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Stanford Online

Writing in the sciences.

Stanford School of Medicine

This course teaches scientists to become more effective writers, using practical examples and exercises. Topics include: principles of good writing, tricks for writing faster and with less anxiety, the format of a scientific manuscript, and issues in publication and peer review. Students from non-science disciplines can benefit from the training provided in the first four weeks (on general principles of effective writing).

Course Format

In the first four weeks, we will review principles of effective writing, examples of good and bad writing, and tips for making the writing process easier. In the second four weeks, we will examine issues specific to scientific writing, including: authorship, peer review, the format of an original manuscript, and communicating science for lay audiences. Students will watch video lectures, complete quizzes and editing exercises, write two short papers, and edit each others' work.

Course Syllabus

Week 1 - Introduction; principles of effective writing (cutting unnecessary clutter) Week 2 - Principles of effective writing (verbs) Week 3 - Crafting better sentences and paragraphs Week 4 - Organization; and streamlining the writing process Week 5 - The format of an original manuscript Week 6 - Reviews, commentaries, and opinion pieces; and the publication process Week 7 - Issues in scientific writing (plagiarism, authorship, ghostwriting, reproducible research) Week 8 - How to do a peer review; and how to communicate with the lay public

Dr. Kristin Sainani, Associate Professor of Health Research and Policy

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• Write & publish

Writing a Research Paper

For students and researchers in the natural sciences who are new to scientific writing or wish to improve the quality of their written output

Taught by 17 Nature Portfolio journal Editors

4.5 hours of learning

15-minute lessons

6-module course with certificate

About this course

This is the first edition of the ‘Writing a Research Paper’ course. We recommend you take the updated, second edition of the course even if you have already started this older version.

'Writing a Research Paper' focuses on how to write an effective, clear and concise article that will appeal to a broad audience as well as attracting the attention of your peers.

What you'll learn

• What editors look for in a great paper
• How to write clearly, develop a great title and abstract, and structure your paper
• How to manage and present your data

Free Sample What makes a great paper?

8 lessons 50m

Free Sample Elements of writing style

6 lessons 25m

Free Sample Titles and abstracts

11 lessons 40m

Free Sample From introduction to conclusion

12 lessons 40m

Free Sample Data management

11 lessons 50m

Free Sample Data presentation

11 lessons 55m

Free Sample Writing a Research Paper: Free Sample

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7 lessons 30m

Start this module

Delivered by Nature Portfolio journal Editors

This course is delivered by 19 Nature Portfolio journal Editors, giving researchers an unparalleled insight into the scientific writing process. Our panel of experts include:

Gemma Alderton

Former Senior Editor, Nature Reviews Cancer

Tanguy Chouard

Senior Editor Biology, Nature

Elisa De Ranieri

Editor in Chief, Nature Communications

Chief Editor, Nature Energy

Zoltan Fehervari

Senior Editor, Nature Immunology

Iulia Georgescu

Chief Editor, Nature Reviews Physics

Peter Gorsuch

Chief Editor, Nature Research Editing Service

Patrick Goymer

Chief Editor, Nature Ecology & Evolution

Andrew Hufton

Chief Editor, Scientific Data

Federico Levi

Senior Editor, Nature Physics

Leonie Mueck

Former Senior Editor Physical Sciences, Nature

Sadaf Shadan

Biological Sciences Team Manager and Senior Editor,  Nature

Anke Sparmann

Senior Editor, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology

Chris Surridge

Chief Editor, Nature Plants

Liesbeth Venema

Chief Editor, Nature Machine Intelligence

Bart Verberck

Regional Executive Editor, Springer Nature

Alexia-Ileana Zaromytidou

Chief Editor, Nature Cell Biology

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The shortness of the videos allows me to fit them in between work and research. This format also meant that I could take in the information bit by bit.. Postdoctoral student, United States

Discover related courses

Publishing a research paper.

Learn about the publication process and the things you need to consider

Writing and Publishing a Review Paper

Prepare yourself to write and publish a great review paper

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• Knowledge Base

Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, September 11). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved June 24, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

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Writing for research

Research preparation is done. the next stage is to start writing "writing for research" is the second stage of your research journey. .

Learn the fundamentals of manuscript preparation and how to write them, including how to structure your article and write a great abstract. 

Complete the topics within "Writing for research" and increase your chances of getting published.

Modules in writing for research.

Generative AI in the Publishing Community

Author policies on the use of Generative AI

Generative AI: Q&A

Generative AI: New policies, opportunities, and risks

The why and how of data visualization

Data visualization and choosing the right plot

Three contexts for data visualisation

The evolution of data visualization

From article to art: Creating visual abstracts - Parts 1 & 2: A Guide to Visual Abstracts

From article to art: Creating visual abstracts - Part 3: Designing

From article to art: creating visual abstracts - part 4: sketching the appropriate visual elements.

Structuring your article correctly

Guide to reference managers: How to effectively manage your references

How to prepare your manuscript

How to write an abstract and improve your article

How to prepare a proposal for a review article

Writing a persuasive cover letter for your manuscript

How to turn your thesis into an article

5 Diseases ailing research – and how to cure them

Using proper manuscript language

10 tips for writing a truly terrible journal article

How to write and review a methods article

How to design effective figures for review articles

How to write for an interdisciplinary audience

An editor’s guide to writing a review article

How to write case reports

Systematic reviews 101

Beginners’ guide to writing a manuscript in LaTeX

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Project: Writing a Research Paper

University of California, Irvine via Coursera Help

Limited-Time Offer: Up to 75% Off Coursera Plus!

• Getting Started
• In this Capstone project, you will combine all of the skills you've learned in the 4 courses of the Academic English: Writing specialization. This week, you will choose an academic topic to research and formulate an effective research question. By the end of this week, you should know your topic and have a rough outline of your research paper.
• Research and Annotated Bibliography
• Last week, you learned about the assignment for this Capstone project, chose a topic, and created an outline. This week, you need to start researching and looking for source material. You will then create an annotated bibliography to submit.
• First Draft and Introduction Paragraph
• This week, you should start your first draft. Try to write several paragraphs including the introduction paragraph, which you should submit for feedback.
• The Rough Draft
• This week, you should continue working on the first draft. Try to have at least four pages written when you submit the rough draft for feedback. Also, include your Works Cited page for feedback.
• Revise and Rewrite
• You're getting near the end. Keep up the good work! This week, you don't have anything to submit. Just keep revising and get that next draft to at least 7 pages. Then revise and revise again.
• The Final Draft
• You're almost finished! In this final week, use the time to revise your research paper and edit it carefully. When you're finished, submit it for grading and review three other learners' papers. Then you'll be done!

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Home > Research Writing Course > 15 Best Research Writing Courses Online in 2024 [Updated]

15 Best Research Writing Courses Online in 2024 [Updated]

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Table of Contents

In simple words, research writing gathers information from several places on a certain topic and brings that in place using a technique. If writing is your passion, research is already an ability you have naturally, but do you have an approach to use that ability in the right way. The most essential part of research writing is that the answer remains the same regardless of the part ‘who your audience is’.

The research writing course provides the necessary skills to grow as a research writer. It helps students develop critical thinking and analyzing methods, where and how to search for relevant data, and how to investigate data, etc.

