Welcome!

Welcome to “Writing and Editing: Structure and Organization,” the second course in the four-course Good with Words: Writing and Editing specialization. The sections below are designed to give you a general sense of what to expect in terms of participation, academic honesty, and other important aspects of the course.

Participation Strategies

Engaged learning looks different for everybody. In this course, we hope you will define your own measures of success and engage with the material in a way that best suits your needs.

We recognize and celebrate the diverse ways learners engage in courses. As you go through this course, we hope you will reflect on your unique skills, needs, and aspirations, and engage in the course material in a way that aligns with your own goals. While the course provides time estimates for completion, you should feel empowered to engage in the material in whatever ways make sense to you.

Community Engagement

We expect everyone to be mindful of what they say and its potential impact on others. The goal is to have respectful discussions that do not violate the community space created for these conversations. Here are some productive ways to engage in this course:

• Participate: This is a community. Read what others have written and share your thoughts.

• Stay curious: Learn from experts and each other by listening and asking questions, not making assumptions.

• Keep your passion positive: When replying to a discussion forum post, respond with thoughts on what was said, not about the person who posted. Avoid using all caps, too many exclamation points, or aggressive language.

• Acknowledge discomfort: The topics discussed in this course might be challenging or hard to talk about. Stick with it and remember the benefits of having these tough conversations that surface from multiple perspectives.

We expect all learners to abide by our full Learner Engagement Policy . We will specifically be monitoring this course for language that could be considered inflammatory, incivil, racist, or otherwise unacceptable for this learning space, and we will remove language deemed such.

Note regarding “study groups” outside of the platform : While learners are encouraged to interact with one another using communication tools offered within the learning platform, note that any study groups formed outside of this platform, such as over social media or communication applications and websites (e.g., WhatsApp) are not affiliated, endorsed, or moderated by the University of Michigan. If you receive an invitation to an outside study group mentioning the course and claiming to have any official connection to U-M or individual instructors, please exercise caution as this may be an attempted scam.

Academic Honesty

All submitted work should be your own and academic dishonesty is not allowed. Academic dishonesty can be defined as:

• Copying words, ideas, or other materials from another source without giving credit to the original author

• Copying answers or copying from your peers within the course

• Employing or allowing another person to alter or revise your work, and then submitting the work as your own

• Using Artificial Intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT, to create or edit your work and submitting that work as your own, unless you were instructed to use AI as part of the assignment

Course Support

Questions and discussion of course material should take place within the course itself. Please do not contact instructors or teaching assistants off the platform, as responding to individual questions is virtually impossible.

We encourage you to direct your questions to Discussion Forums , where your question might be answered by a fellow learner or one of our course team members. For technical help please contact the Coursera Learner Help Center

Accessibility

We are committed to developing accessible learning experiences for the widest possible audience. We recognize that learners with disabilities (including but not limited to visual impairments, hearing impairments, cognitive disabilities, or motor disabilities) might need more specific accessibility-related support to achieve learning goals in this course.

Please use the accessibility feedback form to let us know about any accessibility challenges such as urgent issues that cannot be addressed in the course discussion forums , such as urgent issues that keep you from making progress in the course (e.g., missing or inadequate alt-text, captioning errors).

Third-party sites and software: While the University of Michigan is not responsible for the accessibility of third-party sites or applications that may be linked from this course, we still encourage you to report associated third-party accessibility issues so that we can ensure you are able to participate. In such cases, we may contact you for additional information as we investigate ways of removing accessibility barriers or to suggest accessible alternatives.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement

This online community affirms the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. We seek to have a diverse group of learners, including persons of different race and ethnicity, national origin, gender and gender expression, socioeconomic status, educational background, sexual orientation, religious commitment, age, and disability status. Our goal is that this course serves as an inclusive experience in which all participants, both instructors and learners, co-create and co-sustain environments that encourage all members to participate equitably.

We strive to create a community of mutual respect and trust, a community in which all persons and their respective backgrounds, identities and views are allowed to be made visible and communicated without the threat of bias, harassment, intimidation, or discrimination.

Course Schedule & Grading Policy

In this course, there are multiple types of assessment for you to practice your skills and test your understanding:

Weekly Quizzes

At the end of each week you are required to take a summative quiz that covers the materials in the specific Week. These quizzes include Multiple-Choice and True/False questions, along with elaborative feedback about each question and answer. Each quiz is 25% of your final grade.

The quizzes will offer you the chance to be reflective and check your knowledge as you progress through the course each week. You will have unlimited attempts to complete graded quizzes.

Low-Stakes Practice

In addition to weekly quizzes, there will be multiple opportunities for “Low-Stakes Practice” questions throughout the week. Your answers to these questions are not graded, and you’ll have unlimited attempts to try out different responses.

Optional Discussions

Although optional, you are strongly encouraged to engage in course discussions with other learners and peers. These discussions will allow you to be engaged in practice activities which will enhance your knowledge and skills of the course topics. Each discussion will include a specific prompt along with/instructions on how to complete it. Discussions in this course are not graded.

Grading Policy

The grading policy for this course is designed to capture key learning. Successful completion of all the assignments will result in a passing grade.  In order to pass the course, you must achieve an overall grade of 80%. The course grade will be a cumulative score based on the course assessments.

Tips for Success

• Take advantage of the rich set of videos and reading . They include a diverse, global range of examples and ideas.

• Complete the low-stakes practice quizzes and optional exercises . As we’ll stress throughout the series, you can’t simply read or think your way to better writing skills. You have to develop them, often slowly, through a not-always-comfortable mix of practice, feedback, reflection, and adjustment. Preparation is key. Humility is key. And so is the capacity to productively fail. It can be tough to figure out how to hold people’s attention if you don’t learn from times you have squandered that attention.

Enrollment Options

There are several ways to engage with the course, from auditing it for free to paying for full access and the opportunity to earn a certificate. Visit the Enrollment Options Help Page to learn more about each.