This course is for anybody who is thinking of studying for a university degree and would like to develop the English reading and writing skills needed to succeed. You'll be introduced to academic reading and effective note-making strategies. You'll develop your essay writing. You'll look at academic style and vocabulary-building strategies. You'll also enhance your understanding of sentence structure and punctuation. You will learn through a range of engaging activities aimed at extending your existing language skills.
English: skills for learning is a free course which lasts about 8 weeks, with approximately 3 hours' study time each week. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week there is no problem with pushing on to complete another week's study. You can also take as long as you want to complete it.
Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.
Once you're signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn343. In addition you can download and print your OpenLearn Statement of Participation - which also displays your Open University badge.
The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.
Learning outcomes
After completing this course you will be able to:
- follow an active reading method to help you read academic texts and make notes
- critically read source texts and appropriately use the information they contain in your writing
- link ideas in your writing so that your readers can easily understand your ideas
- make use of vocabulary and grammatical structures to express yourself more formally
- make the most of online dictionaries and look at ways to record new words for future use
- understand how to organise and punctuate sentences to increase clarity.
Copyright information
Creative Commons: The Open University is proud to release this free course under a Creative Commons licence.
However, any third-party materials featured within it are used with permission and are not ours to give away. These materials are not subject to the Creative Commons licence. See terms and conditions346 and our FAQs347.
Full copyright details can be found in the Acknowledgements section of each week.
Earn this free Open University digital badge if you complete this course! The badge can be displayed, shared and downloaded as a marker of your achievement. The badge is awarded for completing the course and passing the quizzes.
First Published: 29/07/2014
Updated: 04/03/2020