. 

A course you should be taking is Using Sentence Connectors , where you can learn English writing and grammar at a pre-college level of English.

Summary: Courses for any level that include lots of resources and cultural information

ESOL means English for Speakers of Other Languages, so this site is perfect for you. The main difference with this website is that the material is not presented in a video format. 

ESOL Courses offer a lot of free online English courses for learners at any level (beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced).

You can choose from a lot of resources to practice the skill you want, from listening to English for work to reading and writing. There are also sections called “Life in the UK” and “Life in the USA” for information about culture, travel and more. 

As a bonus, all this information is presented through hundreds of exercises in which you can practice your English.

I recommend trying out their intermediate reading exercises and activities to improve your vocabulary. They include pictures and videos, and they tell you which words you need to remember.

Summary: Video lessons and activities for beginner and intermediate learners

USA Learns is a website that hosts free English lessons, all of which you can access after you register an account.

There are three main courses and their difficulties range from beginner to intermediate levels. Lessons are taught with videos and activities that improve different English skills, from vocabulary to speaking.

USA Learns also has content that teaches you what daily life is like in the United States! This adds a nice flavor to your English learning.

An excellent course to take is 1st English Course , which offers 20-units that teach you the basics of the language, using a variety of lesson topics and all kinds of fun activities.

Another one is Practice English and Reading , which is an intermediate-level course that focuses on improving written English skills with stories

Summary: Video lessons and text materials for intermediate learners

This resource offers lessons that can be taken either on their own or as part of a full-length course.

The course levels go from “intermediate” to “towards advanced.” You’ll never get bored, as there are different formats for the lessons. Every level is composed of 30 units, which are in turn split into five sessions each.

First, choose a category from the upper menu and choose your level, which will bring you to the list of lessons. Then, I recommend clicking on the Vocabulary Reference of every unit and copying down the words and their explanations in your notebook. This tried-and-true method will help you build your vocabulary by creating your own dictionary.

If you like your free English lessons to have a funny twist, then the  Grammar Gameshow ,  Experiment  and  Shakespeare Speaks categories are all great options for you.

Click here to read our full review .

Summary: Video and written lessons by experienced teachers

engVid’s free English lessons are usually classroom-like videos where teachers explain concepts on a whiteboard, with a quiz to test your understanding and a chat box to ask the teachers questions.

With over 1,900 lessons covering vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, business English, slang and English exam preparation (just to name a few!),  you’re in for a treat.

The website is intuitive and quite easy to navigate. Choose your level (beginner, intermediate or advanced) and your topic(s) of interest, then click on “Find Lessons.”

In the Resources category, you can also find a long list of written lessons that cover various topics such as  50+ expressions using “at,” “on” and “in”  or  50+ phrases and idioms to describe people in business .

Summary: Text lessons and word lists for intermediate to advanced students

Learning English with Dave Sperling is a real pleasure. From the navigation menu, focus on the Resources category. You’ll find grammar, idioms, phrasal verbs and slang lessons, in addition to quizzes and student forums.

The lessons are all in a text format and are more suited for students with an intermediate level and above. Don’t let the lack of videos/images hold you back! Every lesson is thoroughly explained, with the subject neatly broken down into understandable pieces. The English Sounds & Spelling lesson is a great walk-through for the different, often confusing ways English uses its letters to represent its sounds.

Take a break from studying now and then with their fun  Australian slang quiz  or  dinosaur quiz .

Whether you’re already taking an English language class, using one of the resources above, or just getting started, you may find you need a little something extra to help boost your English to the next level. Fortunately, there are lots of great resources that focus on a particular skill or learning style.

Many of these sites focus on a broad skill like listening or reading. Some offer exercises with a particular focus, like academic or everyday English. You’ll also find that some provide practice materials in more specific areas like grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, too.

These resources won’t make you a fluent speaker on their own, but each one has a little something that sets it apart from the rest. You might find that a certain something extra is just what you need.

Summary: Adaptable listening program with six different listening speeds and translations for over 20 languages

EnglishHelper’s Learn English program is a great fit for a beginning learner, especially if you’re struggling to understand spoken English .

Learn English offers six different listening speeds and a pronunciation guide, which will help you speak and understand.

With a picture dictionary of 400,000 words, you’ll soon pick up a lot of vocabulary. There are translations available in over 20 languages, which means that you won’t face any difficulty finding English alternatives to words in your native language.

Finally, they also have periodic tests to make sure you’re learning regularly. This sort of structure is great for English learners who have a difficult time committing to one program.

