Avis et commentaires pour d'étudiants pour Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest par Commonwealth Education Trust

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This course has some very distinct and informative material which was terrific for learning about writing for young readers. I particularly found Maria Gill's modules very informative, encouraging and well presented.

What I found REALLY disheartening, was that we as students (who aren't qualified and at times, have questionable English literacy skills), were the ones who were given the task of assessing all of the assessments in this course. I was really hoping for feedback from the industry experienced course creators :( . The other thing that was frustrating is that 'word count' was a criteria. Some students were brutal in their grading because one was over the word count by a few words, so be aware of that, if you are going to undertake this 'course'.

This is not so much a course which leads to some sort of exam or qualification (dictionary.cambridge.org) but an independent information acquirement experience.

I learnt quite a lot about writing and publishing and would encourage you to do this course, as it does contain some great information and tips, just be aware that grading is based on newbies like us and sometimes the feedback can be a bit disheartening but just persevere and you will learn lots. These people really know what they are talking about.

This course was wonderful. It provided what I needed at this moment, which was useful guidance on developing characters, plot and dialogue. It also provided an overview of the editing, proofreading and publishing process.

I particularly enjoyed the author interviews, which really inspired me as I look to develop my writing skills. I thought the instructors David Hill and Maria Gill were excellent, explaining concepts easily and speaking clearly.

I also enjoyed the assignments which gave me the opportunity to practice the concepts taught. The peer reviews were my least favourite aspect of the course. While I had some very useful feedback, much of it was basic and did not provide any guidance in writing better. I was also penalised for technical difficulties that the reviewer had (this was rectified by the course organisers once I flagged it). It would have been helpful to give guidelines on how to critique other people's work. This was lacking in the course.

There was not much that was specific to writing for children. Instead I felt that it was a good course for anyone looking to write for any audience. It was a very course generally-speaking and probably more useful to beginners.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Course and was glad that it was so flexible! I learnt a lot of Organizational skills and I think my Creative skills were sharpened!

I was able to do most of the reading on my phone, which was most comfortable and time-saving.

Mr. David Hill has an excellent way of presenting the course material and he also extracted relevant and helpful ideas from the guest speakers. He gave us good examples of Writing, before giving us the Assignment. Thank you, Sir! Good luck to you in your future ventures!

Ms Maria Gill has also done her best. I wish relevant examples are given before the Assignment, and leave it to the creativity of the Student to come up with something original. Thank you, Ma'am! May we see many more of your Publications!

The course material should include live examples of important aspects like Writing an Inquiry email, a Proposal and a Resume, otherwise, like Ms. Gill warned us, our manuscripts can end up in the slash pile!

Thank you Alex for promptly attending to the tech glitch and resetting my grades!

I wish you could come up with more courses on Editing and Proofreading, so that we can work from home and give Professional help to Researchers, etc.

This was a short course packed with useful tips. The process inspired me to write. The videos were pleasant to listen to. I might go through all the materials again, just to keep my writing going. The course is just an introduction really, and for those expecting a highly advanced or detailed course, this is not it. What I did not enjoy so much is that I mostly had non-English reviewers or works to review, and while this is not an issue per se, most of them did not bother to follow instructions, use a basic spell checker, or bother to comment at all. This made the review process less useful. I would encourage new students to really be serious about reviewing other people's work. For me, that is the main reason why I don't like to pay for this course: the lack of feedback or just poor feedback through peer review. That aside, I would love to see another course like this one or maybe more detailed or advanced, and would definitely be willing to pay if there is at least some feedback to the assignments from the organizers. In the meantime, I've taken 2 other writing courses, and this one has by far been my favorite. Thanks so much! I really hope there will be another one.

This is a great course to get you writing. The interviews with writers are particularly helpful. The assignments are well thought out though there was some confusion when it came to peer reviews and how to assess word count which the staff are trying to sort out. Peer reviews were very varied as some people just wrote one word down which was no help at all, while someone inexperienced wil struggle with this I think the course should include an early module on reading and critically as reviewing someone's work is a great aid to writing and editing your own work. Course paperwork could include a critical checklist to help with peer reviews. I would have found that helpful so that I could be confident Of doing a good job. I think you should also be able to edit your reviews as a mistake will mean your fellow writer could be marked down. All in all though well worth doing. Many Thanks to the tutors, staff and guest writers.

Overall the course was done very well. I was able to apply my learning each week by demonstrating a new set of skills through my writing. I liked how the learning platform operated from the prompts, the closed captioning, the ability to take notes, highlight and go back to where I left off in the course. The deadlines allowed me to stay accountable however I feel I could have stayed even more accountable with a course facilitator in real-time. I also am okay with peer reviews however I would have liked an subject matter expert reviewing my work. Overall, the course was very good!

