Self-Paced Online Classes

Looking for learning opportunities with a flexible schedule? Our self-paced Online ESL courses offer a flexible and dynamic learning experience.

Highlights of Self-Paced Online Courses:

  • take 4-6 weeks to complete

  • allow self-paced learning

  • include interactive feedback and comments from the course instructor

  • are available year-round

  • are accessible unlimitedly for 90 days once you are enrolled

  • upon completion, a digital badge is awarded

Courses Available

Academic Writing in a Clear Voice Series

These three asynchronous 4-week courses are designed to assist both native and non-native English speakers to write clearly. Each course is composed of four modules (one per week), and each module requires approximately three hours to complete. The course content introduces students to various key principles of writing. Once these principles are understood and practiced, students should possess an enhanced ability to skillfully assess and revise their writing in specific ways.

Academic Writing in a Clear Voice, Part 1:

  • We discuss two principles that help us avoid over-using nominalization and more thoughtfully choose subjects and verbs that promote clarity.

  • We explore five common sentence constructions that most readers find difficult to understand.

  • We examine the need to express actions in verbs and the even greater need to create short, concrete actors when they do not exist.

  • We consider when and how the passive voice should be used.

Academic Writing in a Clear Voice, Part 2:

  • We discuss ways to purposely connect the flow of ideas from sentence to sentence.

  • We discuss ways of organizing information so that we produce coherent paragraphs.

  • We discuss how to organize our sentences so that long and complex information can be more easily understood.

  • We examine ways to order information within sentences to create a strong flow of information.

Academic Writing in a Clear Voice, Part 3:

  • We explore several principles we can employ to create flow at larger levels—from paragraph to paragraph and section to section.

  • We explore ways to be concise without being terse, and thus improve the clarity of our prose.

  • We discuss four principles to remember when composing complex sentences, principles that ensure that the meaning of a long sentence is clear to our readers.

  • We discuss the importance of using punctuation well.

Course Enrollment

  • Please email eslcourse@smu.edu for enrollment. Once enrolled, you will receive a Canvas course invitation.

  • You will be granted 90 days to access and complete each course.