How to Write an Essay
- Free to audit
- Paid certificate
- Beginner
- 5 weeks
How to Write an Essay is a five-week BerkeleyX course from Maggie Sokolik of UC Berkeley's College Writing Programs, designed as an introduction to academic writing for English language learners. It starts with basic grammar terminology, moves on to writing effective sentences and paragraphs, then covers introductions and conclusions, and finishes with strategies for longer texts and thesis statements. Self-editing and grammatical correctness run through the whole course. edX lists it as introductory and self-paced at five to six hours a week, and the stated prerequisite is enough English to follow an introductory university course.
Auditing is free, with access to the material for the course's estimated length in weeks from the day you enrol and no graded assignments or certificate; the verified certificate costs $169. Teaching is in English with English transcripts. If you finish and want more, the same instructor's Academic and Business Writing continues into persuasive and workplace writing.
What you’ll learn
- Use basic grammar terminology to talk about and correct your own sentences
- Write clear, effective sentences and well-organised paragraphs
- Draft introductions and conclusions that frame an essay
- Plan longer texts around a thesis statement
Who it’s for
Learners writing academic English as a second language who want to build essays from the sentence up; you need enough English to follow an introductory university course.
Instructor
- Maggie Sokolik Director, College Writing Programs
Course details
- Skills covered
- Paragraphs
- English Language
- Academic Writing
- Editing
- Program Management
- Marketing
- Writing
- Grammar
- Peer Review
- Learning Platforms
- Prerequisites
- Students should be proficient enough in English to follow an introductory level university course.
- Subtitles
- 1 language
On edx.org
Rated 4.7 out of 5 by 7 learners; 328,665 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are edx.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: BerkeleyX (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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