Here are the 10 best Institutes that provide Research Writing Courses Online:

1. henry harvin – best research writing course.

Henry Harvin Contact No: +91 9891953953  |  Chat on WhatsApp with Henry Harvin

Content Writing Course with Gold Membership

45-min online masterclass with skill certification on completion

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Henry Harvin research course offers you one of the most popular and most in-depth courses. It trains you to become a successful award-winning research writer. The Certified Research Writing (CRW) Course helps bring out the professional and polished researcher inside you. It has been appraised for bringing in the experienced trainer and the teaching methods. Research writing course is completely online and requires no effort to go out of your comfort zone in these tough times. The students have reviewed and rated the research writing course online as 4.8/5.

Key Features of the Research Writing Course:

• Henry Harvin has been ranked one of the best Research Writing Course online in India. It concentrates on imparting the best relevant knowledge to the students by carefully investing its resources and time.
• Henry Harvin is affiliated with the American Association of EFL, UK CERT, UKAF, MSME, and Govt. of India which will be the endorser after the successful completion of the research writing course online.
• Henry Harvin Education gives a 100% money-back guarantee on research writing courses if students are not satisfied after the first session.
• The institution provides 100% practical research training for hands-on experience with projects. The research writing course is based on GCAO Pedagogy.
• Henry Harvin is a trusted brand for leading corporates and colleges, such as Abbott Pharma, Avon cosmetics, Hostbooks, NTPC, SAB Miller, Apollo Tyres, Deloitte, Fidelity Investments, and 12+ IIMs including IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta and &+ IITs including IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi.
• The students will get regular job calls, Interview skills preparation and Career services. It allows an opportunity to be the proud alumni of the esteemed institution and to network with 18000+ Henry Harvin alumni.

Benefits of Enrolling in Certified Research Writing (CRW) course:

• Learn What research writing is and what’s not
• Learn genres of research writing
• Importance of research writing
• Essential ethics of research communicators
• Elements of research terminology
• Be aware of the ethics in scientific communication
• The steps required to have a successful career in research writing

Takeaways of the course

• The study material of the course
• Access to the Learning management system (LMS)
• 1-yr membership of Henry Harvin Content Academy
• CRW certification
• Monthly Brush-up sessions
• Recorded videos of the live sessions
• 100% job placement, project and Internship support exclusively entitled to CRW professionals.
• Hallmark of CRW next to your name.

Modules covered in Certified Research Writing (CRW) course:

Introduction to research writing.

The target audience of this writing, the qualities required to be a research writer, the different types of research, and the relation between Employees and Clients.

How to conduct effective research?

How to conduct research that includes- defining the research questions, gathering information, forming hypotheses, and interpreting the result.

How to conduct a literature search?

Learn literature research, the importance, and the goals of literature research. Equipping with proper use of citation and learn how to scan articles effortlessly.

Creating a Powerful Introduction.

How to make a powerful introduction by understanding writing tips, learning how to write the first draft, the first, second and third paragraph.

Drafting a Methods and Result section

Learn about Drafting A methods, understanding the goals of having methods and result sections, also structuring, and preparing the text following the result section.

Editing and fine-tuning

Get equipped with tips to make research writing perfect, by being clear and concise.

Few more tips

Become equipped with tips for adding a perfectly formatted list of references, proper abstract, and impressive title write-ups.

Henry Harvin Research Writing Course fees:

https://www.henryharvin.com/schedule/research-writing-course

Cities in India where Henry Harvin Research Writing Course is provided:

Mumbai , Bangalore , Pune , Chandigarh , Indore , Cochin

Henry Harvin® Ranks in Top 30 most Trusted Companies by  Insight Success

Henry Harvin also Provides these Courses :

• Adobe Captivate Course
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Also, check this video:

2. Udemy – Best Research Writing Course

There’s a long list of trainers providing research writing online courses on Udemy. Numerous intense research writing courses are available to choose from the pre-recorded sessions. Once enrolled the video lessons are accessible for a lifetime by the students. Trainers from around the globe with high-quality experience are on Udemy as instructors.  The students reviewed the research writing courses with an average of 4.6/5. Before enrolling read the reviews and student testimonials.

Key features of the research writing course on Udemy:

• Personal growth
• On-demand video up to 20 hours
• Flexible timing to study
• No deadline for assignment
• Access to videos on mobile, desktop and TV
• Certificate of completion

Topics covered in Research writing course by Udemy:

• Research writing course introduction.
• Introducing the course, Overview of the research project writing and the research writing basics.
• Beginning of the research journey
• Learn to choose a research topic, develop research questions, understand the research process, and its academic sources.
• Critically evaluate sources
•  Get an understanding of Authority and peer review, examine the accuracy of the arguments, learn to evaluate the source coverage and the sources’ objectivity, consider the currency of the source, and critically evaluate the sources.
• Essay writing

 Gaining knowledge on how to plan the essay, the thesis statement, learn to structure paragraphs, and link sentences.

• Empirical research.
• Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative research, literature review and result, discussion, and conclusion of empirical research (divided into two sections).
• Bibliography and appendices

Writing Bibliography and reference list, learn referencing styles, create footnotes and endnotes, and the appendix.

Fee structure

The highest-rated research writing online course with 4.8 stars/5 costs ₹ 6,400, they have countless flash sales on the Udemy app and website where you can buy this course at much less price, somewhere around ₹ 500- ₹ 1000. Install the Udemy app for notifications on such sales.

There are a few more research writing courses with 4.6 – 4.3 star ratings which will cost between ₹ 4000- ₹ 8000 and there are many similar courses pricing ₹ 2000- ₹ 2500. You can find out these courses on sale as well.

For more details:

Go to www.udemy.com

Download Udemy App on Google Play Store or App store

3. Future Learn

They provide the University of Leicester certified research writing course ‘Discovering Your PhD Potential: Writing a research proposal’. The research writing course online provides you with the perfect college/university environment giving you university professors as trainers. The course has 52 reviews and is ranked 4.8/5. This course is an elaborated version meant for ones who are opting for the candidature in PhD.  The syllabus of the research writing course has been divided into weeks with a total of 5 weeks of course.

Topics covered in the research writing course:

Introduction to the Research Proposal writing

• Discussion on Why do a PhD
• Managing expectations on PhD goals
• Potential problem with PhD applications
• Overcoming potential and possible solutions for PhD problems
• Funding your research
• Midland4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership
• Studentship from EU Funding or other national research funding bodies
• Graduate Research Assistant positions
• Studentship from other funding bodies
• Self- funding ideas

Problem definition and research questions

• Learn research problem to research gap- the deductive approach and inductive approach
• Research utility and its impact
• What is Planning and Referencing tools?
• Introduction to research questions
• Formulating the research questions
• Literature Review
• Learn how to find the right Literature without access to a university
• Pre-publication version of Articles
• Open access journals and how can you access academic literature
• Use Google Scholar to search for ideas
• Organizing and Planning of the literature
• How to write the Literature review

A brief introduction to Research Design

• Learn Research philosophy, design, methodology and ethics
• What is the interrelation between building blocks of research?
• What is Ontology and Epistemology?
• Quantitative and Qualitative research design
• How to use the CRED framework to think through the duties of the researcher
• Outline your overall approach and methodology

Construct the research proposal

• How to build your proposal by selling the topic: the title
• Feedback of the topic and the context
• Methods of building your proposal
• The provisional timetable, its conclusion, and references
• In the end, bring it all together with closing words, recognition, and thanks

Note: – After each week Future Learn has a Review of the week article which comprises the gist of complete weeks discussions.

