Q. I am leaving school in the next few weeks
and really would like to get into journalism when I leave university. I have lots of good ideas and would like to start writing freelance articles immediately but none of the newspaper features editors I have written to with some brilliant ideas has responded to my emails or even acknowledged them. Where could I be going wrong, Mary?
W.P., Oxford A. Do not take the silence personally. Thanks to emails the lives of most features editors have been made intolerable — bombarded with an average of 200 ideas or PR mailshots per day to which they physically cannot reply. Your only hope of making an impact is presenteeism. May I suxest you take holiday work as an office cleaner or as catering staff in one of the relevant newspaper buildings. If you are personable you will have a better chance of putting your ideas across.
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