EnglishHelper also offers EnglishBolo . This 100-day program blends 100 self-learning lessons with 10 trainer-led classes, so you get to practice English conversations with an expert trainer. It’s great if you need that little bit of support.

Summary: A website for vocabulary practice with hover-over images

If you’re a beginner or intermediate speaker whose learning style is primarily visual and auditory, Language Guide is ideal for you.

Every vocabulary lesson is organized in a set of images that you can hover over with your mouse pointer on a PC or with your finger on a mobile device. You’ll then see a text box containing the word and hear the word spoken. You can practice either U.S. or U.K. English. 80 topics are featured in the vocabulary section. They each also come with a listening and a speaking challenge.

The images are cartoonish and sometimes too silly, in my opinion. However, as someone who loves stories, I like that they have a small Fantasy vocabulary section for storybook creatures like dragons, wizards, and zombies!

They also have a small English grammar section that focuses on irregular verbs. The game is to conjugate irregular verbs to either the past tense or the past participle in three levels of difficulty—beginner, intermediate and advanced. If your answer is wrong, a correction and an example sentence will appear.

Summary: A website for conversational English listening in different accents

ELLLO stands for English Listening Lesson Library Online. They have audio and video English lessons at every level, from low beginner to high intermediate and advanced.

The lessons contain conversations in every kind of English accent, including non-native accents. Each lesson is marked with the names of the speakers in the conversation and a flag indicating each speaker’s accent, such as an American flag for a speaker with an American accent.

The site is a little confusing to navigate, but click around the different sections to find videos at your level with accents you want to hear, and you’ll find something.

Each lesson also comes with a script, so you can practice reading along as you listen, too. Take the quiz that goes with the lesson to get the most out of each one.

The One Minute English series is a great way to give ELLLO a try. Each video is only a minute long, so fitting one into your schedule is easy, and they come with all the same resources as the longer videos.

Summary: A site for practical “daily life” English listening

This website was created to help ESL learners practice their listening. It’s completely free, and you don’t need to sign up.

It’s full of listening exercises at beginner to advanced levels related to shopping, travel, school and other daily situations. There are conversations with children and teenagers as well as adults.

There’s also a section for academic listening at intermediate to very difficult levels that’s really helpful if you’re learning English to go to university in an English-speaking country.

If you want to stretch your listening endurance, check out the Live Broadcasts section, which offers videos each roughly an hour long.

Summary: A collection of academic/educational talks in English with comprehension exercises to use with them

TED Talks  just might be the most famous source of English listening practice. It’s a collection of educational monologues (presentations with one speaker). TED is so popular among English learners that there’s a TED site just for ESL students: TEDxESL.

The site pairs TED videos with tailored comprehension exercises, grammar and vocabulary quizzes and entire lesson plans you can download for free.

It offers videos starting at a pre-intermediate level, but most of the content is upper-intermediate to advanced, and the subject matter is intended for adults and older teens.

For some specialized listening practice, there’s a subsection for videos that help with learning discourse markers : phrases like “anyway” and “as a result” that modify the flow of a dialogue without changing its meaning.

Summary: Reading exercises to supplement classroom learning

One size doesn’t fit all in the classroom. ReadTheory was designed by teachers, for teachers, to help serve their students better with customizable learning. This free resource can also help children (and adults!) learn at home.

If you don’t need the full program for teachers, you can still benefit from the site’s diagnostic tests, daily lessons and ways to track your learning progress. Once you sign up, you also get access to ReadTheory’s reading exercises and worksheets , which include materials for ESL, SPED and adult learners.

Summary: Current English-language news articles rewritten in simplified English for learners

If you want to keep up with current events while practicing your English reading, this site is for you. News in Easy English provides news articles on subjects in different categories: Science, History, Society, Media and more.

Each article is formatted in simple sentences with vocabulary words in bold text. A list of vocabulary words with definitions appears below every article, so you can easily look up unfamiliar words as you go.

The website is clean and easy to navigate. You can also search for articles by tag. There are some pretty interesting ones, such as Archaeology and Space , though there aren’t many articles per tag.

The site’s owner,  Klaus Rosmanitz, also runs English Online . The ads are a bit intrusive, but you’ll find even more news articles there, plus grammar and vocabulary exercises.

Summary: Duolingo turns learning English into a game with quick lessons, streaks, scoreboards and skill trees

Duolingo is designed to help you learn English quickly, so you can use it even if you’re just beginning to learn.

In each lesson, Duolingo teaches you new words based on a topic like education, school, science or adjectives, and has you complete exercises to retain the new vocabulary. For example, you might have to match new words with a picture, translate an English phrase back to your native language or repeat an English phrase.