Fee structure of research writing course online on Future Learn:

• In the free course you will access the modules for 7 weeks.
• You can upgrade this course with ₹3643, get access to this week till it’s available on Future Learn and a Print and Digital certificate of achievement once eligible.
• Get an Unlimited plan worth ₹20,815 with this you get other Future Learn short courses and tests for a year, a certificate of achievement and freedom to avail short courses with flexible time within a year

For more details, log in to www.futurelearn.com

4. Coursera – Best Research Writing Course

It is a 100% online learning platform with numerous writing courses tied up to top global universities such as Stanford and Yale. The research writing course available on course is certified by the University of North Texas, Research Design: Inquiry and Discovery. This course is taught by the best instructor of UNT. The course is rated 4.6/5 stars by 56 students. The course is divided into 4weeks for a total of 9 hours.

Topics covered in Research writing course online by Coursera:

• It focuses on the inquiry process and how that is used as a systematic model in solving problems.

     The total time to complete this module is 3 hours, 7 videos (total 30mins), 13 reading and 1 quiz which is:

• Process of inquiry.
• Inquiry Approaches: Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed methods.
• Inquiry components.
• Inquiry terminology
• It focuses on developing research questions or hypotheses. This process conceptualizes the mental process where vague and imprecise are made more precise.

The total time to complete this module is 2 hours, 3 videos (16mins), 8 readings and 1 quiz which are:

• Introduction Conceptualizing and Operationalizing inquiry process
• Relation between variables
• Questions and Hypotheses
• Looking at essential components of literature review. Its purpose is both to gain a good understanding of the main sources of information concerning a particular topic and to clarify inquiry objectives, hypotheses and/or research questions.  

The total time to complete this module is 2 hours, 3 videos (13mins), 4 readings, 2 quizzes which are:

• What is a Literature review?
• Review of the background, mainly literature and Writing
• Focuses on Sampling and ethical issues encountered with research and importance of reliability and validity.

The total time to complete this module is 2 hours, 3 videos (17mins), 13 readings and 1 quiz which are:

• What is sampling and its importance?
• Basics Statistics concepts
• Creating a Representative sample
• Voluntary Participation giving ‘No Harm’ to Participants

Fee structure of the research writing course online on Course.

• Free enrolment is available for Audit only. You will get access to all the study materials except the graded ones.
•  Paid enrolment provides a certificate that costs ₹ 2,121.

Note: – The course is a part of the bachelor’s degree in Applied Arts and Science at the University of North Texas.

For more details, go to www.coursera.org

Download Coursera App on Google Play Store and App store

5. LinkedIn Learning by Lynda – Best Research Writing Course

LinkedIn Learning is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education. The credits for the course can only be authorised with the acceptance of the State Board. The research writing course online on LinkedIn consists of trials a discount that provides the tips and techniques of Writing a Proposal. It teaches crafting the proposal from scratch.  The instructor will navigate the competitive and sometimes tedious work of writing a proposal. Eventually, write a powerful submission with a higher rate of acceptance.

Topics covered in the research writing course on LinkedIn learning:

• A brief introduction to Proposal writing
• Understanding the Proposal

Reviewing the General Purpose of Request for Proposal (RFP)

Learning Research question

Understanding the time element

How to use charts?

Understanding the reader

• Types of Proposals

External solicited

Internal solicited

External unsolicited

Internal unsolicited

• Responding to an RFP

Following the writing process and its rules

Using the direct approach

• Customizing the proposal

Give complete and precise answers

Using client’s jargons

Construct a reader-friendly design

• What to Include in proposal writing?

Overview of proposal parts

Understanding Prefatory parts and body parts

Understanding Ending parts and Appended parts

• Following up

Taking Initiative

Debrief on the outcome

LinkedIn provides a one-month free trial and then ₹ 1400/month and if you pay annually, they give a discount that costs ₹ 900/month after free trial.

With this subscription, you have unlimited access to their library

LinkedIn Learning certification after completing the course

Interactive learning experience with practice test papers and quizzes

Video accessibility on Tablets and Phones

Apart from the LinkedIn Learning certificate they provide a NASBA certificate if you achieve 70% is the exam

Additionally, LinkedIn provides access as LinkedIn premium members after subscription

For more details, go to www.linkedin.com/learning

Download LinkedIn App from Google Play Store or App store

Contact No: 011-24126418

It is a 100% online programme initiated by Govt. of India affiliated with AICTE. This initiative is to take the best teaching and learning resources to everyone including the most disadvantaged. The course is delivered free of cost however the learners who want a certificate will have to register for a proctored exam which comes at a fee and must attend in-person designated centres on specified dates. The universities which approve of credit transfer can use these marks/ certificates obtained in the course.

Duration – 8 weeks

Crafted for: Postgraduate and above

Topics covered in research writing course online by Swayam:

Week 1: A group discussion and overview of the research

Week 2: Discussion on literature survey and experimental skills

Week 3: Learn Data Analysis and Modelling

Week 4: Understanding creativity in Research with Technical writing and presentations

Week 5: A group discussion on Research ethics

Week 6: Understanding design of experiments

Week 7: Know about Intellectual Property

Week 8: Department-specific research discussions

For more details: www.swayam.gov.in

7. Elevate Academy

Contact No: +91 6364422707

This is an international academy, 100% online platform. They provide learning solutions to Health and Life sciences. The research writing course is on Introduction to Research Ethics specified in the healthcare sector. This course does not require you to be a part of the healthcare industry it just needs students with a bachelor’s degree and sufficient proficiency in verbal and written English.

Topics covered in research writing online course:

• A brief introduction to Research Ethics
• Informed consent and the ethics of randomized clinical traits
• Role of ethics committees and Risk-benefit assessments
• Discussion on Scientific Integrity
• Participants in Developing countries and children: Vulnerable groups
• Biobanks, stem cells and Genetic research ethics

Fee structure and takeaways from the research writing course on Elevate Academy:

The Research ethics course costs ₹ 38,371/-

The duration of the course is a total of 6 weeks and 7 hours/ week

Academic certificate is provided after successful completion

For more details, go to elevatehealth.eu/courses

8. California Institute of Behavioural Neurosciences and Psychology

Contact No: +1 707-999-1268

CIBNP has few short courses and research proposal writing. This course is taught by a TEDx speaker and an accomplished expert in the field of Psychology.  The course is 100% online and completely pre-recorded. The study materials or videos are available to access right after enrolling.

The total duration of the Research writing course: 50 hours

Topics covered in the research writing course by CIBNP:

• What is a Research proposal and why do you write it?
• Who writes the proposal and its rules?
• Techniques and secrets of writing attractive Research proposals
• Steps and structure of Proposal writing
• The time and budgeting

Fee structure and benefits:

This whole course costs ₹3643/-.

 Flexible hours to access

Certificate after completion

For more details, go to www.cibnp.com/courses

9. Candid Learning

Candid is an international platform for online training. The Proposal writing course is an on-demand self-paced course. The accessibility of this course is for three months after the date of purchase.

