Chevron Left
Back to Grammar and Punctuation

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Grammar and Punctuation by University of California, Irvine

4.7
stars
19,059 ratings

About the Course

Course 1: Grammar and Punctuation Do you need to review English grammar? Have you forgotten the grammar you once studied? If so, this course is perfect for you. The first course in this specialization is a refresher on some tools needed for good writing. It will help prepare you for the other courses. You will need about 10 hours to complete this first course. Writing is a skill and to learn a skill well, you need to practice. In this course, you will watch short video lectures and then practice and discuss what you have learned. Make sure you take good notes and use the peer discussions to ask questions. Then you'll be able to remember the rules you learn in this course when you start writing essays in the next course. After completing this course, you will be able to: - identify the correct verb tenses to use - use commas effectively - utilize several different sentence types - write more effectively in English Please note that the free version of this class gives you access to all of the instructional videos and handouts. The peer feedback and quizzes are only available in the paid version....

Top reviews

MH

Nov 5, 2020

The course was so fascinating and it deserves everybody's time and effort. I have really enjoyed it and will confidently recommend it to anyone who is looking for a course on grammar and punctuations.

OI

Jul 2, 2020

This course was very helpful. It refreshed my memories and made me go back to so many things I thought I would never remember. It helped my writing skills a lot to. A big thank you to the instructors.

Filter by:

4901 - 4925 of 5,742 Reviews for Grammar and Punctuation

By Juliana B

•

Jan 30, 2016

v

By Cristiane F

•

Jan 19, 2016

I

By LaCisha I

•

Oct 20, 2015

R

By Renato P

•

May 6, 2020

First of all, thank you very much for putting this course together. I have just finished it, and I decided to leave this assignment for last since I wanted to share some general comments.Overall, I have learned a few new details here and there, including certain new ways of explaining the use of some structures and punctuation rules. It was very good for me to review the notion of "sentence compound" and "verb compound".My general observations about this course are:(1) It offers a very basic notion of verb tenses without any in-depth analysis of certain special or more complex situations. I guess I was expecting the chance to explore some more details in this course.(2) There were different moments where I disagreed about the use of commas recommended by the instructor. My disagreement was based on the writing guidelines I have learned throughout my life while attending courses/workshops offered by professional editors and university professors as well as while studying different materials (grammar books and writing handbooks. (Please see a list with some titles below.)(2.1) One case refers to the use or not of commas with Relative Clauses. As you may be well aware, commas should only be used with nonrestrictive clauses whereas restrictive clauses are never separated by commas. However, some sentences shown in the video "More Uses of Commas" as well as in the quizzes failed to make such distinction.Two examples from the video:(A) "My roommate, who hates seafood, doesn't want me to cook shrimp." [In this example, the use of commas is correct if I assume that there is only one roommate in this situation, which is clearly identified. Therefore, the relative clause is nonrestrictive as it is just adding extra information about the roommate.](B) "The dress, which I bought for tonight, is too tight for me to wear."[Here we have a very general subject "the dress", and we need the relative clause to help us identify which dress the speaker is talking about. Therefore, the relative clause is clearly a restrictive clause and should not be separated by commas.](2.2) Another situation that I somewhat disagreed with was with the rule about adding a comma before "and" in a series of three or more things/people/phrases etc. This last comma (aka "series comma", "serial comma", or even "Oxford comma") is actually "debatable" among many different authors. In general, it is considered an optional case, not a mandatory one.(3) In the video about Present Perfect and Simple Past, we were shown a table divided into two columns/sides: on the left, there were words normally used with Present Perfect, and on the right, words that were used with only Simple Past.(3.1) Among the words normally used with Present Perfect, we had already, ever, yet, never.However, as we all know, we can perfectly use either Present Perfect or Simple Past for new or recent happenings, especially in North America and in informal situations.For example:- I've lost my keys. Have you seen them? OR I lost my keys. Did you see them?The same applies to the words previously mentioned in bold as well as always, just, before:- I have already called Martha. OR I already called Martha.- Have you contacted Martha yet? OR Did you contact Martha yet?- I've never spoken to him. OR I never spoke to him.- Have you ever seen anything like that before? OR DId you ever see anything like that before?There would be some other things to say, but I believe that is enough for now.Thank you very much for this course in any case. I am sure most of my peers are learning a lot from it. :)

By Edwin D

•

Nov 22, 2020

Initially, I thought the course was too basic, but then it gets better, particularly in the sections about correctly punctuate sentences. I believe it was a great introduction to grammar and punctuation. There are a few aspects that I can suggest to improve the course. First, some of the exercises that take you to a link in an AWS are not working for many of us, perhaps because they use Flash. Second, the last peer review assignment required students to load a file, which was unnecessary. It was so easy to review assignments when all you have to do was read the sentences there, directly on the peer review page, but if you have to download a file that's different. It takes time, it is prompt to virus contamination, and different people are going to use different programs and file types and reviewers may not always have the program to open them. Even so, overall, I believe the course was great and rather helpful. Thanks for putting this together.