I very much enjoyed this course! Lots of opportunites to write and learn about every area of writing and publishing. I wish there was more information on publishers/magazines. Most of the publishers that were listed do not accept unsolicited applications. Also, having more magazines listed would help people trying to publish shorter pieces than novels. It would have also been wonderful if we could have had at least one of our pieces reviewed by a professor. In general, I found peer reviews not very helpful. But overall, very satisfied with this course!

I enjoyed the course very much and learnt a lot. Unfortunately, there is no feedback from established authors or tutors about the writing assignments which would really have helped. The 1-500 word limit on assignments was misunderstood by some peers and I had to have an assignment re-marked because marks were taken off for being under 500 words.

The videos were not great. The content was good but the jumping camera angles and arm movements were distracting.

One of my favorites parts of all the course, was the interview with the playwright. The course is about guiding the participants, or those who want to start to write, with the most important and necessary advices. In addition, the profesor wants to make us understand that writting is more than just a profession: it's passion, and the most effective way of see that point is by hearing a writter who feels that way about litterature active and also pasive.

I really enjoyed taking this course. I love to write but I was having a difficult time since the pandemic started. This course helped me forget a little about the situation that humankind is facing globally and gave me the opportunity to challenge myself to write in English, since I'm a native Spanish speaker/writer. Thanks Coursera for this gift! I would recommend this course to anyone that would like to be a writer.

Lizmer Montalvo Juliá

Puerto Rico

I had an engaging 5 weeks learning new skill sets and honing current skill sets as well. The instructors were pleasant and easy to understand, yet their professionalism was top notch. The interviews with other dedicated authors was extremely helpful. I enjoyed reading the peer reviews in each section and was able to gage my own progress with their submissions. The course helped me to start writing and that was my goal. Thank you!

This course is great so far - really helpful and specific - but I feel like there is an unnecessary amount of repetition of certain points. We were told "use your own experiences to fuel your stories" in 2 videos with David Hill, a reading assignment and then again in a video talking to another author. While I appreciate the "look, they say it too!" idea of backing up their ideas, I feel like this is overkill.

Wonderful to see and hear so many different authors giving advice and being able to learn from them. The instructors were well spoken and neatly organized or an online audience. Definitely a treat for the unpublished and aspiring authors. New tips for old dogs and pups. You can have others review your writing style and format. The only problems you may run into might be the students submitting for review.

This course is really meant for beginning writers for Young Readers. The information is good and at a pace that is easy to follow. If you are an advanced writer or have experience, it may not be as valuable for you. However, if you are just starting to look at becoming a professional, or have limited experience beyond writing for yourself, you will find this a very valuable learning experience.

It was a very good class and the videos were very helpful in learning the craft of a beginning writer and their need to find the tools necessary to start a book. I liked the pieces that I was able to read. It gave me a broader sense of culture and diversity in the readings and the comments were enlightening in the forum where we could share our experiences of each assignment. Thank you!

I really enjoyed the course. It gave great guidance on the art of crafting characters and plot, as well as the pacing and editing of a story. It was interesting to hear from published authors and their experiences. I found the publishing module of particular interest as I didn't know how the process worked prior to this. I found the writing exercises helpful in stimulating my creativity.

An excellent course. The inclusion of excerpts allows one to develop a greater understanding of the different topics dealt in the MOOC. Also, several excerpts are from stories written by authors based in different continents; this makes reading the excerpts all the more interesting. Also, the course allows one to adjust the deadlines for submitting assignments, which is a good thing.

The instructors are great and the interviews are very useful. I would have liked to learn about tone and pacing of the stories. Is there a common structure (at least a basic one that we can later break?). Hollywood uses the three-act structure. Is this also useful for stories for young readers?

I learned a lot but perhaps there should be a second course. I'd be interested.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course and how it covered both structural elements required to write a story as well as the editing and publishing process. The interviews for me where the highlight of the course. I would recommend this course for anyone who would like to develop their writing style for kids or who wish to become professional writers. Thank you!

I did the MOOC just to break the ice and have a general idea about this world of writing for young audiences. I think the course is fair and quite complete, has some very interesting insights, and the videos as very informative and the perfect lenght (by the time your head can't take more info, they are over). Thank you very much, it has been a pleasure.

Great course that develops your confidence on book writing. Well-tailored with regard to the needs of a beginner writer, showing clearly what editing, proofreading and publishing involves and the various existing types. It was such an opportunity to know more on writing and especially on how to approach publishers and get your book published.

This is a really nice course, it has actually help me grow in the way i write a story! There are many things i am taking away, key tips and suggestions. One thig that could be improved in this course was the assesment, noone has assesed my work becase of which my course it said to be incomplete. That could change, otherwise AWSOME!!!!