David T - July 27, 2010 writes:

I was a little disappointed when I received assignment 1 back a few months ago , with merely 'good' and 'well written' on my work, with a few other cursory words of encouragement on a slip of paper in with my work.Is this generally typical of the feedback from the first assignment? and can I hope for more in the future? This is kind of what has put me off progressing with the course.Six months on from sending off assignment 1 , I've barely done anything at all! :( Any encouraging words or advice would be helpful , David

Louisa G - July 28, 2010 replied:

Hi David. My first assignment was the same. I only had very few comments written on it. Don't despair. It simply means that your tutor is happy with what you have written and hasn't got any further comments to make. My advice is to crack on with your next assignment. Write an article about something that really interests you and I'm sure you will get more from the feedback. I found that I was in the same position as you but after I got my second article back marked I found the comments and advice helpful. I think in order to get anything out of the course you need to work at it. Do the next couple of assignments and see how you feel after that? Hope that helps. Louisa

David T - July 28, 2010 replied:

Thanks for getting back to me Louisa , it's much appreciated.I'm finding assignment two hard to get on with simply because most of the target magazines I would be writing the proposed article don't clearly indicate whether they accept unsolicited material. In fact I only found one that dclearly states that it does :( The writers' and artists' yearbook didn't really help either as none of the magazines were even listed in there...

Linda S - July 31, 2010 replied:

Hi David, I'm in exactly the same boat. I looked through all of the magazine which I usually read and I've looked through their respective websites but don't know if they accept freelance work. My intention is to email them to check if I can send something. And then I have to come up with a subject!! Best of luck, Linda