Mobile: 07926092903;

email: piet2502@yahoo.co.uk
25 January, 2012

Dear All,
Im writing to introduce myself as your tutor for the Open University module AA100 The Arts past
and present. I would like to give you a very warm welcome to the module and hope we will enjoy
working together.
The first face to face tutorial is on Wednesday 8 th February and will take place in Colchester at the
Colchester Institute from 19:00 am to 21:00. Please try to come to this as it is an important occasion.
It will give us an opportunity to meet and will surely make it easier for you to contact me again
during the year. I know that studying with The Open University can be a solitary experience at
times, so tutorials will also provide a good chance for you to meet your colleagues and establish
student self-help groups, if you have already agreed to pass your details to other students. Whether
you are new to O.U. study or familiar with the material of other courses, AA100 will surely be a
very intriguing and exciting course, focusing, as it does, on a wide range of topics and disciplines.
There will be eight face to face tutorials for a total of 16 tutorial hours. It would be good if you can
attend all of them, but if you are unable to attend tutorials we will need to have a chat about how I
can best support you during the course. In addition to face to face tutorials, we will also have
telephone contacts: a) Initial Contact, b) Review of Progress at week 17, c) Final one to one contact
at week 34. For the Initial Contact, I will use the week starting 30 January 2012. I will call you on
Monday and Thursday of that week all day, Friday morning, and Sunday evening. Please let me
know if you prefer to be called at specific times of the day. Information on online tuition and
sessions, and Day School will be available at a later date, but I just would like to anticipate that in
my Day School contribution on 25th February, I will focus on Marlowes Faustus.
For the first tutorial we will look at the module structure, introduce the theme of Book 1, and do
some activities on the concept of reputation. It would be helpful if you have read the introduction
and chapter 1 of the module book, Reputations, and the relevant audio-visual material for this part of
the module. If you have any particular difficulties or worries about the demands of the module
please either send me an email or give me a ring. I am usually available on Sunday, Wednesday, and
Thursday evenings, and Monday and Thursday mornings and afternoons. If I'm not in do please
leave a message on the answerphone and I will get back to you as soon as possible. You can also
contact me by e-mail, for fast feedback on your work if you like (piet2502@yahoo.co.uk, please put
AA100 on the subject line). This is my main e-mail address, so I check it on a regular basis and
would gladly answer any query on the module. Above all, please remember that I am here to help,
this is my role as OU tutor!
Finally, I should tell you a little bit about myself. I have a Ph.D on modern and contemporary
literature from the University of Essex, an MA in Critical and Cultural Studies from the same
University, and a BA in English Literature from the University of Palermo (Italy). In addition to
teaching for the O.U., I also teach for the University of Essex, Department of Literature, Film and
Theatre Studies, and for the National Extension College in Cambridge. I hope you enjoy going
through the new AA100 material. Please dont hesitate to contact me if you have any query. Also,
please let me know if you are unable to attend the first tutorial (a short e-mail would be fine). I look
forward to meeting you in Colchester.
Best wishes,
Pietra Palazzolo
Module Tutor