Topics covered in the research writing course online by Candid Learning:

• The Statement of Need- What is it, describing the need and documenting the facts
• Learn goals and outcomes of the given project
• Evaluating success and the sustainability questions
• Proposal Conclusion and Budget review
• Course recap

The self-paced which costs ₹16727/- is available at a discounted rate of ₹ 14868/- due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Learn how to turn your Proposal into a Letter of Inquiry (LoI)

Provides worksheets for writing your proposals

For more details, learning.candid.org/

The courses are affiliated with various renowned global universities. The research writing course online on EdX is named Quantitative and Qualitative Research for Beginners and is affiliated with the National University of Singapore (NUS). It is an introduction to the basics of research methods and provides both theoretical and practical information for students to research at a wide range of disciplines.

The total estimated time of the course is 8 weeks, 1-2 hours per week.

Topics covered in the research writing course online by EdX:

• Foundations of Knowledge production
• Quantitative and Qualitative Research
• Mixed Methods
• Conducting Literature Review
• Formulating Qualitative and Quantitative Research Questions
• Ethical considerations
• Writing Literature Review
• Qualitative Research (Part 1)
• Qualitative Research (Part 2)
• Quantitative Research (Part 1)
• Quantitative Research (Part 2)
• Quantitative Research (Part 3)
• Mixed methods
• Writing Research Papers using Reporting Guidelines

Fee Structure

It is a self-paced course, flexible timing

Audit track is free of cost and the course material is available for 2 months from the date of enrolment

Verified Track costs ₹7363 and have unlimited access to the course materials. In this track, you receive a certificate of completion and graded assignment and tests.

For more details, go to www.edx.org 

11. Blue Dots Consultancy

Contact No: 099001 71161

Blue Dots Consultancy is an education and training company headquartered in Bangalore. It’s the best for Academic Research writing course. Moreover, it offers a customised, result-driven Research paper writing course. The curriculum employs onsite, virtual, and offshore methodologies.

In addition to theoretical understanding, they provide practical expertise using Adobe Framemaker, Madcap Flare, Jira, DITA, and other technologies. In addition, this coaching is followed by evaluations of exercises and projects.

The most esteemed industry experts deliver the industry-specific bespoke curriculum. Thus, with over 2,000 students, they have a substantial student body. As for the likely placement, the cell increases its popularity among applicants. Regarding this, you can anticipate placements based on merit.

12. Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL)

Contact No: +91-20 2521 1111

Since its inception in 2001, SCDL has endeavoured to become India’s premier autonomous distance education institute. For almost two decades, SDLC has worked diligently to provide young hopefuls with an excellent education.

SCDL offers Postgraduate Diploma in Research paper writing course to meet technical communication specialists’ demands. This AICTE-approved course on Research paper writing has everything you need to become a writer. However, they train students to become influential technical writers to fulfil the field’s requirements. This training provides significant professional opportunities for technical writers, business writers, etc. Regarding eligibility requirements, any graduate or student awaiting final-year results may apply for this course. In terms of duration, the program spans two years. The two-tiered course consists of four semesters.

13. British Council

Contact No: 0120 456 9000

The British Council is a global organisation that bridges the gap between language and culture. They provide various training and  Research paper writing course to ambitious applicants to validate their professional prospects.

Regarding the Academic Research writing course, they provide short-term programs. The Academic Research writing course is one of several courses created for professionals, such as doctors. Consequently, they are another famous provider of courses in Research paper writing course in India.

Before entering the course overview, you should be aware of the following course benefit: 

• Be capable of producing diverse Research paper documentation
• Preparing Academic Research papers for the audience

14. Skillshare

Skillshare is a web-based learning community with several classes for creative and interested individuals. In 2010, two digital world professionals, Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong founded the company in New York. It focuses on creative professionals and entrepreneurs and is one of the most well-known e-learning sites.

The majority of Skillshare’s classes are free. Approximately 10% of the courses are accessible for free. The course on Research paper writing is highly reasonably priced.

Skillshare offers a one-month free trial to explore its Research paper writing course. Skillshare features a vast user community to make classes more enjoyable and participatory.

This Academic Research writing course from Skillshare contains lectures, course notes, and quizzes that will help you advance your academic writing.

Contact No: 020 8743 8000

Since 1943, as a division of the BBC World Service, BBC Learning English has provided free audio, video, and text materials to students worldwide, teaching English as a foreign language.

It emphasises developing a Research paper writing course to upskill the students. The length of this course is ten weeks. They will present a variety of Academic Research writing course assignments and assist you in developing your English language skills.

There are eight modules for academic writing, including academic terminology, paragraph writing, the language of argument, written assignments, citation skills, essay structure, criticism and evaluation, discussion forums, project presentations, and registering for exams. The majority of their content is presented as full-length courses. Each course component is distinct and can be studied independently.

Conclusion:

The research writing helps in build academic as well as professional profiles and adds credibility to the writer. This helps you gather in-depth insights into the subject matter. As everything is digitised and the risk of going out is high, online platforms for education have become the major area. The writers are high in demand and research skills is the basic and most valuable skill required as a writer. Be it for Proposal writing or Market research writing gaining knowledge is never a harm.

• For More Relevant Articles: Content Writing Course Reviews in India

What is research writing

Recommended Reads:

• Medical Writing Courses Online
• Technical Writing Course in Bangalore
• Copywriting Courses in India
• Content Writing Topics
• Content Writing Books in 2022

FAQ’s:

Q. 1 Why is research important in writing?

Ans. Writing needs, a thorough knowledge of the matter, its history and background. Only after gathering enough information, one can start writing a good piece on a specific topic.

Q. 2 Why should I take a research writing course?

Ans. Taking a research writing course enhances writing skills. It makes us understand how to add citation, source and reference to a written piece and not get caught into legal issues.

Q.3 How do I attend classes if I am in another city, or I am unavailable for class in a given time slot?

Ans. Research writing courses are 100% online and there are options for the self-paced courses and access pre-recorded videos to give you flexible timings.

Q.4 Where can I share my certificate?

Ans. You can share your certificate on different social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn and let your peers and employers know about your new gained skill.

Q.5 Does research writing have better career scope?

Ans. In today’s time and age, every form of writing especially research writing has gained huge importance. With long term experience, it becomes a very high paying jo

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The Science of Strong Business Writing

• Bill Birchard

Lessons from neurobiology

Brain scans are showing us in new detail exactly what entices readers. Scientists can see a group of midbrain neurons—the “reward circuit”—light up as people respond to everything from a simple metaphor to an unexpected story twist. The big takeaway? Whether you’re crafting an email to a colleague or an important report for the board, you can write in a way that delights readers on a primal level, releasing pleasure chemicals in their brains.

Bill Birchard is an author and writing coach who’s worked with many successful businesspeople. He’s drawn on that experience and his review of the scientific literature to identify eight features of satisfying writing: simplicity, specificity, surprise, stirring language, seductiveness, smart ideas, social content, and storytelling. In this article, he shares tips for using those eight S’s to captivate readers and help your message stick.

Strong writing skills are essential for anyone in business. You need them to effectively communicate with colleagues, employees, and bosses and to sell any ideas, products, or services you’re offering.

