In order to put this self-learning course to good use and to tailor it to your personal needs, you can either work in a deductive or an inductive way.

Deductive reasoning is essentially a top-down approach which moves from the more general to the more specific. In other words, you start from a general notion or theory, which is then applied to specific language examples and honed through practice exercises. Inductive
reasoning is more of a bottom-up approach, moving from the more specific to the more general. An inductive approach involves the learner detecting patterns and thus working out a rule. In this way, exercises and questions guide the learner to work out the rule. Choosing the ‘right’ approach is entirely up to you. As each exercise is accompanied by relevant references, the course allows the learner to move from theory to exercises and vice versa.
The course also includes a spelling checklist and a list of useful websites offering a range of freely available online resources which may help you to fine-tune your writing. As language is the vehicle of thought, we hope that this course will help you to get your message across in a most effective and reader-friendly way.

Dr. Eric Caers
University of Hasselt