Best Online Writing Courses - Top 7 Worthy Options in 2025

What's the cornerstone of (almost) any well-paid profession? You guessed it - written communication skills. Writing is the key to success, whether you want to write a book, better projects, resumes, killer blog posts, or pursue a career as a copywriter. Choosing the right online writing courses is a crucial step to enhance your skills in this field. With so many options available, this can be a daunting task.

Now, don't get me wrong. Having many options to choose from is great. However, it also makes it difficult to decide.

To take some stress off your shoulders, I’ve researched countless online writing courses and users' reviews to pick the top 7 options, including a couple of specializations (yes, you can complete them from the comfort of your couch!).

In this article, you'll find everything you need to know about individual courses and specializations, including the instructors, topics covered, duration, fees, and difficulty level. Plus, I will give you some juicy tips for a productive online learning experience.

Here’s the list of online writing courses and specializations we'll talk about today:

• Academic English: Writing Specialization
• Creative Writing Specialization
• Writing With Flair: How To Become An Exceptional Writer
• Travel Writing: Explore the World & Publish Your Stories!
• Finding Your Voice as a Playwright
• Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking
• The Strategy of Content Marketing

Are you ready? Let’s get down to business and find out more about the best online writing courses.

7 Best Online Writing Courses & Specializations

Whatever field of writing you're interested in, there's a course here to suit your needs. I've researched and picked the top writing courses in various career fields, based on their reviews and user ratings.

With so many courses and platforms to choose from, there are no more excuses! Join the course you like the most and enjoy all the privileges that come with learning online:

• Learn at your own pace;
• Learn from anywhere in the world;
• Access courses by top universities for free;
• Join an international online community studying the same subject;
• Advance your career!

When is a better time to learn than now?

Academic English: Writing Specialization (ENROLL NOW)

• Platform: Coursera
• Offered by: University of California, Irvine
• Duration: 〜 6 months, if you study 4 hours per week
• Price: $49 (full access)
• Certificate: Yes
• Level: Beginner
• Discount: Available

With nearly 250,000 students overall, this is the most popular writing specialization on Coursera. It consists of 5 courses taught by the university’s professors Tamy Chapman and Helen Nam, and Brad Gilpin, the Associate Director of International Programs.

If essay writing has always been your weak point, this is for you!

The Specialization is focused on academic writing and research skills, which can be very useful for those who want to excel in a college degree or professional field. It’s also a great option for those to whom English is a foreign language, and generally anyone who wants to polish their written communication skills. Besides, it can be a great addition to your resume or LinkedIn profile if you work in a related field.

Many lectures and practice activities are available for free, but you'll need to purchase the courses to access quizzes and get feedback on your assignments.

The Specialization includes:

• Grammar and Punctuation

This is where you'll revisit the main English grammar and punctuation rules. Remember to practice by completing all the tasks and exercises. Some of them are free. After completing this course, you will identify the correct verb tenses to use, use commas effectively, and combine different sentence types like a pro.

• Getting Started with Essay Writing

Here, you'll work on essay planning techniques and writing solid thesis statements. It will help you organize your ideas more clearly and ensure your essay writing goes smoothly.

• Advanced Writing

This course will take your writing to a higher level, given that you put in the right amount of effort. You’ll learn to construct original arguments, avoid plagiarism, analyze sources to form your own opinion, and link different ideas together.

• Introduction to Research for Essay Writing

You’ll practice finding the right sources to support your thesis, learn how to reference them, and take detailed notes to create the final outline for your essay.

• Project: Writing a Research Paper

This will be your chance to show what you've learned. To complete the Specialization, you'll have to research a topic of your choice and write a 7-8 page essay on it, including a bibliography.

My advice is to take these courses in the order listed, as each serves as a foundation for the next.

The great thing about Specializations on Coursera is that you can enroll in individual courses, too. If the Specialization is not for you for whatever reason, but you like the idea of taking individual courses, there’s nothing stopping you from enrolling! Just click on any course you like, and it will take you straight to that page.