• Bill Birchard is a business author and book-writing coach. His Writing for Impact: 8 Secrets from Science That Will Fire Up Your Reader’s Brain will be published by HarperCollins Leadership in April 2023. His previous books include Merchants of Virtue, Stairway to Earth, Nature’s Keepers, Counting What Counts, and others. For more writing tactics, see his website .  

Partner Center

Fall 2024 Semester

Undergraduate courses.

Composition courses that offer many sections (ENGL 101, 201, 277 and 379) are not listed on this schedule unless they are tailored to specific thematic content or particularly appropriate for specific programs and majors.

• 100-200 level

ENGL 151.S01: Introduction to English Studies

Tuesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Sharon Smith

ENGL 151 serves as an introduction to both the English major and the discipline of English studies. In this class, you will develop the thinking, reading, writing and research practices that define both the major and the discipline. Much of the semester will be devoted to honing your literary analysis skills, and we will study and discuss texts from several different genres—poetry, short fiction, the novel, drama and film—as well as some literary criticism. As we do so, we will explore the language of the discipline, and you will learn a variety of key literary terms and concepts. In addition, you will develop your skills as both a writer and researcher within the discipline of English.

ENGL 201.ST1 Composition II: The Mind/Body Connection

In this section of English 201, students will use research and writing to learn more about problems that are important to them and articulate ways to address those problems. The course will focus specifically on issues related to the mind, the body and the relationship between them. The topics we will discuss during the course will include the correlation between social media and body image; the efficacy of sex education programs; the degree to which beliefs about race and gender influence school dress codes; and the unique mental and physical challenges faced by college students today. In this course, you will be learning about different approaches to argumentation, analyzing the arguments of others and constructing your own arguments. At the same time, you will be honing your skills as a researcher and developing your abilities as a persuasive and effective writer.

ENGL 201.S10 Composition II: Environmental Writing   

Monday/Wednesday/Friday 1-1:50 p.m.

Gwen Horsley

English 201 will help students develop the ability to think critically and analytically and to write effectively for other university courses and careers. This course will provide opportunities to develop analytical skills that will help students become critical readers and effective writers. Specifically, in this class, students will:

• Focus on the relationships between world environments, land, animals and humankind.
• Read various essays by environmental, conservational and regional authors.
• Produce student writings. 

Students will improve their writing skills by reading essays and applying techniques they witness in others’ work and those learned in class. This class is also a course in logical and creative thought. Students will write about humankind’s place in the world and our influence on the land and animals, places that hold special meaning to them or have influenced their lives and stories of their own families and their places and passions in the world. Students will practice writing in an informed and persuasive manner, in language that engages and enlivens readers by using vivid verbs and avoiding unnecessary passives, nominalizations and expletive constructions.

Students will prepare writing assignments based on readings and discussions of essays included in "Literature and the Environment " and other sources. They may use "The St. Martin’s Handbook," as well as other sources, to review grammar, punctuation, mechanics and usage as needed.

ENGL 201.13 Composition II: Writing the Environment

Tuesday and Thursday 9:30-10:45 a.m.

Paul Baggett

For generations, environmentalists have relied on the power of prose to change the minds and habits of their contemporaries. In the wake of fires, floods, storms and droughts, environmental writing has gained a new sense of urgency, with authors joining activists in their efforts to educate the public about the grim realities of climate change. But do they make a difference? Have reports of present and future disasters so saturated our airwaves that we no longer hear them? How do writers make us care about the planet amidst all the noise? In this course, students will examine the various rhetorical strategies employed by some of today’s leading environmental writers and filmmakers. And while analyzing their different arguments, students also will strengthen their own strategies of argumentation as they research and develop essays that explore a range of environmental concerns.

ENGL 201 Composition II: Food Writing

S17 Tuesday and Thursday 12:30-1:45 p.m.

S18 Tuesday and Thursday 2-3:15 p.m.

Jodi Andrews

In this composition class, students will critically analyze essays about food, food systems and environments, food cultures, the intersections of personal choice, market forces and policy and the values underneath these forces. Students will learn to better read like writers, noting authors’ purpose, audience organizational moves, sentence-level punctuation and diction. We will read a variety of essays including research-intensive arguments and personal narratives which intersect with one of our most primal needs as humans: food consumption. Students will rhetorically analyze texts, conduct advanced research, reflect on the writing process and write essays utilizing intentional rhetorical strategies. Through doing this work, students will practice the writing moves valued in every discipline: argument, evidence, concision, engaging prose and the essential research skills for the 21st century.

ENGL 221.S01 British Literature I

Michael S. Nagy

English 221 is a survey of early British literature from its inception in the Old English period with works such as "Beowulf" and the “Battle of Maldon,” through the Middle Ages and the incomparable writings of Geoffrey Chaucer and the Gawain - poet, to the Renaissance and beyond. Students will explore the historical and cultural contexts in which all assigned reading materials were written, and they will bring that information to bear on class discussion. Likely themes that this class will cover include heroism, humor, honor, religion, heresy and moral relativity. Students will write one research paper in this class and sit for two formal exams: a midterm covering everything up to that point in the semester, and a comprehensive final. Probable texts include the following:

• The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages. Ed. Alfred David, M. H. Abrams, and Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
• The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Sixteenth Century and Early Seventeenth Century. Ed. George M. Logan, Stephen Greenblatt, Barbara K Lewalski, and M. H. Abrams. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
• The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Ed. George M. Logan, Stephen Greenblatt, Barbara K Lewalski, and M. H. Abrams. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
• Gibaldi, Joseph. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
• Any Standard College Dictionary.

ENGL 240.S01 Juvenile Literature Elementary-5th Grade

Monday, Wednesday and Friday noon-12:50 p.m.

April Myrick

A survey of the history of literature written for children and adolescents, and a consideration of the various types of juvenile literature. Text selection will focus on the themes of imagination and breaking boundaries.

ENGL 240.ST1 Juvenile Literature Elementary-5th Grade

Randi Anderson

In English 240 students will develop the skills to interpret and evaluate various genres of literature for juvenile readers. This particular section will focus on various works of literature at approximately the K-5 grade level. We will read a large range of works that fall into this category, as well as information on the history, development and genre of juvenile literature.

Readings for this course include classical works such as "Hatchet," "Little Women", "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Brown Girl Dreaming," as well as newer works like "Storm in the Barn," "Anne Frank’s Diary: A Graphic Adaptation," "Lumberjanes," and a variety of picture books. These readings will be paired with chapters from "Reading Children’s Literature: A Critical Introduction " to help develop understanding of various genres, themes and concepts that are both related to juvenile literature and also present in our readings.

In addition to exposing students to various genres of writing (poetry, historical fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, picture books, graphic novels, etc.) this course will also allow students to engage in a discussion of larger themes present in these works such as censorship, race and gender. Students’ understanding of these works and concepts will be developed through readings, research, discussion posts, exams and writing assignments designed to get students to practice analyzing poetry, picture books, informational books and transitional/easy readers.

ENGL 241.S01: American Literature I

Tuesday and Thursday 12:30-1:45 p.m.

This course provides a broad, historical survey of American literature from the early colonial period to the Civil War. Ranging across historical periods and literary genres—including early accounts of contact and discovery, narratives of captivity and slavery, poetry of revolution, essays on gender equality and stories of industrial exploitation—this class examines how subjects such as colonialism, nationhood, religion, slavery, westward expansion, race, gender and democracy continue to influence how Americans see themselves and their society.

