has anyone ever bought an essay?

[sunnyjim]

there seem to be loads of those 'write your essay for you' sites. HOw on earth do they work? I mean most unis have set text books for a course so how coudl they manage to write your essay for you without those texts?

My experience is the same as your monkeymoomoo.

I would hate to be undermined by an external without consultation.

Our external would have the last word if it got that far, but that may be because they would be asked to rather than because that's automatic IYKWIM.

They don't usually just change things willy-nilly, and they do consult (and we decide what we send them to look at) but, yes, we do have to go along with their decision even if we don't agree with it. Means you have to pick your external carefully!

I know you've moved on from the original issue a bit here but there is a procedure for appealing against a TMA score (in the first instance to your own tutor, then, if not satisfied with the response, to the Complaints and Appeals office).

It is also relatively straightforward to change tutors within the OU: I certainly would if I had a duff one.

" SJ quite likes the 'misunderstood genius' role"

maybe you're right , I know that my personality is such that I get annoyed and frustrated by just being required to regurjitate material. Thankfully this is my final year, I think part of the problem is that because it is OU and because I did some time at 'brick uni' before getting ill I have been doing undergraduate study for 8 years! So I've had over 8 years of reading about this subject and I'm really bored of not being able to pursue areas which interest me.
Plus my father was a lecturer in politics so I grew up with all this and since I started studying it I've had the benefit of his expereine and knowledge too. The downside is that he is the type of lecturer who loves it when his sutdents read outside the material and come up with independant thinking even if it means going of on a tangent a bit - so he encouraged me to do that.

I was having an exceedingly bad day yesterday with my assignment. I do find it hard to suppress knowledge I've gained through outside research/discussion with my dad or industry related (I worked for 10 years in community work and local government - not so relevant to this course but has some impact on issues of politics!).

I have had some great tutors, I've also been unlucky enough to have had 2 that were not so good. It is possible to query marks, but I've been given to understand that it generally does cause more hassle than it can be worth.

I guess right now I'm feeling frustrated because I can't get to any tutorials this year, my tutor doesn't respond to my emails and I have no other students on this course in my town. (its level 3 so we're getting thin on the ground).

I'd kill for an hour or so just sitting down and talking through some of the concepts so that I can be sure of how the tutor/department is interpreting them.

Thanks for all the ideas and support, I think I've come up with a structure for my assignment which will enable me to include both course material and other schools of thought where relevant. my natural style is to write essays as if they were articles for a journal. I think what I need to do s write a more structured essay almost using headings to deliniate how different theorists approach certain issues.

(of course none of this is helped by the toddler who was up between 2am and 6am last night, the broken central heating, my recent recovery from viral menengitis, the overdrawn bank account etc etc!)

Glad you're feeling more positive today SJ - good luck with getting the dratted thing out of the way

Do you use FirstClass by the way? It's my main means of hooking up with others on teh same course

Ooh - I was going to suggest First Class too. Although TBH I find it a bit negative sometimes. I did two course last year, and one conference was fab, whereas I couldn't bear to log onto the other because it just depressed me.

"Thanks for all the ideas and support, I think I've come up with a structure for my assignment which will enable me to include both course material and other schools of thought where relevant. my natural style is to write essays as if they were articles for a journal. I think what I need to do s write a more structured essay almost using headings to deliniate how different theorists approach certain issues."

This is a hugely significant point, not following the appropriate structure (as crazy as it sounds!) can lose you marks at Uni - as you probably know, not trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs etc

IKWYM Becky

My two course conferences this year are nothing short of shit. Hardly any messages and what there are are moans. Someone posted a question yesterday and I was the only one to reply - loads of people read it but not one put their two penn'orth in, and the original poster couldn't even be arsed to say thanks for my 'wisdom'

On the other hand I have made some great friends through FC, and have managed to hook up with someone else doing my course (D318) in the same tutor group: we meet up for coffees and general commiserations, and it makes all the difference.

Apologies for mentioning the RAE, everyone.

Had to go and lie down after that.

I am not here either.

(Unfortunately, the little interruptions that come with sickness,

maternity leave and small children count

for zilch in the culture that exists in my department).

molesworth - can you help? I'd like to use an online journal that requires an athens password. HOw do I use this?

Do the OU use the Athens log in system? If so you will need to ask them to set you up an account. You have to be affliated to an institution that subscribes to Athens in order to be able to get a password, I don't think you can do it privately.

Also you will only be able to view for free the journals that the OU subscribes to (once you have logged in with Athens).

sunnyjim

go to your student home page via www.open.ac.uk and log in, then go to the Open Library link on Student Home. Then click on Electronic Journals to get an A-Z listing of all the journals they subscribe to

You don't normally have to log in again to access articles if you do it this way