As with many other Coursera courses, there is financial aid available. However, for that, you will need to fill out an application for each course within the Specialization.

It also includes subtitles in English, Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Chinese (Simplified), Italian, Catalan, Portuguese (Brazilian), Vietnamese, Korean, German, Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Hindi, and Persian.

Creative Writing Specialization (ENROLL NOW)

• Platform: Coursera
• Offered by: Wesleyan University
• Duration: 〜6 months, if you study 1 hour per week
• Price: $49 (full access)
• Certificate: Yes
• Level: All levels
• Discount: Available

This Specialization is meant for all the creative souls out there. If you want to become a writer but don’t know where to start, this is it! Since the launch of the Creative Writing Specialization, it has become one of the most popular online creative writing courses, with over 143,000 students and maintaining an impressive 4.7-star rating.

The courses are taught by an assistant professor Brando Skyhorse, Amity Gaige (a visiting Scholar in Creative Writing), Amy Bloom (distinguished University Writer in Residence and Director of the Shapiro Center), and Salvatore Scibona, visiting professor of English.

Major creative writing genres such as short stories, narrative essays, and memoirs are the center of the Specialization. You will explore various techniques for crafting the perfect plot, characters, and setting. Furthermore, you will learn to find your own voice and gain the confidence to produce personal, unique stories.

In the Capstone of this Specialization, you finally put all the knowledge gained to use by crafting your own story from start to end (sounds exciting, doesn't it?).

One of the best things about online writing courses on Coursera is that they encourage peer feedback, which makes the learning process a lot faster and more fun.

The creative writing courses included in this Specialization are:

• Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

In this part of the Specialization, you’ll discover the elements of a captivating plot and learn to create an outline with the beginning, middle, and end.

• Creative Writing: The Craft of Character

Without characters, stories are hardly anything. This course will guide you through the dos and don’ts of character building and teach you how to use your own life as inspiration.

• Creative Writing: The Craft of Setting and Description

Here, you’ll learn how to create worlds that immerse your readers, and special techniques to help you convey the images in your head in a way that speaks to the readers.

• Creative Writing: The Craft of Style

This course will introduce you to the use of metaphors, imagery, and other literary tricks and tools that will make your stories more unique. Everyone can tell a story, but can they do it in style?

• Capstone: Your Story

This is your time to shine and test everything you learned. You’ll have to draft a story, a memoir, or a narrative essay, with the help of your instructors. If you’re happy with the result, you can even publish your work. This part of the course is an excellent opportunity to discuss the publishing process with your professors.

Keep in mind that you can enroll in these courses many times per year, depending on the demand. However, the capstone is only offered 4 times per year.

All the learning material comes with subtitles in English, Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Serbian, Chinese (Simplified), Italian, Vietnamese, Korean, German, Russian, Turkish, and Spanish.

Writing With Flair: How To Become An Exceptional Writer (ENROLL NOW)

• Platform: Udemy
• Offered by: Shani Raja, Ex-Wall Street Journal editor
• Duration: 7 hours of on-demand video materials and lots of other material
• Price: $158
• Certificate: Yes
• Level: All levels
• Discount: Available

Do you want to add some “secret sauce” to your writing? Wonder what it is? Join Shani Raja’s course on Udemy to find out (to learn more about the platform itself, check out this in-depth review).

He must be doing something right, because over 162,000 students have already purchased the course, and many sing its praises in the reviews section.

Shani Raja says the course is for corporate writers, marketing executives, college students, journalists, bloggers, authors, and literally anyone who views writing as an essential skill. According to the description, the course reveals the world’s best editors’ writing techniques, which will make you stand out in any field of writing. It’s divided into 6 main sections:

• The World of Elite Writing. This section will take you through the basic framework for transforming your approach to writing.

• Mindset of an Elite Writer. Find out what the main principles of an elite writer are.

• Simplicity. As the name suggests, here you’ll learn to simplify your writing to keep readers engaged.

