I am keeping my promise of updating my blog with news of my NCTJ Magazine Journalism course.

This is the third week. So far the classes have all been about settling into the college with introductions between classmates and tutors, but now I can see the hard work ahead of me.

Today we had a Feature Writing class with an exercise in the final 45 minutes. We had to write two short pieces about a television programme, each in the style of a different publication. One article had to be written to be published in The Economist and the other had to be in the Broadcast Magazine. This meant writing in two styles on either end of the spectrum: factual and informative with The Economist, and colourful and conversational with Broadcast Magazine.

I wrote about the BBC's The Apprentice show and Lord Sugar's promotion to a government post earlier this year.

Here's what I produced (hastily written!):

Broadcast

Lord Sugar not so sweet

The hard-to-please man behind the Amstrad Empire and the BBC’s The Apprentice has come under fire for trying to juggle his glamorous television career with his new government position. Promoted from Sir Sugar to Lord Sugar in the latest Cabinet reshuffle, Gordon Brown has made the businessman 'Enterprise Tsar'.

The Apprentice has enjoyed national success, with its infamous phrase present in many a bantering conversation. You drop your pint in the pub: “You’re fired!”. You miss a goal in your local Sunday five-aside match: “You’re fired!”

With television awards on his mantelpiece, Lord Sugar may move from sweet to bitter if he is forced to choose between his Bafta-winning show and his government responsibilities.

It isn’t the first time the tyrannical boss has come under fire: last year he was accused of endorsing work place bullying.

Can he juggle the glamour of an award-winning reality television show with the pressured responsibilities of a government post? We’ll find out in the Government Board Room of the next election.

Economist

TV Programme to Parliament Seat

Sir Alan Sugar has been made a Lord this week as Gordon Brown announces the businessman an 'Enterprise Tsar' in the latest Cabinet reshuffle.

Lord Alan Sugar’s reality television programme, The Apprentice, takes 12 aspiring business men and women and puts them at the mercy of the formidable entrepreneur, taking them to the edge of their abilities.

The phrase “You’re fired” has become synonymous with the tyrannical style of the boss who only wants the best-of-the-best to work for him. Doubts have been cast over the show’s future, amid calls for Lord Sugar to choose between a government position and his prime time award-winning programme.