This module provides students with one-to-one supervision over an extended period of time (approximately one year for full time students and two years for part time students). The module is assessed in two ways: firstly, by a creative dissertation of 40,000 words that may take the form of a single sustained piece of writing or a collection of pieces from a suitable range of genre; and secondly, by a critical reading log of approximately 4,500 words.
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to demonstrate:
The curriculum will be devoted to the students' own creative writing and research into their chosen form or genre, developed in consultation with their supervisor.
In Teaching Block 3 of the first year, students will begin work on the first 15,000 words of their dissertation with the assistance of the Dissertation Supervisor appropriate to their genre and interests. Students will meet with their Dissertation Supervisor for five one hour, one-to-one tutorial sessions. At the conclusion of Teaching Block 3 in the first year, the students' work will receive feedback from the Dissertation Supervisor in preparation for finishing their MFA Dissertation Project, which is to be completed (and summatively assessed) at the conclusion of the second year.
In the second year, the Advanced Dissertation Project constitutes the central summatively assessed element following the students' first 120 taught credits. This project consists of a 40,000 word prose dissertation (or approved equivalent in poetry or drama) and a critical reading log of literary texts appropriate to the students' genres and interests. The creative dissertation project may take the form of a single manuscript or a collection of writing across one or more genres. Students will draft and complete their dissertation under formal one-to-one supervision from a member of the course team, and with the collective support of staff and guest faculty in the non-credited support modules and associated writers-in-residence programme.
| Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | Supervision and tutorials Directed learning | 16 80 |
| Guided independent study | Independent study | 1104 |
| Total (number of credits x 10) | 1200 | |
The assessment for this module is designed to test the students' ability to produce a complex, structurally sophisticated piece of creative writing that has been drafted and edited to the equivalent of professional standard.
The dissertation may take the form of a portion of a novel, a novella, a body of poetry, a collection of short stories, creative non-fiction, a memoir, a biography, a play, a screenplay, or any other creative form. It may also take the form of a collection of pieces of creative writing across a suitable range of genre as befits a writer also preparing for a career as a lecturer of creative writing in higher education. The final structure, approximate word length and conventions for the presentation of the dissertation must be approved in advance by the assigned supervisor.
| Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
|---|---|
| Develop the technical skills and creativity needed to devise and manage the production of an accomplished and sustained piece or collection of pieces of creative writing | Assessed formatively through one-to-one supervision along with constructive peer criticism through writing workshops and summatively by the production of an advanced dissertation of 40,000 words |
| Demonstrate an advance ability to manage large amounts of information and influences in combination with a range of practical techniques to shape this material into an extended and sophisticated creative writing project | Assessed formatively through one-to-one supervision along with constructive peer criticism through writing workshops and summatively by the production of an advanced dissertation of 40,000 words |
| Display the independence, concentration, confidence and time management skills necessary to complete a rigorous piece of writing or a collection of pieces | Assessed formatively through one-to-one supervision along with constructive peer criticism through writing workshops and summatively by the production of an advanced dissertation of 40,000 words |
| Demonstrate advanced editing and drafting skills along with the capacity to take constructive criticism and apply it to the continual improvement of their creative dissertation as would befit an aspiring writer and would-be lecturer in creative writing in higher education | Assessed formatively through the preparation of drafts for one-to-one supervision along with constructive peer criticism through writing workshops and summatively by the production of an advanced dissertation of 40,000 words |
| Display a critically informed and sophisticated analytical awareness of the benefits of close critical reading for writers | Assessed formatively through directed activities and summatively through the production of a portfolio of critical reports on assigned and individually selected texts totalling approximately 4500 words |
| Demonstrates and engagement in intellectually sophisticated debates concerning ideas of literary canonicity and value, as well as a developed awareness of established and innovative literary techniques | Assessed formatively through directed activities and summatively through the production of a portfolio of critical reports on assigned and individually selected texts totalling approximately 4500 words |
| Display a developed awareness of established and innovative literary techniques | Assessed formatively through directed activities and summatively through the production of a portfolio of critical reports on assigned and individually selected texts totalling approximately 4500 words |
| Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| CWK | MFA Dissertation | 100 |
| Total (to equal 100%) | 100% | |
It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module
Reference:
Advanced Dissertation:
Birkett, Julian, Word Power: A Guide to Creative Writing (London: A&C Black, 1993)
Burchfield R. W., ed. New Fowler's English Usage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
Greig, Noel, Playwriting: A Practical Guide, (London: Routledge, 2005)
Hoffmann, A. Research for Writers (London: A&C Black, 2003)
Kaplin, D. M. Rewriting: A Creative Approach to Writing Fiction (London: A&C Black, 1998)
Ritter, R. Oxford Guide to Style (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)
Ritter, R. Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Critical Reading Log:
Barker, Howard, Scenes from an Execution, in Collected Plays: Volume One (London:
Calder, 1990)
Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot (New York: Grove, 2006)
Bishop, Elizabeth, Collected Poems (New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1984)
Capote, Truman, In Cold Blood (New York: Vintage, 1966)
Carter, Angela, Wise Children (London: Vintage, 1992)
Eliot, George, Middlemarch, ed., Rosemary Ashton(London: Penguin, 2006)
Heaney, Seamus, North (London: Faber and Faber, 1996)
Holmes, Richard, Footsteps (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1985)
Ibsen, Henrik, A Doll's House, trans., Peter Watts(London: Penguin, 2003)
Joyce, James, Dubliners, ed., Jeri Johnson(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Munro, Alice, Runaway (New York: Alfred K. Knopf, 2004)
Rushdie, Salman, Midnight's Children, (London: Jonathan Cape, 1981)
Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver's Travels (London: Vintage, 2007)
Woolf, Virginia, Orlando (London: Penguin, 2006)