You can easily finish all the lessons in Duolingo in around three months if you use it consistently.

For more information about its features, pros, and cons, check out our full Duolingo review here.

So what are you waiting for? Get comfortable, pick a course on this list and start learning!

For more ways to practice English online for free, check out this post next:

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/practice-english-online-2/

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• How to Make Your Coursework as Good as It Can Possibly Be

Many GCSE and A-level subjects are assessed in part by coursework in addition to exams, meaning that the mark you receive for coursework contributes to your overall grade. Many students prefer coursework, because it’s a chance to showcase your academic abilities away from the high-pressured environment of the exam room, making it ideal for those who don’t perform to the best of their abilities in exams. However, the time you have available for coursework, in contrast with the time constraints of the exam room, can lull some students into a false sense of security. Coursework is arguably just as challenging as exams, just in different ways – and, given the fact that you have more time, much higher standards are expected of you in coursework than in exams. Careful planning and research are needed for successful coursework, as well as strong data-gathering and essay-writing skills. In this article, we look at how to produce excellent coursework, from planning to proofreading. This information might also be useful to you if you’re planning on attending an Oxford Summer School this summer.

What is coursework?

GCSE and A-level coursework typically takes the form of an extended essay or project. Its objectives vary from one subject to another, but there’s usually an emphasis on the student conducting independent research into a topic of their own choice. Thus coursework often takes the form of some sort of investigation; it may, therefore, help to have your ‘detective’ hat on as you explore, investigate and analyse your topic. You can usually work on your coursework at home, though it’s sometimes completed under controlled conditions through sessions at school. To give you a better idea of how coursework varies from one subject to another, here are some examples:

• English – English coursework usually takes the form of an extended essay with a title of your choice. You’re usually given a choice of themes and/or texts to explore, and you could choose a format such as a comparison between a set text and another one.
• Geography – Geography coursework usually focuses on the gathering, reporting and interpretation of data designed to answer a particular geographical question. You could investigate usage of a shopping centre, for example, or look at erosion on a particular beach.
• Sciences – coursework for science subjects often takes the form of a scientific project or experiment that you conduct and report on yourself.

Before you start work on your coursework, it’s essential that you have a thorough understanding of the rules. Failing to conform to the rules – inadvertently or not – may result in your coursework (or possibly even your entire qualification) being disqualified, so it’s a serious matter.

• No plagiarism – this is particularly dangerous given the ready availability of relevant information on the internet these days. Make sure everything is in your own words; you’ll need to sign a declaration stating that it’s your own original work.
• There’s only so much help your teacher can give you . They can provide guidance on what you need to include, and on what the examiners will be looking for. You can ask them questions, but they’ll usually only be able to check through your first draft once and offer broad hints on updating it.
• Check the word count , and stick to it. Find out whether footnotes, appendices and bibliographies are included in the word count.
• Check what topics you’re allowed to do your coursework on; if there’s an exam on this topic, you’ll almost certainly have to choose a different one for your coursework.

Choose your topic wisely

Ideally, choose something you’re genuinely interested in, as your enthusiasm will come across and you’ll find it more enjoyable to write. If there’s something you’ve been working on for the course so far that you’ve particularly enjoyed, you may be able to focus more on this as part of your coursework. For science coursework, you’ll need to choose something to investigate that you can measure, change and control; it should be what’s called a ‘fair test’, meaning that you have to acknowledge all the controls you use in the experiment and why. Try not to pick a topic for which the scope is too vast, as you’ll struggle to research it properly and you’re unlikely to do it justice, and it’ll be hard to keep within the word limit. Ask your teachers for some guidance on choosing your topic if you’re not sure what to write about; they might even tell you a bit about what previous students have done to give you some inspiration.

Plan how long it’s going to take

Never leave your coursework until the last minute, even if this is your normal approach to essays and it usually works for you. Make sure you understand when the deadlines are, including time for submitting a first draft for comments from your teacher. Then schedule blocks of time for working on it, allowing plenty of time before the deadline to cater for any unexpected delays. Allow ample time for making corrections based on teacher feedback on your first draft, and keep some time aside before the deadline for final editing and proofreading. Because actual deadlines are few and far between, you’ll need to take responsibility for the writing process and impose some deadlines on yourself to ensure it’s finished in time. Write down your deadlines on a calendar, with the coursework broken into stages and dates assigned to each, by which time each task should be complete. You can base your stages on the next few points in this article – research and data gathering, a structure plan for the piece of work, writing up, and so on.

