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Study online with Macquarie University through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

The Graduate Certificate of Editing and Electronic Publishing is for practising editors who are looking to consolidate and expand their skill set into new areas of publishing, or for those with less editing experience who want to gain a qualification that will aid their employment prospects in the industry. It helps you make informed decisions about preparing a text for publication; and using linguistic knowledge, including grammar, cohesion and regional variation.

Evolve your editing skills to keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving job market. You’ll explore new areas of publishing, technologies, and techniques. Sharpen your grammar. Manage projects, adapt content, and communicate with creative teams.

Graduate Certificate of Editing and Electronic Publishing

Grammar and Writing

Techniques in Academic Reading and Writing

Students entering university can feel overwhelmed by how much reading they need to complete before synthesising and translating this information into their own written work. How can you read efficiently, for understanding and analysis? How do you transform what you have read into your own original writing that is clear and persuasive? In this unit you will learn how to read for information, understanding, and critique. You will be introduced to four techniques of reading: inspectional, analytical, syntopical, and close reading. You will then learn techniques of thesis-driven composition and improve your understanding of the ways in which sentences, paragraphs, and arguments are structured. Learn how to use others’ ideas to strengthen your claims without compromising your own voice as a writer.

This unit explores commercially popular fiction and genre fiction in the marketplace today. We begin by analysing the form and features of bestselling novels as well as mass-market genre fiction such as fantasy, science-fiction, suspense/thriller/horror, crime, and romance. We examine how generic forms crossover with each other, and how digital publishing enables the proliferation of hybrid genres and niche subgenres within the popular fiction market. Students learn how to identify different types of research fields that are relevant to their genre of interest, and to integrate this research into their creative writing in practical ways. There will be a particular focus on world-building, characterisation, and the development of character-driven plots.

Writing Popular Genre Fiction

In this practical introduction to writing creative nonfiction students research and write a number of narrative non-fiction pieces from genres including memoir, personal essay, and environmental writing. We consider what creative non-fiction is, looking at the varied cultural contexts in which these very popular and influential texts are currently being written and published, with a focus on the Australian scene. This introductory unit is suitable for students from interdisciplinary backgrounds including creative writing, ethnography, cultural studies, journalism, philosophy and history. You devise your topics in consultation with the lecturer, and are guided in the development of skills in primary research and narrative writing techniques. Assessment is based on participation, practical research tasks and your non-fiction writing.

Writing Creative Non-Fiction - An Introduction

Please note: This subject was previously titled: Concepts and Practice in Fiction and PoetryThe subject encourages responses to different genres and theoretical approaches to creative writing. It aims to develop practical written and reflective skills, and the capacity to use language and form. It encourages students to attempt new ways of writing, to develop their work into finished texts, and to consciously position these texts within the wider discourse. In this subject, creative writing is taught within contexts of contemporary relevance, in order to broaden students&#39; range and encourage reflection about their writing. Students are expected to develop their creative writing and increase their knowledge about its contexts by producing writing throughout the subject. Subject topics and readings provide literary and theoretical examples to stimulate intellectual and creative enquiry.

Brainstorm new ways of writing and reflecting on your work. Build worlds and write with genre, identity and gender in mind. Critique theoretical and creative texts. Produce conceptually-driven creative writing pieces that extend your practice.

Creative Writing 2: Short-form Fiction

Please note: This subject is available in Macquarie Session 3, which is an intensive semester that spans only 5 intensive teaching weeks, plus a mid-semester recess and an assessment period. Students are advised to enrol in only one or two subjects in Session 3. Students who would prefer to take the unit over 13 teaching weeks should enrol in the Session 1 offering.Good grammar is often regarded as a sign of education and competence. Global research shows that 40% of graduates have their job applications rejected because of poor grammar, while 17% of firms are concerned about graduates’ lack of grammar skills. This unit provides you with the basic grammar skills that you will need for writing well in your assignments and job applications. We will show you how to recognise grammatically incorrect sentences that don’t make sense to your reader, then we will help you fix these. You will learn how to: paragraph for different purposes; structure and tailor your writing for various types of work; and edit and proofread your writing so that your work not only suggests intelligence and capability, but also attention to detail.

Polish your basic grammar skills. You’ll learn how to review and improve your writing. Strive to write better assignments and job applications. When you pay attention to grammar, you’ll reap the rewards both academically and professionally. 

This subject will help you to develop and practise the skills and strategies you need to achieve success in the IELTS Writing test. You will learn how to organise your time effectively, analyse and understand the question, plan your answer and check and edit your writing. You will also learn about the assessment criteria that examiners use to assess your writing. This subject offers over 90 interactive activities and extensive feedback. You will also practise your essay writing skills with 12 sample questions and four practice tests. The subject also includes study skills advice to help you in the weeks and days before the IELTS test. It should take you approximately 25 hours of online study to complete the subject materials.Access Time: 30 days from the date of first login to the subject. Suitable for Academic or General Training IELTS exam preparation. Please indicate whether you would choose the General Training or Academic Reading course when you enrol.

Focus on how to plan, write and edit essays. Take part in over 90 interactive activities. Learn new ways to study more effectively.Walk into the International English Language Testing System writing test with more skills and confidence.

IELTS Writing

This unit introduces students to planning and researching a long-form creative fiction work such as a novella or novel. It provides students with an opportunity to produce a detailed roadmap of their novel or novella, applying their knowledge of literary genres and drawing on techniques of characterisation, plotting, story arc, and themes that will be developed through intensive weekly writing exercises. By the end of this unit, students will have produced a detailed story outline and the opening to their novel or novella.

Developing the Novel or Novella

Research is fundamental to creating innovative writing and constructing a believable storyworld: the shared universe within which settings, characters, and events unfold in a narrative. This unit focuses on developing the different types of research skills needed to create believable characters and vivid settings, and to use historical and contemporary events to ignite the imagination. Students learn how to engage in research that provides: relevant factual information for their topic; background material to assist with world-building; up-to-date scholarship on their genre of writing to gain a critical understanding of how their field has developed, and to identify current trends. Skills learned apply to different genres of writing such as historical or contemporary fiction, fantasy or futuristic writing, romance, crime, local or family history, and biography.

Writing the Past, Building New Worlds: Fiction and Non-Fiction

This unit focuses on developing skills in the production and publication of poetry and short stories. Students explore and analyse creative writing journals that publish poetry and short stories before conceptualising and creating their own work to submit for publication in Macquarie University’s online creative writing journal, The Quarry. Students learn about the publication process, including structural editing, copyediting, proofreading, approaching publishers, the acquisitions and rights process for authors, and producing an online journal.

Wield the essential elements of narrative and structure as you continue to develop your writing practice. Workshop your creative concepts. Uncover new possibilities in the contemporary writing form. Produce a piece of creative writing for peer review.

Publishing poetry and short stories

Macquarie University Writing Short courses | Open Universities Australia

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