Required Texts

• The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Package 1, Volumes A and B Beginnings to 1865, Ninth Edition. (ISBN 978-0-393-26454-8)

ENGL 283.S01 Introduction to Creative Writing

Steven Wingate

Students will explore the various forms of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction and poetry) not one at a time in a survey format—as if there were decisive walls of separation between then—but as intensely related genres that share much of their creative DNA. Through close reading and work on personal texts, students will address the decisions that writers in any genre must face on voice, rhetorical position, relationship to audience, etc. Students will produce and revise portfolios of original creative work developed from prompts and research. This course fulfills the same SGR #2 requirements ENGL 201; note that the course will involve a research project. Successful completion of ENGL 101 (including by test or dual credit) is a prerequisite.

ENGL 283.S02 Introduction to Creative Writing

Jodilyn Andrews

This course introduces students to the craft of writing, with readings and practice in at least two genres (including fiction, poetry and drama).

ENGL 283.ST1 Introduction to Creative Writing

Amber Jensen, M.A., M.F.A.

This course explores creative writing as a way of encountering the world, research as a component of the creative writing process, elements of craft and their rhetorical effect and drafting, workshop and revision as integral parts of writing polished literary creative work. Student writers will engage in the research practices that inform the writing of literature and in the composing strategies and writing process writers use to create literary texts. Through their reading and writing of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, students will learn about craft elements, find examples of those craft elements in published works and apply these elements in their own creative work, developed through weekly writing activities, small group and large group workshop and conferences with the instructor. Work will be submitted, along with a learning reflection and revision plan in each genre and will then be revised and submitted as a final portfolio at the end of the semester to demonstrate continued growth in the creation of polished literary writing.

• 300-400 level

ENGL 424.S01 Language Arts Methods grades 7-12  

Tuesday 6-8:50 p.m.

Danielle Harms

Techniques, materials and resources for teaching English language and literature to middle and secondary school students. Required of students in the English education option.

AIS/ENGL 447.S01: American Indian Literature of the Present 

Thursdays 3-6 p.m.

This course introduces students to contemporary works by authors from various Indigenous nations. Students examine these works to enhance their historical understanding of Indigenous peoples, discover the variety of literary forms used by those who identify as Indigenous writers, and consider the cultural and political significance of these varieties of expression. Topics and questions to be explored include:

• Genre: What makes Indigenous literature indigenous?
• Political and Cultural Sovereignty: Why have an emphasis on tribal specificity and calls for “literary separatism” emerged in recent decades, and what are some of the critical conversations surrounding such particularized perspectives?
• Gender and Sexuality: What are the intersecting concerns of Indigenous Studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and how might these research fields inform one another?
• Trans-Indigeneity: What might we learn by comparing works across different Indigenous traditions, and what challenges do such comparisons present?
• Aesthetics: How do Indigenous writers understand the dynamics between tradition and creativity?
• Visual Forms: What questions or concerns do visual representations (television and film) by or about Indigenous peoples present?

Possible Texts

• Akiwenzie-Damm, Kateri and Josie Douglas (eds), Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing. IAD Press, 2000. (978-1864650327)
• Erdrich, Louise, The Sentence. Harper, 2021 (978-0062671127)
• Harjo, Joy, Poet Warrior: A Memoir. Norton, 2021 (978-0393248524)
• Harjo, Sterlin and Taika Waititi, Reservation Dogs (selected episodes)
• Talty, Morgan. Night of the Living Rez, 2022, Tin House (978-1953534187)
• Wall Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweet Grass, Milkweed Editions (978-1571313560)
• Wilson, Diane. The Seed Keeper: A Novel. Milkweed Editions (978-1571311375)
• Critical essays by Alexie, Allen, Cohen, Cox, King, Kroeber, Ortiz, Piatote, Ross and Sexton, Smith, Taylor, Teuton, Treuer, Vizenor, and Womack.

ENGL 472.S01: Film Criticism

Tuesdays 2-4:50 p.m.

Jason McEntee

Do you have an appreciation for, and enjoy watching, movies? Do you want to study movies in a genre-oriented format (such as those we typically call the Western, the screwball comedy, the science fiction or the crime/gangster, to name a few)? Do you want to explore the different critical approaches for talking and writing about movies (such as auteur, feminist, genre or reception)?

In this class, you will examine movies through viewing and defining different genres while, at the same time, studying and utilizing different styles of film criticism. You will share your discoveries in both class discussions and short writings. The final project will be a formal written piece of film criticism based on our work throughout the semester. The course satisfies requirements and electives for all English majors and minors, including both the Film Studies and Professional Writing minors. (Note: Viewing of movies outside of class required and may require rental and/or streaming service fees.)

ENGL 476.ST1: Fiction

In this workshop-based creative writing course, students will develop original fiction based on strong attention to the fundamentals of literary storytelling: full-bodied characters, robust story lines, palpable environments and unique voices. We will pay particular attention to process awareness, to the integrity of the sentence, and to authors' commitments to their characters and the places in which their stories unfold. Some workshop experience is helpful, as student peer critique will be an important element of the class.

ENGL 479.01 Capstone: The Gothic

Wednesday 3-5:50 p.m.

With the publication of Horace Walpole’s "The Castle of Otranto " in 1764, the Gothic officially came into being. Dark tales of physical violence and psychological terror, the Gothic incorporates elements such as distressed heroes and heroines pursued by tyrannical villains; gloomy estates with dark corridors, secret passageways and mysterious chambers; haunting dreams, troubling prophecies and disturbing premonitions; abduction, imprisonment and murder; and a varied assortment of corpses, apparitions and “monsters.” In this course, we will trace the development of Gothic literature—and some film—from the eighteenth-century to the present time. As we do so, we will consider how the Gothic engages philosophical beliefs about the beautiful and sublime; shapes psychological understandings of human beings’ encounters with horror, terror, the fantastic and the uncanny; and intervenes in the social and historical contexts in which it was written. We’ll consider, for example, how the Gothic undermines ideals related to domesticity and marriage through representations of domestic abuse, toxicity and gaslighting. In addition, we’ll discuss Gothic texts that center the injustices of slavery and racism. As many Gothic texts suggest, the true horrors of human existence often have less to do with inexplicable supernatural phenomena than with the realities of the world in which we live. 

ENGL 485.S01: Undergraduate Writing Center Learning Assistants 

Flexible Scheduling

Nathan Serfling

Since their beginnings in the 1920s and 30s, writing centers have come to serve numerous functions: as hubs for writing across the curriculum initiatives, sites to develop and deliver workshops and resource centers for faculty as well as students, among other functions. But the primary function of writing centers has necessarily and rightfully remained the tutoring of student writers. This course will immerse you in that function in two parts. During the first four weeks, you will explore writing center praxis—that is, the dialogic interplay of theory and practice related to writing center work. This part of the course will orient you to writing center history, key theoretical tenets and practical aspects of writing center tutoring. Once we have developed and practiced this foundation, you will begin work in the writing center as a tutor, responsible for assisting a wide variety of student clients with numerous writing tasks. Through this work, you will learn to actively engage with student clients in the revision of a text, respond to different student needs and abilities, work with a variety of writing tasks and rhetorical situations, and develop a richer sense of writing as a complex and negotiated social process.