By James H S J

•

Jun 8, 2017

This is a great introductory course for refreshing one's memory or learning basic grammar rules. Unfortunately, the 7-day free trial option does not allow the same level of access to the discussion board assignments as those students who pay for the course. Based on my experience, my classmates were unable to see the content that I posted; however, I was able to provide feedback and add private comments to their posts. Also, with the free version, some of the supplemental practice exercises did not open, but all of the lecture videos, quizzes, and course assignments functioned properly. If you are taking the course as a refresher, then you can make it through the class before the free trial period ends, just note that it does take some time to watch all of the videos and complete the assignments. If you don't want to rush, the course is inexpensive, and the content is worth it.

By Miriam S

•

Jul 5, 2022

I took this class as a native English speaker hoping to get a more technical grasp of grammar and punctuation. It definitely served its purpose in that regard. However, the exercises, quizzes, and links throughout are very buggy. Frequently I would achieve a grade above what was listed as passing, but it wouldn't register and I'd have to take the quizzes several more times. Also, the peer graded assignments make absolutely no sense to me. Having people who do not understand the material correcting eachother's work is pointless. I recieved not one piece of useful feedback on my assignments, and for the most part the "corrections" were flat out wrong. Students would be much, much better served to take more quizzes and tests graded automatically by the system than to be given incorrect information by peers.

By Maria F

•

Jan 3, 2021

Pros: This course goes straight to the point without beating around the bush. I am already a bilingual English speaker and it was a good grammar refresher. I really enjoyed the practice exercises included and how the peer reviewed exercises helped me to see how well I had understood the material since I had to correct other students' work. Lastly, I found the additional materials section to be very useful.

Cons: It's not the most exciting or engaging presentation of material, so if you have difficulty focusing on monotonous tones, I suggest taking many breaks in between.

Thank you for the opportunity to take this course! I enjoyed it.

By christine j m

•

Feb 6, 2016

This course is really helpful especially for people wanting to write English articles better. The course outline is well laid out, videos are easy to understand, and exercises are very helpful for practicing your punctuation. The only negative point for me is how the teachers use a very strong American accent that some of the letters in a word are not pronounced anymore, like 'meanin' instead of 'meaning' and 'writin' instead of 'writing'. It doesn't really affect the teaching, though. All in all, this course helped me a lot and I recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their punctuation and review their English grammar knowledge.

By Vidhi P

•

Mar 8, 2016

Even though the course was pretty basic, there were many new things I learned, especially certain tips and tricks. The lessons are simple; the examples were good for understanding and to the point. The course-content, video and audio qualities are good. Links to extra materials are also provided towards the end of each week.

I felt the assignments were too simple. They were reviewed by other students and not by the course organisers. Though peer-review is a good practice, comments from the teachers would be much appreciated. I would prefer more options for discussion on a topic, other than through the assignments alone.

By Hyunseok J

•

Sep 30, 2020

It was such a nice decision to take up this course. I have had a desire to know more about punctuation , and this was exactly what I have wanted. The study load was fairly enough, so it was easy to manage my progress on my own even if I got off work late.

If I am allowed to talk about downsides, I wish there was more active communication with the professors. I felt comunication with students was not enough.

Moreover, some study material was not able to be opened. I presume those links were expired.

Overall, it was satisfactory.

By Patricia C D M

•

Apr 10, 2018

I really liked this course. It helped me to understand about some grammar rules that I didn't understand before, and also made me learn new things. The methodology is so interisting, it made me search more and more information about the English grammar before I submit or analyse any classmate activities, because I wanted to make sure that I was doing it properly. To be honest, it is not 5 star, for me, because I believe that if it had a specialised tutor, I could feel more confident about my learning.

By Anjali R

•

May 12, 2020

This course is very good with helping the learner punctuate, use the correct tenses, and form sentences with appropriate sentence structure. I would suggest making the practice exercises available in Chrome, as well. I would also suggest external monitoring of the peer-graded assignments, because if everybody is a learner, it is not necessary that everybody will critique correctly. In addition, I think most people would do the assignments out of obligation, and not out of the need to learn and review.

