This course will help you develop your skills as a writer to support your advocacy work. It will be of particular interest to anybody planning to produce a:
• research report • thesis • book or book chapter • advocacy document • paper for publication • essay
- or any other substantial piece of written work.
The course is part of Learning for Change, an integrated collection of courses developed by Fahamu in conjunction with the University of Oxford.
Learning for Change pioneers a unique and innovative approach to learning. Using CDROMs, workshops and a learning community mediated by email, these courses will help you build capacity with minimum disruption to your own work. Each course includes practical projects that will benefit your organisation directly.
Every participant who successfully completes a course will be awarded a certificate from the University of Oxford.
Objectives
This course delivers a comprehensive approach to the skills of effective writing. Do you find writing a chore? Have you got something important to say, but somehow it won’t come out clearly in writing? Are you confident your writing gets you the results you want? Could you use some help polishing your writing skills? If so, then this course is just for you.
When you have completed this course you will be able to:
- Generate and articulate clear messages in your documents
- Organise information and ideas more effectively
- Plan a document to outline stage
- Write a first draft more confidently
- Edit your text for clarity and persuasive style.
JUST WRITE
The course is based on Fahamu’s successful publication, Writing for change. It combines study material, interactive exercises, marked assignments, individual tuition and lively online discussion with your fellow participants.
Study is modularised into daily hour-long study slots.
The course CDROM also contains sections on grammar, punctuation and stylistic issues – together with a reading list and guides to further study - making it an invaluable reference tool after you have completed the course.
Structure
The course covers the key areas of:
- Planning
- Developing an outline;
- Writing a first draft
- Editing to create a final version.
The workshop is mainly devoted to practising some of the skills you have learned. You will also have a chance to review the first part of the course. You will discuss with your tutor the subject of your main assignment.
Assignments
There are a number of assignments for you to complete. There are no tricks in the assignments; they simply aim to check that you have acquired the skills outlined in the module. The assignments tend to get longer as the course goes on. If you are unsure about how to tackle an assignment, contact your tutor. You will not lose marks for doing so!
The assignments all contribute to the creation of a real document that you can produce for your own organisation.
Email group
You are not doing this course on your own, though it may sometimes feel like it. You are encouraged to communicate by email with the rest of the group doing this course. Some activities are specially marked for email discussion. There is at least one discussion topic each week. You should also feel free to communicate with the group on any other exercises.
You can choose not to participate in a discussion if you feel it is becoming too time-consuming. However, we strongly recommend that you participate as actively as possible in email discussions to get the most out of this course.
Email discussions will be copied to the tutor but not assessed or moderated. Your tutor will not give automatic feedback unless you specifically ask for it. However, they will give you feedback or advice on the planning and execution of assignments.
When you have successfully completed the course, you will be awarded a certificate from the University of Oxford and Fahamu.
This course was originally developed with the financial support of the European Union, the British Department for International Development, and the Canadian International Development Research Centre
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