• Clarity. In this section, you’ll work on expressing your ideas in a way that makes them easy to understand, as well as using time elements correctly.

• Elegance. This is where you’ll learn to make your writing “flow,” maintaining consistency and smoothness throughout your text.

• Evocativeness. Here, you’ll learn how to bring your text to life, master the tone, and find out what clichés secretly kill the soul of your writing.

The fantastic thing about courses on Udemy is that once you purchase the course, you’re granted full lifetime access to all the materials.

Although this course seems a bit pricey, Udemy often announces massive discounts, which is when most people purchase the courses. It’s not uncommon to see a course offered at $199 full price reduced to just $12. Also, Udemy offers 30-day refunds, so there’s no reason to skip this course if you think it is the right one for you!

Travel Writing: Explore the World & Publish Your Stories! (ENROLL NOW)

• Platform: Udemy
• Offered by: Dave Fox, a professional travel writer and writing coach
• Duration: 3.5 hours of on-demand video and many other resources
• Price: $97 (full price)
• Certificate: Yes
• Level: All levels
• Discount: Available

Perhaps you’ve always wanted to become a travel writer? This course offers some insights on how you can break into the world of travel writing. It’s suitable for all levels, whether you’re an aspiring or existing blogger, storyteller, or author.

The course covers the following topics:

• How to Capture and Write the Most Scintillating Details: Learn how to work with the details and descriptions in your text to capture the readers.
• Crafting the Story: Study the main important things in each part of the story.
• Your Cast of Characters: Learn to bring people you encounter into your stories to add depth and fresh voices to your writing.
• Editing Your Stories: Make your stories original and easy to understand.
• Travel Blogging: Instructors guide you through the process of starting a travel blog and provide some tips on how to make your posts more visible.
• How to Make Money as a Freelance Travel Writer: Here, you’ll find all the insider tips on selling your stories to newspapers and magazines, working with travel anthologies, and pitching your stories, in general.

Did you know?

Want to earn Rewards & gain real Web3 skills?

Ace exciting Missions, collect Bits & win huge Airdrop Prizes!

Start gaining 🚀

Finding Your Voice as a Playwright (ENROLL NOW)

• Platform: edX
• Offered by: University of Cambridge
• Duration: 〜4 weeks, given that you study 8-10 hours per week
• Price: FREE
• Certificate: Yes (paid)
• Level: Intermediate
• Discount: Available

If you’re looking for some free online writing courses, here’s some good news! This is one of the most popular free online writing courses on edX right now. To learn more about edX, check out this dedicated review.

This course is not limited to playwrights only. It is an amazing opportunity that’s not to be missed if you’re looking to pursue a writer’s career anywhere in the entertainment industry. The skills gained in this online creative writing course are transferable, which means you can apply them to various writing areas. And even though it’s marked as an intermediate level course, you don’t need a degree to take it.

The course is part of the University of Cambridge’s Micro Master’s program in Writing for Performance and Entertainment Industries. It's taught by Abigail Docherty, a playwright and Radio 4 writer.

The course includes the following subjects:

• History and traditions of writing for performance, different practices and narrative theories within various cultural contexts;
• A better understanding of the entertainment industry;
• Application of performance in educational, community, and social contexts;
• Reviewing key performance components such as ideational sources, body, space, image, sound, text, movement, environment;
• Editing skills;
• Developing personal skills to be able to work in both planned and improvised environments, adapt to change, deal with uncertainty and unfamiliarity, and creatively take risks;
• Managing projects in groups and creating performance texts and presentations;
• Building effective structures and characters; thinking like a dramaturg.

This instructor-led course runs for 4 weeks. The MicroMasters in Writing for Performance and Entertainment Industries runs over a 7-8 month period. Check edX's official website to find out when the next enrollment date is.

Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking (ENROLL NOW)

• Platform: edX
• Offered by: Harvard University
• Duration: 〜 8 weeks, if you study 2-3 hours per week
• Price: FREE
• Certificate: Yes (paid)
• Level: Introductory
• Discount: Available

Civil discourse is an essential part of a peaceful society^[1] because it teaches people to respect one another even when their opinions differ. At times of disagreement and uncertainty, critical thinking is one of the most valuable skills humans can have. And this is exactly what this course is all about.

Taught by James Engell, this course is perfect for anyone who wants to become a better writer and speaker, or simply find their voice and become part of critical public debates. For all the political heads - you’ll get the chance to analyze speeches from prominent figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Margaret Chase Smith, Ronald Reagan, and more!

The topics covered in this course are:

• Constructing and defending compelling arguments;
• Difference between argument and rhetorical technique;
• Using rhetoric in writing and speaking;
• Writing a persuasive opinion editorial or speech;
• Evaluation of the strength of any argument;
• How to recognize false information;
• This is a free online writing course (by Harvard University!), unless you want to purchase a verified certificate.

Seriously, this course will strengthen your mind as well as your writing. You'll learn how to write strong, logical arguments that will have an effect on the audience.

The Strategy of Content Marketing (ENROLL NOW)

• Platform: Coursera
• Offered by: University of California, Davis
• Duration: 〜 19 hours of teaching material
• Price: FREE
• Certificate: Yes
• Level: Intermediate
• Discount: Available

In the age of technology, content marketing has become an inseparable part of successful businesses^[2]. It helps spark people’s interest in your product, builds sustainable brand loyalty, and actually provides valuable information to existing and potential consumers.

I present to you the Strategy of Content Marketing course - the key to unlocking your potential as a content creator in any field. A top-ranked research university and Copyblogger have teamed up to reveal to you all the secrets of the marketing world.

After finishing this course, you’ll be able to not only develop and implement effective marketing strategies, but also write captivating copy using those strategies. If you’re looking to build a strong brand, this course is for you. You don’t have to own a business; this course is also an excellent opportunity for all the copywriters to expand their knowledge and step up their game!

The topics of this course include:

• The Content Marketing Ecosystem;
• The Strategic Context (The 7A Framework);
• Mapping the Journey: Crafting a Content Marketing Strategy;
• The Strategic Types of Content;
• Managing Your Content.

All the teaching material on this course comes with subtitles in Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Serbian, Chinese (Simplified), Italian, Vietnamese, Korean, German, Russian, Turkish, English, and Spanish.

Tips For a Successful Online Learning Experience

It’s important to realize that studying online is different from learning in a classroom. Even though it’s more flexible and convenient, it does come with its own set of challenges. To make the most out of any online writing course, here are some tips:

Make Sure Your Internet Connection is Fast

It may seem obvious, but it is super important since all of the content will be online. Imagine how frustrating it will be if videos or online conferences start to lag. It can demotivate you very fast, so investing in a good internet provider is my first tip.

Select a Study Area and Minimize Distractions

Choose a place at home and transform it into your "classroom". Of course, some days, allow yourself the luxury to study on the terrace, sofa, or in the bedroom. But as a general rule, try to have a fixed space with good lighting and a minimum amount of noise and distractions.

When it comes to studying at home, discipline is everything. Form habits that help you achieve results. Force yourself to sit down, spend the time necessary to complete tasks, and don’t procrastinate more than necessary.

Don’t Expect it to be Easy-Peasy

Some people think that it is easier to study from home. And I don't blame them, being at home makes us feel safe and relaxed. But that's exactly my point - be careful not to get too relaxed.

Don’t let comfort affect the amount of effort you put in. In fact, you will need all your motivational resources here, as you don’t have others around you to motivate you.

Organize Your Time Well

Is it true that you dedicate a specific part of your day to all your daily activities, such as going to the gym or going to work? Well, the same thing has to happen if you choose to study online.

As I've mentioned, it would really help if you formed discipline. Decide how many hours you can spend studying regularly. Consistency and time management are key to success.