Graduate Courses

Engl 572.s01: film criticism, engl 576.st1 fiction.

In this workshop-based creative writing course, students will develop original fiction based on strong attention to the fundamentals of literary storytelling: full-bodied characters, robust story lines, palpable environments and unique voices. We will pay particular attention to process awareness, to the integrity of the sentence and to authors' commitments to their characters and the places in which their stories unfold. Some workshop experience is helpful, as student peer critique will be an important element of the class.

ENGL 605.S01 Seminar in Teaching Composition

Thursdays 1-3:50 p.m.

This course will provide you with a foundation in the pedagogies and theories (and their attendant histories) of writing instruction, a foundation that will prepare you to teach your own writing courses at SDSU and elsewhere. As you will discover through our course, though, writing instruction does not come with any prescribed set of “best” practices. Rather, writing pedagogies stem from and continue to evolve because of various and largely unsettled conversations about what constitutes effective writing and effective writing instruction. Part of becoming a practicing writing instructor, then, is studying these conversations to develop a sense of what “good writing” and “effective writing instruction” might mean for you in our particular program and how you might adapt that understanding to different programs and contexts.

As we read about, discuss and research writing instruction, we will address a variety of practical and theoretical topics. The practical focus will allow us to attend to topics relevant to your immediate classroom practices: designing a curriculum and various types of assignments, delivering the course content and assessing student work, among others. Our theoretical topics will begin to reveal the underpinnings of these various practical matters, including their historical, rhetorical, social and political contexts. In other words, we will investigate the praxis—the dialogic interaction of practice and theory—of writing pedagogy. As a result, this course aims to prepare you not only as a writing teacher but also as a nascent writing studies/writing pedagogy scholar.

At the end of this course, you should be able to engage effectively in the classroom practices described above and participate in academic conversations about writing pedagogy, both orally and in writing. Assessment of these outcomes will be based primarily on the various writing assignments you submit and to a smaller degree on your participation in class discussions and activities.

ENGL 726.S01: The New Woman, 1880–1900s 

Thursdays 3–5:50 p.m.

Katherine Malone

This course explores the rise of the New Woman at the end of the nineteenth century. The label New Woman referred to independent women who rebelled against social conventions. Often depicted riding bicycles, smoking cigarettes and wearing masculine clothing, these early feminists challenged gender roles and sought broader opportunities for women’s employment and self-determination. We will read provocative fiction and nonfiction by New Women writers and their critics, including authors such as Sarah Grand, Mona Caird, George Egerton, Amy Levy, Ella Hepworth Dixon, Grant Allen and George Gissing. We will analyze these exciting texts through a range of critical lenses and within the historical context of imperialism, scientific and technological innovation, the growth of the periodical press and discourse about race, class and gender. In addition to writing an argumentative seminar paper, students will complete short research assignments and lead discussion.

ENGL 792.ST1 Women in War: Female Authors and Characters in Contemporary War Lit

In this course, we will explore the voices of female authors and characters in contemporary literature of war. Drawing from various literary theories, our readings and discussion will explore the contributions of these voices to the evolving literature of war through archetypal and feminist criticism. We will read a variety of short works (both theoretical and creative) and complete works such as (selections subject to change): "Eyes Right" by Tracy Crow, "Plenty of Time When We Get Home" by Kayla Williams, "You Know When the Men are Gone" by Siobhan Fallon, "Still, Come Home" by Katie Schultz and "The Fine Art of Camouflage" by Lauren Johnson.

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Introducing Apple’s On-Device and Server Foundation Models

At the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference , we introduced Apple Intelligence, a personal intelligence system integrated deeply into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

Apple Intelligence is comprised of multiple highly-capable generative models that are specialized for our users’ everyday tasks, and can adapt on the fly for their current activity. The foundation models built into Apple Intelligence have been fine-tuned for user experiences such as writing and refining text, prioritizing and summarizing notifications, creating playful images for conversations with family and friends, and taking in-app actions to simplify interactions across apps.

In the following overview, we will detail how two of these models — a ~3 billion parameter on-device language model, and a larger server-based language model available with Private Cloud Compute and running on Apple silicon servers — have been built and adapted to perform specialized tasks efficiently, accurately, and responsibly. These two foundation models are part of a larger family of generative models created by Apple to support users and developers; this includes a coding model to build intelligence into Xcode, as well as a diffusion model to help users express themselves visually, for example, in the Messages app. We look forward to sharing more information soon on this broader set of models.

Our Focus on Responsible AI Development

Apple Intelligence is designed with our core values at every step and built on a foundation of groundbreaking privacy innovations.

Additionally, we have created a set of Responsible AI principles to guide how we develop AI tools, as well as the models that underpin them:

• Empower users with intelligent tools : We identify areas where AI can be used responsibly to create tools for addressing specific user needs. We respect how our users choose to use these tools to accomplish their goals.
• Represent our users : We build deeply personal products with the goal of representing users around the globe authentically. We work continuously to avoid perpetuating stereotypes and systemic biases across our AI tools and models.
• Design with care : We take precautions at every stage of our process, including design, model training, feature development, and quality evaluation to identify how our AI tools may be misused or lead to potential harm. We will continuously and proactively improve our AI tools with the help of user feedback.
• Protect privacy : We protect our users' privacy with powerful on-device processing and groundbreaking infrastructure like Private Cloud Compute. We do not use our users' private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models.

These principles are reflected throughout the architecture that enables Apple Intelligence, connects features and tools with specialized models, and scans inputs and outputs to provide each feature with the information needed to function responsibly.

In the remainder of this overview, we provide details on decisions such as: how we develop models that are highly capable, fast, and power-efficient; how we approach training these models; how our adapters are fine-tuned for specific user needs; and how we evaluate model performance for both helpfulness and unintended harm.

Pre-Training

Our foundation models are trained on Apple's AXLearn framework , an open-source project we released in 2023. It builds on top of JAX and XLA, and allows us to train the models with high efficiency and scalability on various training hardware and cloud platforms, including TPUs and both cloud and on-premise GPUs. We used a combination of data parallelism, tensor parallelism, sequence parallelism, and Fully Sharded Data Parallel (FSDP) to scale training along multiple dimensions such as data, model, and sequence length.

We train our foundation models on licensed data, including data selected to enhance specific features, as well as publicly available data collected by our web-crawler, AppleBot. Web publishers have the option to opt out of the use of their web content for Apple Intelligence training with a data usage control.

We never use our users’ private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models, and we apply filters to remove personally identifiable information like social security and credit card numbers that are publicly available on the Internet. We also filter profanity and other low-quality content to prevent its inclusion in the training corpus. In addition to filtering, we perform data extraction, deduplication, and the application of a model-based classifier to identify high quality documents.

Post-Training

We find that data quality is essential to model success, so we utilize a hybrid data strategy in our training pipeline, incorporating both human-annotated and synthetic data, and conduct thorough data curation and filtering procedures. We have developed two novel algorithms in post-training: (1) a rejection sampling fine-tuning algorithm with teacher committee, and (2) a reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) algorithm with mirror descent policy optimization and a leave-one-out advantage estimator. We find that these two algorithms lead to significant improvement in the model’s instruction-following quality.