Conducting your research and gathering data

As coursework is primarily a research exercise, the research phase is crucial, so don’t be tempted to skimp on it and go straight to writing up. Use as many different resources as you can to gather data: books, journals, newspapers, television, radio, the internet and anything else you think might be relevant. For science and Geography coursework, you’ll need to base your work on a hypothesis, so the research stage should start by coming up with at least one hypothesis, otherwise your research will lack direction. The research phase for some subjects may involve site visits for gathering data, so allow plenty of time for this, particularly if you need your parents to drive you somewhere to do so. If it’s a scientific experiment you’re conducting for your coursework, you’ll need to pay careful attention to planning the experiment using rigorous scientific methods (also noting what Health and Safety precautions you are taking), as well as reading up on the background and theory so that you have an idea of what to expect from the outcome of your experiment. In the research stage, make notes about what you expect to happen, so that you can later compare your expectations with what actually did happen. The experiment itself also forms part of the research and data-gathering stage for your science coursework; in the write-up stage, which we come onto shortly, you analyse and write up the results.

Plan your structure

Once you’ve completed your research, the process of writing up begins. Before you get down to the actual writing, however, it’s advisable to write a plan for how you’re going to structure it – essentially an essay plan for English coursework and other subjects for which the coursework is based on an extended essay. It’ll look slightly different from an essay plan for science subjects and others that revolve around project work, but the principle is the same: plan out what order you’re going to present your information in. For big projects, this is particularly important, because with a lot of information to convey, you risk being disorganised and waffling.

Writing up your project

For any coursework, but particularly coursework based around an extended essay, you’ll need to perfect your essay-writing abilities. For science coursework, writing up your project also involves data analysis, as you interpret the results of your experiment and work your notes into formal scientific language.

When you’re writing up, it’s important to find a place where you can work quietly, without distractions that could cause you to make careless errors. You wouldn’t want noise or distractions when you were in an exam room, so treat your coursework with the same reverence.

Supporting materials and images

For some subjects, namely the sciences and Geography, it would be appropriate to include images, graphs, charts, tables and so on in your coursework. For example, for Geography coursework, your extra material could include annotated images and maps of the site you’re talking about, plus tables, graphs and charts. An appendix could then detail your raw data; if, for example, your coursework focused on the results of a survey, you could put the raw survey responses in an appendix and provide summaries and analysis in the main body of the coursework.

Footnotes and bibliography

As we said earlier, it’s important that you always use your own words in your coursework to avoid the possibility of falling foul of plagiarism rules. However, it’s acceptable to quote from another source, as you would in any piece of academic writing, but you must make sure that you state where it is from and use quotation marks to show that it’s a quote from somewhere else. The best way of citing another work is to use a footnote; word processors will allow you to insert one, and it just puts a little number at the end of the sentence and another in the footer of the document, into which you put the name of the author and work, and the page within that work that the quote can be found. At the end of your piece of work, include a bibliography that includes a list of every external source you’ve used in the creation of your coursework. Stick to a set formula when including books. A common format is: Author Surname, Initial. (Date) – Title of Book , page number For example: Lewis, C.S. (1960) – Studies in Words , p. 45 When you get to university, you’ll be expected to include footnotes and bibliographies in all your essays, so it’s a good habit to get into and coursework gives you good practice at it.

The final pre-submission check

Having completed a first draft, received feedback from your teacher, and honed your work into a finished piece of coursework, have a final check through it before you send off your coursework for submission.

• Sense check : have a read through your completed piece of work and check that it all makes sense. Make sure you haven’t contradicted yourself anywhere, or repeated yourself, or laboured the point. If there are any facts that you may have meant to look up to double check their accuracy, do so now.
• Word count : ensure that the completed work falls within the word count, and double check whether the bibliography should be included in the word count. If you’ve exceeded it, you’ll need to work through the piece and tighten up your writing, omitting unnecessary information, reordering sentences so that they use fewer words, and so on.
• Proofread : check your spelling and grammar, and ensure that there are no typos. Don’t just use the spellcheck – go through it with a fine toothcomb, manually, and if you can, ask someone to read through it for you to see if they spot anything you haven’t.
• Formatting : check that you’ve included page numbers, and that the font and line spacing is consistent throughout the work. Ensure that the font is plain and easy to read, such as Arial or Times New Roman.
• Bibliography : check that you’ve included everything, that the format is the same for all sources mentioned, and that the right information is included for each.

Once this stage is complete, you’re ready to submit your coursework along with your declaration that it’s entirely your own work. Get ready for a feeling of immense satisfaction when you finally send off your hard work!

