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I have finally pulled together all the communications between the University of Canberra and myself regarding my dispute over the grading of my major assignment in Freelance Writing Project by Professor Jennifer Webb in my Master of Creative Writing. A dispute that wound up with me making a compliant to the ACT Ombudsman. The contents of this post will be available on my website in the next few days. After receiving my grade, I sent this email to J Webb: Dear Jennifer Webb, This email is in response to your grading and comments on my major project, assignment three, for the Freelance Writing Project. I was not satisfied with your responses to my questions when I telephoned you on Wednesday the 20th of June and seek clarification before I consider further action. I initially rang you because of a comment you made in my results about a loose end involving twins: "I think one of the issues is the red herrings, or gestures, laid out. Why the gun, for instance; why the possibility of t...

Hi all, A letter from the ACT ombudsman arrived today. As I suspected, it found the University of Canberra was not at fault with my dispute with it, but in reality it could only investigate one of several complaints I had about the university. The one complaint it could investigate was why only one assessor marked my major assignment for the Freelance Writing Project. The ombudsman said: “the marking scheme for this unit did not require more than one assessor. Therefore, it was open to the University not to have a second assessor and I do not consider that this is a matter that merits further investigation.” Other subjects in the course had more than one assessor. The comments Professor Jennifer Webb made on my assignment, in both their relevancy and refutability, make me suspect that a second assessor would probably have given me a both a higher grade and more relevant and insightful comments. Most of the other aspects of my dispute come under the area of “academic disc...

Hi all, I completed a Master Of Creative Writing in June this year at the University of Canberra. I very much enjoyed the challenge and my writing improved. Some of the teachers were very good, some not so good, and I rate them below. Belle Alderman (Writing For Young People). Rating Feedback Excellent Communication Excellent Written Materials Excellent Subject Knowledge Excellent Belle was always quick to offer quality feedback to my questions and posts. She constructed a wonderful website for the course. Belle Alderman was appointed Member of the Order of Australia in 2007 for her services to children's literature as a researcher and mentor to emerging writers and illustrators. Her course of Writing for Young People won an award for an online course the year I completed it. Belle is a children’s book editor and publisher. I thoroughly enjoyed Writing for You...

Hi all, As I desperately try to diminish my stack of newspapers, I came across an article by Jason Steger in the Age on June 16th that said book sales have increased modestly in 2006 in both number and value. The article referred to Nelson BookScan statistics that indicated the value of books sold in 2006 increased 3.8% on 2005 sales to $1.05 billion, as the volume rose 2.2% to 53.3 million units. The article said that even if Harry Potter and Dan Brown were excluded the trend is still for growth in book sales. So much for rumours of the demise of the book. The same article also said, and this really surprised me, that the independent sector's share in value terms increased by 16.1%, as compared to the overall industry's 3.8%. This could have something to do with the big chains concentrating on big name authors at discounted prices. Perhaps they could increase the value of their sales if they stocked more Australian authored speculative fiction. Graham.