Your Questions Answered
We know that choosing a course and a place of study are big decisions. Will you like your course? Will your tutor be good? Will you find the assignments too challenging or not challenging enough?
We do our best to satisfy your individual needs and meet your educational expectations on our courses.
Let’s get started by answering some questions you might have.
An online course works much the same as a correspondence course, except that writing assignments are emailed rather than sent via post. You can expect quick responses and ready access to valuable input from your tutor. You can also work at your own pace – within the time allocated for the course.
In each module, you are required to complete several writing exercises. These are emailed to your tutor for marking and written feedback.
Create a finished product
Our online writing courses enable you to walk away with a finished product, something that can potentially be sold or published after completing your course.
One-to-one training with an award-winning writer
We work on a one-to-one basis, offering hours of personal feedback from a well-known, professional writer who is dedicated to building on your unique writing strengths and ironing out your grammar and style gremlins. What’s more, you will be working with award-winning writers who have, in many cases, received international acclaim.
Writing-focused
We believe that practice makes perfect and that the only way to learn to write is to write.
We don’t offer writing classes with general feedback or, even less effective, feedback from your classmates. What we provide is an old-fashioned writing apprenticeship: working under a master in the field as you craft your words line by line.
Many of our tutors run MA programmes in creative writing, journalism and copywriting at various universities around the world. At our college, you can train under superb tutors for a fraction of the cost of a university degree.
Our primary focus is writing, with feedback every line of the way. Each course comes with a comprehensive course manual made up of many modules.
Writers all over the world use email to communicate with their editors and publishers. We replicate this process, except that you will be getting expert guidance and feedback from your tutor every step of the way.
In our writing courses you will learn:
– the essentials to write well in your chosen field
– how to sell your work
For example, in our journalism courses, you’ll practise coming up with an idea for an article, writing a query letter, conducting research and interviews, and writing up the piece. If your tutor considers your piece to be marketable, you will get the support you need to sell it.
You’ll also get insider information on the local writing industry and how to manage your business professionally. Other issues, like copyright, tax, invoicing, contracts and plagiarism are also covered.
Have a look through all our courses and see what is covered. It is a great way to familiarise yourself with the diversity of genres we cover.
If you still aren’t sure, we have lots of experience in determining your needs as a writer and finding the most suitable course for you. Contact us at any time to discuss the best option for you.
Each course page has an enrolment form at the bottom of the page. Just complete the form and submit it. You can also click on the ENROL button at the top of each page of our website. We will email you a welcome letter and an invoice within one working day.
Yes. For our short writing courses (six to 12 months), you can pay a 50% deposit at the start of the course. The balance would be due at the end of the next month.
We accept three payments for our 24-month courses: 50%, 25%, 25% paid over three months. In some cases, we will negotiate a different payment plan, depending on your circumstances.
There are no additional charges if you make use of a split payment option.
During the application process, we get a good idea of your suitability for the course you have chosen. If we feel there is an alternative course that will serve you better, we will always recommend you consider that course before we approve your choice. If you want advice before you apply, just ask us. We can assess your needs as a writer and find the best course for you.
If you do embark on a course and find that it is the wrong choice, then we will happily transfer you to another course, as long as it is early on in the course (i.e. within the first module). If you change your mind later on in the course, we will charge you pro rata for the modules you have completed as well as a small administrative fee.
If you are not completely satisfied with every aspect of the course you have chosen, we provide a guaranteed, no-questions-asked refund within the first 30 days. Any tutoring expenses incurred will be subtracted from the refund amount.
We do not offer a refund after 30 days on the course.
Writing is one field where you don’t need a degree or a diploma to get published, work successfully or establish a name for yourself as a writer.
To train with us, all you need is proficiency in basic writing skills. Our courses focus on teaching you to write well, and we assume that the fundamentals (e.g. sound grammar and punctuation) are already in place. We do assess your writing in your application form to check on this.
Other than that, our only other prerequisite is reliable Internet access.
We do not offer a refund after 30 days on the course.
Yes. Regardless of your age, academic background or place of residence, you can register for our courses.
The content of our courses is internationally applicable. Our journalism courses (Freelance Journalism and Travel Writing) use well-known publications from around the globe, including GQ, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Seventeen, O, The Oprah Magazine, Men’s Health, Marie Claire, Shape and National Geographic.
Most of our tutors for the Write a Novel Course and the Write a Non-Fiction Book Course have had dealings with international publishers and will be able to guide you in choosing the right publisher/s.
Yes. We encourage you to sell your work, whether it be a short story, feature article, novel or screenplay. We will teach you how to go about doing this. We have had many students who have sold their work, if not during their course, then shortly afterwards.
Any book or script you produce during your course can be sent to a publisher and you can earn royalties on its sale.
Yes. Your writing assignments will only be seen by your tutor and, occasionally, by an external moderator. With your permission, selected excerpts of your writing may be published in our student showcase.
Any intellectual property produced during or after a course with The Writers College remains the sole property of the student. This is regardless of the number of tutor suggestions and edits incorporated into the manuscript during the course.
The Writers College and its tutors have no claim to any material produced by a student while doing a course.
In the event that a student publishes their work, we would appreciate an acknowledgement where appropriate.
Each course page gives guidelines, but these are only estimates. Students might work through some modules quickly and find others challenging. Some students are very diligent, while others might struggle to access their creative spark at times. If you work consistently on your course modules, you will easily complete your course within the given time frames. We won’t force you to stick to a rigid timetable, but we will send you reminders if we don’t hear from you.
The first thing to do is to tell your tutor that you are having problems meeting a deadline. Then you can renegotiate a new deadline. If you need to apply for a formal extension you would discuss this with the admin team.
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Because of the way we work, you will need to be able to send and receive emails. You will also need access to the Internet to do additional research on some courses. We highly recommend MS Word or a modern word processor that can open .doc/.docx files as you will need to save your work in .doc/.docx formats. Some courses require the Track Changes function in MS Word (notably the copy-editing and proofreading course).
You can work as a freelancer in your chosen field of writing, be it scriptwriting, short story writing, travel writing, magazine journalism or feature writing.
You can submit articles to any magazine, trade magazine, daily or weekly newspaper. There are also writing opportunities in business, like writing advertorials and in-house newsletters for large corporations.
If you want to try your hand at editing and proofreading, or even pursue a career as a staff writer for a publication, you can apply for an internship at any of the big publishing houses. Each course will provide tips and tools for how you can earn a living from your writing.
There is absolutely no pressure to sell or publish your work. If your goal is to feel more confident about your writing, we can help. If you just want to learn a specific skill for work purposes or for personal interest, we can help. If you want to do a course for personal growth or self expression, we can support you.