By Suryakant S

•

Jan 19, 2016

This is should be your go to option if you are looking for brushing up / learning fundamentals of english grammar. The course material is simple , to the point and accessible to a all regardless of the level of your English fluency levels. However, this course lacks a an active discussion forum and the peer graded assignments are designed in such a way that often it is impossible to discuss doubts or explore further nuances . Other than that, the course meets all that it sets out to achieve.

By imaloserdude

•

Jun 25, 2021

The quizzes were helpful, but the learning activities required that I download a new browser, Safari, and I did NOT want to do that. So, I didn't. Of course, that means that I missed out on some of the content, but whose fault is that? Your instructors should NOT use a software program designed for Apple products and expect online students to buy into that system. Otherwise, the course was excellent, though I made only one mistake (on the final quiz, from reading too quickly, silly me).

By Jodie G

•

Mar 23, 2020

Instruction was clear and helpful. The practice questions were useful while learning. Some of the practice sessions were not available to me because I use Google Chrome as my browser. I also thought one of the peer review sections should be changed to match the others. The one lesson asked us to upload a file instead of just typing our responses in a box. Overall, good class. I definitely needed a refresher course, and this helped me to remember what I had learned.

By Shubha T

•

Sep 2, 2017

It is an excellent platform to improve our English with enormous number of examples and practice items. It is a good way to improve the communication with people all over the globe. This improvise the confidence level, too, for a non-native English speaker. However, I was expecting to interact with the class teacher, as I wanted to confirm my understanding with her too. There is no option available where we can ask our doubts, except the initial week.

By Deleted A

•

Nov 14, 2020

This course is educational and straight to the point. The videos are short and easy to digest. To be honest, there isn't much for me to critique at this point; the instructor has a clear voice and uses a easy to understand language. Nevertheless, I've chosen to give 4 stars, that's because sometimes going through the course can be a little bit dull. However, I can recommend this course to anyone who likes to review English writing basics.

By Gabriel O M

•

Mar 21, 2016

Very useful and straightforward course on the basics of grammar (but just the basics of Verb Tenses; was expecting more of it in terms of grammar topics - Passive voice, Conditionals, Reported speech etc.)

It's basically a Punctuation 101 course which focuses heavily on proper sentence structure and syntax - got a great deal a good stuff out of it, though. Warmly recommend it to everyone who is not confident in his basic writing skills.

By Roberto O Z

•

Sep 27, 2015

The course makes you learn:

a) when you have to use Simple Past or Present Perfect;

b) punctuation

c) how to write in clear way.

There are problems with IT platform: video often stops suddenly and sometimes it is difficult to understand where you are arrived in the course. Besides, sometimes you don't immediately understand what you have to do for passing to next step of the course.

To sum up, the teacher is good. IT staff could do better.

By Josh M

•

Aug 15, 2017

I would rate this course with 5 stars; however, I think that an introduction to verbs, nouns and adjectives is a necessary component. In order to grasp the first module about verb tenses, I had to do some background research on different grammatical structures. I wish that this had been covered in the beginning. I have found the given resources to be quite valuable, and I am looking forward to enrolling in the essay writing course.

By Michelle C

•

Dec 12, 2020

The course is pretty well-organized and it really does target its goals, but there are some improvements to be made. Each lesson has a short video lecture (length of which is just right to be concise) and a lot of practice opportunities (in-video, practice exercises, quizzes, peer-graded assignments). Some very minor details could be improved, such as punctuation of quiz items, typing of instructions, submission mode.

By Ingrid d s o

•

Jul 14, 2020

I appreciate the comments from other students (it helps me a lot), but I dont fell like I'm either very or well prepared to avaliate the work of others. So, this is my only one negative point. Despite the fact we needed to move to another page or navigator, I really enjoyed doing the extra exercises. At last, I think would be better that those extra exercises were here on coursera platform. That's all.

By Vineeth K E

•

Jan 10, 2016

Before I started this course, I used to do a lot of guess work while editing my essays. I relied on proofreading program to get review my essays. This course has helped me understand crucial parts of sentences; thereby, enabling me with greater confidence to edit my essays.

Although this course is intended for beginners, it would certainly help experienced hands refresh their skills. Try it!

By Muskan K

•

May 24, 2020

This was a very helpful course. I learnt punctuations, transition words, conjunctions, essay writing, parallel writing and various other topics that will improve my writing style. Initially, they asked an introductory question which I was facing some trouble to write. But after this course i feel confident in writing, not only an introductory paragraph, but any paragraph or essay.