The self-pacing is excellent for those who either wish to take it slow and build off of the skills they acclimate themselves to, or to those who want to learn the skills quickly and earn the associated certification for it. I was the latter and finished this course in about 2 weeks, and I legitimately enjoyed how informative and down-to-earth was. As someone who is currently working and has already graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology, learning these skills has been delightful in its own right.

This was a wonderful and motivating course. The information was good, the videos and readings were engaging. The assignments were interesting, and they forced me to put aside my shyness and lack of confidence, finally formulating my ideas. I thought it was great to have peer reviews, too. It was fun and interesting to see the work of other writers, all in a positive spirit. I highly encourage this course for anyone who has is intrigued by writing. Thank you to the course leaders and my fellow students!

The course 'Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest' helped me advance in my writing and rethink my approach in way. It also put me in contact with other young authors and going along with them was both inspirational and rewarding.

The course lectures are very carefully curated and the two narrators, David Hill and Maria Gill, have made efforts to keep the participatns fascinated in many ways. The interviews with established authors from around the world are very insightful.

This is one of the best courses on writing for young readers that I have come across. Of course, I have not taken many courses on writing. However, for a amateur writer like me, this course has provided enough fodder for thought and action. It has shown the path to be taken by a new writer, both in terms of developing the writing skills and providing information on editing and publishing. I would recommend this course to all those who aspire to be an author

This course was a great help for learning how to write stories so that they are engaging to young readers. I found that the peer reviewed assignments were challenging, but fun as they brought out my creative side. The assignments also helped me to put the knowledge I learned throughout the course into use so that my stories flowed better and had a mixture of dialogue and action. Thank you, teachers, for this excellent course. Also, thanks to Coursera!

This course was very informative. I obtain the encouragement and discipline I need to improve my writing. The discussions, peer editing, and feedback, videos, and information were invaluable. Thanks to the team of teachers/professions for opening this door of opportunity to learners. I feel empowered to move forward to publish my first children's novel. I would love to stay in touch. Thanks again to everyone for making my dream come to fruition.

I enjoyed this course to the fullest extent possible. I loved how they made a few short videos every lesson instead of one long one like other courses provide. It made it incredibly manageable and easy to invest time into. It was a great learning experience and I will be looking into furthering my opportunities to become a published author because I now have the confidence and a bit more knowledge on the industry. Thank you so very much.

I had been writing a novel for a year now and i had no knowledge about writing, but this course really helped me in many aspects and thanks to that I'll be able to write more creatively and professionally. I am also very thankful for the modules that included editing and publishing, something i had no idea about. A big thank you to all the instructors, guests, and my learning mates who dearly helped and guided me throughout the course.

This course gave me a good start. I still have a lot of research to do on publishing companies and submission guidelines, but I feel a lot more prepared after taking this course. I would have liked to learn a bit more about the actual elements needed within a manuscript for the various categories of writing. I really enjoyed the peer review sections. This forced me to write more and learn to receive constructive criticism. Thank you!

The course was excellent! It contained a lot of useful information - from the author's identity to planning a letter to publisher. It helped me a lot with my pieces of writing. The study was so interesting that I could not stop learning and finished it earlier that it was planned. I am grateful very much to teachers and organizers of the course! Thank you for your work! The course will be very helpful to every writer-beginner.

Excellent course! Experienced instructors, interesting and useful videos, and helpful interviews with published authors. This was a very useful course and it is not just for children's writers but for anyone who wants the skills and motivation to write for any audience and genre. Because of this course, I am excited and motivated to write my memoir, something I have thought about for 3 years. Thanks, Coursera!

This course was perfect for me! The wisdom of David Hill and Maria Gill, and the guest speaker interviews are inspiring and filled with the right mix of knowledge, tips, ideas, and practical assignments. I thoroughly enjoyed this course and would highly recommend it for novice writers. Beautifully done! I was honored to be in the virtual presence of seasoned authors. What a joy! Sending you a thousand thanks!

Thoroughly enjoyed the course and loved the learning, both the speakers and the authors who were interviewed were very knowledgeable. I'm so kicked learning via Coursera especially during the lockdown period, I have signed up for another course for 4 months. COVID has been a blessing in some ways since we slow down and find time to educate ourselves. Thank you Team Coursera.

Dipika Ajay Khaitan

April 2020

An excellent course to understand the basics in starting to write. It wasn't what I was initially looking for, however, I learnt so much through practicing writing with prompts and listening to David Hill/Maria Gill and other authors speak. I also really enjoyed the peer reviewed aspect as I usually never share my writing, so it was nice to get feedback on my work. A great beginner's course

It was a pleasure for me to be a part of this. The content is excellent, it never gets boring, the way Mr. Hill and Ms. Gill guides and teaches is totally relaxing, interesting and productive. I just started getting interested in writing and finding this course was the best first step I could take. Thank you so much for the hard work in creating this wonderful course. Greetings from Mexico

This course is a complete package for those who aspire to be a fiction writer, it teaches all steps right from how to start writing to publishing. For me it was a dream course, really enjoyed it and I wish further course of such kind is available so I could join it . Instructors David Hill and Maria Gill were great and they taught in very effective manners and so were the guest speakers.

If you have it in you , the course guides you beautifully , the videos are extremely encouraging, friendly and informative.

The interviews make you feel you are just there in the writing world. The way the course compels one to see the real world by writing a letter to the publisher completes the whole circle.

I was left feeling yes! i can be one of them . Thank you coursera.

I highly recommend this course. It contains a lot of valuable information. I especially learned how edit my work. The limitation of 500 words per story taught me to eliminate anything that doesn't enhance or drive the story forward. Thank you for offering this program. It was a valuable experience that will serve me well as I continue learning to become a better writer.

The course was both interesting and very informative. The course material was well organized and provided helpful hints on how to craft materials for young readers. Plus, the interviews with many authors provided real-world information. The peer-graded writing exercises and the comments they produced gave me the confidence to continue writing after finishing the course.

An excellent course by David Hall and Maria Gill. It was well designed and course materials were well provided to aid the learners. I gained a lot of knowledge and insights on the life of writers. The interviews with the writers and editors were also very helpful. The assignments in each module were thoughtfull and helped me immensely in developing my writing skills.

I really received a lot of perspective with this course. It taught me to write with thought, how to reword a and rewrite when needed. How to keep to the subject, yet give the reader tantalizing story to keep them entertained. I'm very glad I took my daughters advice to take an online course to help me. The statement is true, "It's never to late to learn."

Great class to take if you're a beginner or more of an advanced writer to refresh your learning on the subject. Love how I also got to learn about the editing and publishing process as well. Definitely would not have minded if the class were a few weeks longer. Very glad I signed up and took this course. I am more motivated to continue my life as a writer.

It was a great decision to take this course. The instructors are wonderful and the information, immensely valuable. It pushed me to write stories and apply what I've learned. I will highly recommend it to anyone interested in writing for children. I'm thankful to everyone involved in the creation of this course and for making it available to all.

Very cool easy going course. The videos are short and to the point and the authors in it speak clearly and are easy to understand and follow. The assignments are great fun to do and the community and forms are friendly. If you have an interest in writing in general and want to start writing I'd recommend it as it's good way to get started.

I would like to thank Commonwealth Education Trust for this amazing course. I have no words to say. This has indeed helped me to boost my skills of writing stories and publishing them. Every minute spent on this course was worth the time. I am an aspiring writer and i will surely apply all the things i have learned through this course.