- Use the second or “you” person. Write your descriptions using the second person. Use “you” or imply you in your descriptions. Do not use the third person, such as “students will” or “participants will find.”
- Create an engaging first sentence. The first sentence is the most important
of all. Spend time on that first sentence, especially the first six to seven words. The first sentence needs to be engaging. Outcomes, fascinating facts, definitions, and new information are all good openers.
- Use action verbs. The worst opening line is “This class will….” Instead, use action verbs like Discover, acquire, get, take home, and find out. Save the word “learn” for the second or third
sentence.
- Vary words and techniques. Vary your words and writing techniques for your course descriptions. Do not have each description read the same. Get out a thesaurus or go
online and find alternative words.
- Spice it up. If you have a successful course, do not modify the course description.
Leave them be, no changes. But for those courses just doing average or below, jump start them with some juicy words, those rarely used words that have impact.
- Course descriptions work. They convince people why the course is valuable. And good course descriptions recruit more people.
