Discover the writing secrets of the world's best news writers and editors


Have you ever pored over a beautifully written article in a well-known newspaper and wished you could write with the same kind of style and impact? Then this course is for you. Inside, Shani Raja, a former editor for The Wall Street Journal, reveals a wealth of powerful strategies and formulas  designed to make your nonfiction writing sparkle and dazzle. 

In this bestselling program, described by Time magazine as supremely “informative and helpful,” Shani rolls back the curtain on the elite writing tactics that enabled him to edit prominent stories for one of the world's biggest newspapers. These techniques, little understood outside top journalism circles, will help you to write not only better news articles, but also blog posts, books, business reports, research notes and college papers. 

The trick, as you'll see, is mastering the four key ingredients of good writing—simplicity, clarity, elegance and evocativeness. The course teaches you how to apply these four ingredients and balance them artistically so that your writing gets easily noticed and wins you more respect and recognition in your industry, field or profession.

Who is this course for?

  • Authors

  • Bloggers

  • Journalists

  • Business writers

  • College students

  • Marketing executives

  • Comms professionals

  • Copywriters

This course includes

  • 76 Video Lectures

  • 7 Hours of Content

  • 4 Articles & 3 Downloadable Resources

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Section 1: The World Of Elite Writing

  • 2

    Section 2: Mindset Of An Elite Writer

  • 3

    Section 3: Simplicity

    • 10. The Beauty Of Simplicity

      FREE PREVIEW

    • 11. Fancy, Flowery & Official Language

    • 12. Fancy, Flowery & Official Language (Exercises)

    • 13. Economical ("Tight") Writing

    • 14. Economical ("Tight") Writing (Exercises)

    • 15. Redundant Words

    • 16. Redundant Words (Exercises)

    • 17. More Implied Words

    • 18. More Implied Words (Exercises)

    • 19. Long Words

    • 20. Long Words (Exercises)

    • 21. Careless Repetition

    • 22. Careless Repetition Exercises

    • 23. Rambling (Saying Too Much)

    • 24. Double Negatives

    • 25. Multiplying Entities

    • 26. Overstretching Thoughts

    • 27. Unnecessary Ceremony

    • 28. Unnecessary Ceremony (Exercises)

    • 29. Excessive Punctuation
  • 4

    Section 4: Clarity

    • 30. The Beauty Of Clarity

      FREE PREVIEW

    • 31. Fuzzy Thinking

      FREE PREVIEW

    • 32. Missing Links

    • 33. Out-Of-Focus Ideas

    • 34. Misplaced Modifiers

    • 35. Ambiguity

    • 36. Ambiguity (Exercises)

    • 37. Careless Comparisons

    • 38. Clumsy Contrasts

    • 39. Dubious Distinctions

    • 40. Curly Writing

    • 41. Jargon & Buzzwords

    • 42. Mixing Tenses

    • 43. It Versus They

    • 44. This, That & The

    • 45. Removing Clutter
  • 5

    Section 5: Elegance

  • 6

    Section 6: Evocativeness

    • 59. The Beauty Of Evocativeness

      FREE PREVIEW

    • 60. Creating Variety

    • 61. Creating Variety (Exercises)

    • 62. Adding Freshness

    • 63. Dramatic & Forceful Writing

    • 64. Dramatic & Forceful Writing (Exercises)

    • 65. Arousing The Senses

    • 66. Reversing Into Sentences

    • 67. Reversing Into Sentences II

    • 68. Passive Sentences

    • 69. Passive Sentences (Exercises)

    • 70. Voice, Tone & Character

    • 71. Voice, Tone & Character (Exercises)
  • 7

    Section 7: Summary, Resources & Bonuses

    • 72. Congratulations! You Are An Elite Writer

    • 73. Key Lecture Summaries

    • 74. The Elite Writer's Checklist

    • 75. Further Reading

    • 76. Sample Article

Meet your instructor

SHANI RAJA

Shani Raja was an editor for The Wall Street Journal, where he also trained journalists. He has also written for The Economist, Time magazine, the FT and Bloomberg News. Today, Shani teaches students the advanced writing and storytelling techniques he learned as a news editor. His teachings have helped authors, bloggers, business writers and Tedx speakers enhance their copywriting skills.

What students are saying

EDE OMOKHUDU

STUDENT

"The most complete writing course I have taken. I’m really blowing away the competition at work."

SEBASTIAN

STUDENT

"Taught me in a few hours writing principles that would have taken me years to learn on my own."

MICHELLE BULLAS

STUDENT

"Cuts through everything to the heart of excellent writing... the best course of its type that I’ve seen."

Are you ready to begin your journey into the world of elite writing?

Get Started Today

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