Optimization

In addition to ensuring our generative models are highly capable, we have used a range of innovative techniques to optimize them on-device and on our private cloud for speed and efficiency. We have applied an extensive set of optimizations for both first token and extended token inference performance.

Both the on-device and server models use grouped-query-attention. We use shared input and output vocab embedding tables to reduce memory requirements and inference cost. These shared embedding tensors are mapped without duplications. The on-device model uses a vocab size of 49K, while the server model uses a vocab size of 100K, which includes additional language and technical tokens.

For on-device inference, we use low-bit palletization, a critical optimization technique that achieves the necessary memory, power, and performance requirements. To maintain model quality, we developed a new framework using LoRA adapters that incorporates a mixed 2-bit and 4-bit configuration strategy — averaging 3.5 bits-per-weight — to achieve the same accuracy as the uncompressed models.

Additionally, we use an interactive model latency and power analysis tool, Talaria , to better guide the bit rate selection for each operation. We also utilize activation quantization and embedding quantization, and have developed an approach to enable efficient Key-Value (KV) cache update on our neural engines.

With this set of optimizations, on iPhone 15 Pro we are able to reach time-to-first-token latency of about 0.6 millisecond per prompt token, and a generation rate of 30 tokens per second. Notably, this performance is attained before employing token speculation techniques, from which we see further enhancement on the token generation rate.

Model Adaptation

Our foundation models are fine-tuned for users’ everyday activities, and can dynamically specialize themselves on-the-fly for the task at hand. We utilize adapters, small neural network modules that can be plugged into various layers of the pre-trained model, to fine-tune our models for specific tasks. For our models we adapt the attention matrices, the attention projection matrix, and the fully connected layers in the point-wise feedforward networks for a suitable set of the decoding layers of the transformer architecture.

By fine-tuning only the adapter layers, the original parameters of the base pre-trained model remain unchanged, preserving the general knowledge of the model while tailoring the adapter layers to support specific tasks.

We represent the values of the adapter parameters using 16 bits, and for the ~3 billion parameter on-device model, the parameters for a rank 16 adapter typically require 10s of megabytes. The adapter models can be dynamically loaded, temporarily cached in memory, and swapped — giving our foundation model the ability to specialize itself on the fly for the task at hand while efficiently managing memory and guaranteeing the operating system's responsiveness.

To facilitate the training of the adapters, we created an efficient infrastructure that allows us to rapidly retrain, test, and deploy adapters when either the base model or the training data gets updated. The adapter parameters are initialized using the accuracy-recovery adapter introduced in the Optimization section.

Performance and Evaluation

Our focus is on delivering generative models that can enable users to communicate, work, express themselves, and get things done across their Apple products. When benchmarking our models, we focus on human evaluation as we find that these results are highly correlated to user experience in our products. We conducted performance evaluations on both feature-specific adapters and the foundation models.

To illustrate our approach, we look at how we evaluated our adapter for summarization. As product requirements for summaries of emails and notifications differ in subtle but important ways, we fine-tune accuracy-recovery low-rank (LoRA) adapters on top of the palletized model to meet these specific requirements. Our training data is based on synthetic summaries generated from bigger server models, filtered by a rejection sampling strategy that keeps only the high quality summaries.

To evaluate the product-specific summarization, we use a set of 750 responses carefully sampled for each use case. These evaluation datasets emphasize a diverse set of inputs that our product features are likely to face in production, and include a stratified mixture of single and stacked documents of varying content types and lengths. As product features, it was important to evaluate performance against datasets that are representative of real use cases. We find that our models with adapters generate better summaries than a comparable model.

As part of responsible development, we identified and evaluated specific risks inherent to summarization. For example, summaries occasionally remove important nuance or other details in ways that are undesirable. However, we found that the summarization adapter did not amplify sensitive content in over 99% of targeted adversarial examples. We continue to adversarially probe to identify unknown harms and expand our evaluations to help guide further improvements.

In addition to evaluating feature specific performance powered by foundation models and adapters, we evaluate both the on-device and server-based models’ general capabilities. We utilize a comprehensive evaluation set of real-world prompts to test the general model capabilities. These prompts are diverse across different difficulty levels and cover major categories such as brainstorming, classification, closed question answering, coding, extraction, mathematical reasoning, open question answering, rewriting, safety, summarization, and writing.

We compare our models with both open-source models (Phi-3, Gemma, Mistral, DBRX) and commercial models of comparable size (GPT-3.5-Turbo, GPT-4-Turbo) 1 . We find that our models are preferred by human graders over most comparable competitor models. On this benchmark, our on-device model, with ~3B parameters, outperforms larger models including Phi-3-mini, Mistral-7B, and Gemma-7B. Our server model compares favorably to DBRX-Instruct, Mixtral-8x22B, and GPT-3.5-Turbo while being highly efficient.

We use a set of diverse adversarial prompts to test the model performance on harmful content, sensitive topics, and factuality. We measure the violation rates of each model as evaluated by human graders on this evaluation set, with a lower number being desirable. Both the on-device and server models are robust when faced with adversarial prompts, achieving violation rates lower than open-source and commercial models.

Our models are preferred by human graders as safe and helpful over competitor models for these prompts. However, considering the broad capabilities of large language models, we understand the limitation of our safety benchmark. We are actively conducting both manual and automatic red-teaming with internal and external teams to continue evaluating our models' safety.

To further evaluate our models, we use the Instruction-Following Eval (IFEval) benchmark to compare their instruction-following capabilities with models of comparable size. The results suggest that both our on-device and server model follow detailed instructions better than the open-source and commercial models of comparable size.

We evaluate our models’ writing ability on our internal summarization and composition benchmarks, consisting of a variety of writing instructions. These results do not refer to our feature-specific adapter for summarization (seen in Figure 3 ), nor do we have an adapter focused on composition.

The Apple foundation models and adapters introduced at WWDC24 underlie Apple Intelligence, the new personal intelligence system that is integrated deeply into iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and enables powerful capabilities across language, images, actions, and personal context. Our models have been created with the purpose of helping users do everyday activities across their Apple products, and developed responsibly at every stage and guided by Apple’s core values. We look forward to sharing more information soon on our broader family of generative models, including language, diffusion, and coding models.

[1] We compared against the following model versions: gpt-3.5-turbo-0125, gpt-4-0125-preview, Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct, Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.2, Mixtral-8x22B-Instruct-v0.1, Gemma-1.1-2B, and Gemma-1.1-7B. The open-source and Apple models are evaluated in bfloat16 precision.

Related readings and updates.

Advancing speech accessibility with personal voice.

A voice replicator is a powerful tool for people at risk of losing their ability to speak, including those with a recent diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or other conditions that can progressively impact speaking ability. First introduced in May 2023 and made available on iOS 17 in September 2023, Personal Voice is a tool that creates a synthesized voice for such users to speak in FaceTime, phone calls, assistive communication apps, and in-person conversations.

Apple Natural Language Understanding Workshop 2023

Earlier this year, Apple hosted the Natural Language Understanding workshop. This two-day hybrid event brought together Apple and members of the academic research community for talks and discussions on the state of the art in natural language understanding.

In this post, we share highlights from workshop discussions and recordings of select workshop talks.

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