Be careful not to fall into this dangerous way of thinking: “Today I did not have time, but tomorrow I will give it all I have,” which is a recipe for disaster. Of course, something may happen, and you may have to miss a day, but be honest with yourself and make sure that it’s for a valid reason if you do so.

Try to find a fixed time for studying during your day, preferably in the morning. This way, you will be more receptive to all the information the instructors give you.

If in Doubt, Ask!

I cannot stress this enough - ask questions whenever something is unclear. If you can, try to contact the instructor or visit related forums. If all fails, simply research it on Google. Chances are, others have asked themselves similar questions before.

Participate

Like you, many students are learning the same subject, and that is why forums exist. Don’t just participate in them because the teacher is telling you to. If you find something interesting that adds to the topic, share it!

Also, forums are an excellent tool for expressing your doubts and making your point of view known. Do you remember when in school the teacher explained something to the class, and you raised your hand to express a doubt or add something? This is similar, but all you have to do is type it. Give it a try!

Don’t Leave it Till the Last Minute

Whenever you are given an assignment, never leave it for more than a day. Why? For a couple of reasons. First, information is still fresh after you have just learned something. The second reason is this - just as technology is a great ally for studying online, it could also become your worst enemy.

Imagine this: you have to submit an assignment before 11:59 PM. You put all your effort in and spent most of the day working on it. It’s 11:50 PM, you add some last touches, click submit, and… at that moment, the power goes out.

Exactly. It’s better not to leave it for the last minute and take the necessary precautions.

Pros

• Easy to use with a learn-by-doing approach
• Offers quality content
• Gamified in-browser coding experience

Main Features

• Free certificates of completion
• Focused on data science skills
• Flexible learning timetable

GET 25% OFF

Pros

• High-quality courses
• Nanodegree programs
• Student Career services

Main Features

• Nanodegree programs
• Suitable for enterprises
• Paid certificates of completion

100% FREE

Pros

• A wide range of learning programs
• University-level courses
• Easy to navigate

Main Features

• University-level courses
• Suitable for enterprises
• Verified certificates of completion

30% OFF COURSES

Educate Yourself Outside of the Virtual Classroom

Don’t limit yourself to the material that is provided to you in the virtual classroom. If you find some topic interesting, research it, study it, see what others have published, and if you really like it, you may even want to take a trip to the library and see what they can offer on that topic!

Did you know?

Have you ever wondered which online learning platforms are the best for your career?

See & compare TOP online learning platforms side by side

The Most Trending Findings

Browse our collection of the most thorough Crypto Exchange related articles, guides & tutorials. Always be in the know & make informed decisions!

Skill Development

Best Online Accounting Courses - 8 Options to Enroll in

How-To

How to Become a Data Scientist: a Full Guide

Skill Development

Online Chemistry Courses: Bonding with Science

Conclusions

These are the best online writing courses in various fields that you can access right now on popular platforms such as edX, Udemy, and Coursera.

If you want to excel in academic writing or be the next Kafka - choose one of the specializations on Coursera. Keep in mind, though, that they do take longer to complete, given that they involve taking separate courses.

Alternatively, you can uncover content marketing secrets at Coursera, and learn from the Strategy of Content Marketing course. If you're an aspiring copywriter, completing this course will certainly increase your chances of success in this field.

Finding Your Voice as a Playwright is a unique course on edX, which will not only provide you with the knowledge to write outstanding plays, but also teach you the ins and outs of the entertainment industry.

Meanwhile, the Persuasive Writing and Speaking course will take your arguments to the next level - you won't only learn to analyze information and create better arguments. You'll also be equipped to be convincing - this is a skill that will make you stand out in any field.

Udemy offers a slightly more informal studying environment than other platforms and more flexible enrollment dates. Some of the most popular courses there are Travel Writing and Writing with Flair.

Scientific References

1. Charles Koch Institute: ‘Why is Civil Discourse Important?’;

2. Charmaine du Plessis: 'A Scoping Review of the Effect of Content Marketing on Online Consumer Behavior'.