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In this post…

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This content covers vocabulary and grammar at the CEFR levels called B1 and B2—the level needed to live and work in the language. With B2 English, learners can use the language spontaneously and confidently, and they can talk in nuanced ways about complex topics well beyond the immediate, concrete needs of beginners .

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English Internships

Learning beyond the classroom.

Thanks to a network of connections decades in the making, Blugolds majoring or minoring in English have some fabulous opportunities for on-the-job learning that allows them to synthesize and apply what they’ve learned in their coursework. Our interns work at businesses and non-profit organizations throughout the Chippewa Valley, resulting in valuable professional experience that sets our graduates apart.

The Internship Advantage

• Opportunities to work in professional environments and address communication challenges.
• Sustained interaction with professionals in the Chippewa Valley who can serve as valuable career and community contacts.
• Focus on issues of professionalism and career development.
• An opportunity to build a professional portfolio of documents and publications that demonstrate your abilities to potential employers.
• Additional income as some internships are paid!
• Fulfillment of your service-learning requirement.
• Earned upper-division credit and ongoing academic support for your internship through ENGL 498 Internship in Writing.

How to Apply for an Internship

Attend the Internship Information Meeting offered bi-annually in October and March to learn about exciting internship opportunities. These internship opportunities are also available on Handshake.

Log in using your UWEC credentials. Then, search for eligible internships under “ENGL 498 Internships in Writing.”

Apply for 2-3 internships for which you are qualified. Application materials will include a.) a well-written, rhetorically effective cover letter addressed to the employer, b.) an up-to-date, polished resume, c.) the names of two English Department faculty who can vouch for your writing ability and professionalism.

Career Services is available to help create and proofread your application materials by appointment.

If you are selected for an interview, the internship site supervisor will coordinate an interview time.

If you are selected for an internship by the site supervisor, please inform Professor Hollars and complete the Handshake Experiences form .

After logging into Handshake, click the “Career Center” tab and select “Experiences.” On the right side of the “Experiences” page, click “Request an Experience.” Select “English Department” in the “Experience Type” question. Then, respond to the questions and submit your internship information.

Following Handshake approval, you’ll receive an email granting you permission to register for 1-3 credits of ENGL 498: Internship in Writing. To register for an internship but not the class, you must fill out the Handshake form and indicate that the internship is not for credit.

Once you’re registered for ENGL 498, contact your internship site supervisor and set up a start date and first week schedule.

Attend the first class meeting at the time and place scheduled for the course.

My internship at Volume One is by far my favorite learning experience at UWEC. As an aspiring novelist, the creative liberty woven into the internship allowed me to exercise my creativity while strengthening my writing and editing skills. I felt I grew not only as a writer, but as a member of the community. The connections I made through Volume One were unbelievable. Even though my internship has officially ended, I am honored to continue to write as a contributor for such an inclusive magazine!

Each internship position is different. While some focus on writing text, other internships focus more on gathering information, editing text, and design and layout. You may apply for the positions that interest you most or you can work with the Internship Director to create a customized, writing-intensive internship. 

Any student who is majoring or minoring in English may apply regardless of emphasis. There are no GPA requirements. However, some internships require prerequisite courses.  Junior and seniors are especially encouraged to apply. 

Depending on the internship, you may work anywhere from 5 to 15 hours per week. Not all internships require you to work on-site.

• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Detail oriented
• Ability to work with a deadline
• Listening skills
• Willingness to collaborate

Most students who apply for a writing internship are placed at a site. Some sites hire more than one intern depending on the number of applicants.

No; you may apply for internships as many semesters as you want and are welcome to accept more than one position for the same semester. However, there is a limit on the number of course credits you can earn.

No, although you could undertake two internships over two terms for a total of 6 ENGL 498 credits.

Example Internship Sites

• The Ronald E McNair Postbaccalaureate Program
• The Eau Claire Area School Foundation
• Junior Achievement
• Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center
• UWEC English Department
• Chippewa Valley Cultural Association/Heyde Center
• JONAH (Joining Our Neighbors, Advancing Hope)
• UWEC University Honors
• Midwest Artist Academy
• Chippewa Valley Writers Guild
• Barstow & Grand
• Mason Companies, Inc
• RealityWorks
• Beaver Creek Citizen Science Center
• WEAU News Center

English Department

Centennial Hall 4102 1698 Park Avenue Eau Claire , WI 54701 United States

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

105 Garfield Avenue  P.O. Box 4004  Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004 

715-836-4636