This module provides the opportunity to write across three genres - including prose, poetry and playwriting - to teach you how to apply literary techniques from other forms to your own work. It will look at:
• issues of voice, imagery, tone and characterisation;
• elements of narrative, dramatic and lyrical forms; and
• contemporary works – allowing you to master structure and style and understand how a variety of literary forms function.
You will also submit a portfolio of writing exercises in the different genres studied.
The aims of this module are to:
This module is designed to broaden and make more transferable your writing skills. On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:
Feedback on this module takes place in workshop and seminar discussions, on a one to one basis during office hours and in written form on the comment sheets you receive with your marked assessments. Come and see the module leader during the office hours listed above if you have any concerns or questions related to this module. If you would like your work in progress to be read over by your seminar tutor, please make an appointment with your tutor during office hours and email the work to your tutor at least three days before the appointment. Each student may request that their draft work be read and discussed in this way up to two times in the semester, though you may attend office hours for discussions of your work or to ask questions about the module as often as you like.
Weekly workshops provide you with the opportunity to share your work and to receive specific advice and criticism from your seminar tutor and fellow students. Advice and critique from tutors, both in seminars and in one to one meetings, is designed to improve your writing and to feed forward into your submission for assessment. You can also consult your tutor for advice about which pieces of work produced over the course of the semester are most appropriate for submission.
| Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | Writing workshop | 22 |
| Guided independent study | Guided independent study | 278 |
| Total (number of credits x 10) | 300 | |
Assessment for this module is designed to demonstrate the students' acquisition
of skills and knowledge necessary to draft, present, critique and revise a
substantial piece of creative writing in three distinct forms (prose, poetry and
playwriting).
ELEMENT OF ASSESSMENT
1. PORTFOLIO OF EXERCISES: 100%
A portfolio of writing exercises (maximum 5,000 words or the equivalent),
together with the drafts of these. This portfolio will include items such as the
following:
a. An exercise in prose (fiction or non-fiction)
b. An exercise in poetry
c. An exercise in playwriting
The exercises may take the forms of a story, a personal essay, a memoir, part of
a novel as well as poems and a short play script.
| Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
|---|---|
| write with enhanced ease and confidence in your chosen form and have deeper understanding and appreciation of the codes and conventions of two other forms | Portfolio of exercises |
| apply the techniques of other forms to your primary writing form demonstrate an understanding of literary elements such as voice, character and narrative across different forms | Portfolio of exercises |
| produce a well-edited and revised work of writing using your own voice and literary techniques in a chosen form | Portfolio of exercises |
| create a sustained piece of writing by constructing shorter elements into longer sequences demonstrate a critical appreciation of contemporary readings and your own writing | Portfolio of exercises |
| Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| CWK | Portfolio of exercises | 100 |
| Total (to equal 100%) | 100% | |
It IS a requirement that the major category of assessment is passed in order to achieve an overall pass for the module
John Singleton and Mary Luckhurst, The Creative Writing Handbook, 2nd ed.
(London: Palgrave, 2000).
John Stallworthy and Jahan Ramazani, The Norton Anthology of English
Literature, Volume F, The Twentieth Century and After. 8th ed. (New York: Norton,
2005).
Lodge, David, The Art of Fiction (Viking, 1992)
Lopate, Phillip, The Art of the Personal Essay (Anchor, 1994)
Mamet, David, Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama
(Columbia, 1998)
Pinsky, Robert, The Sounds of Poetry, a Brief Guide (Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
1998)
You will also be recommended reading tailored to your own creative interests by your tutor and personal tutor.