English & Creative Writing BA(Hons)

During the first year of BA English & Creative Writing, you'll explore the basics of creative writing, english literature and publishing – all key areas for aspiring writers to be familiar with. While providing an introduction to the subject, this course also breaks the mould of most English degrees with modules like Exploding the Canon: Writing Then and Now and Breaking the Rules: Remix and Writing Back. Each week, you'll learn through a mix of lectures, workshops and tutorials.

Modules

Writing: Craft & Contexts

This module explores the practice of writing as a discipline and a craft and asks you to debate ideas about writing, authorship, genre, creativity and audience.

Exploding the Canon: Writing Then & Now

How do the literatures of the past infuse the fictions of the present and what do these literatures reveal about us as we are now and us as we once were?

Publishing Cultures

In this module, you'll encounter publishing as a literary and cultural tradition that is dynamic and in a constant state of flux. You will consider the role of technology on the production and dissemination of written texts in the contemporary world.

Breaking the Rules: Remix and Writing Back

A challenging, radical and 'breaking the rules' creative writing module, which covers remix and writing back in theory and practice.

Literatures of Revolution

From the revolutionary ideas of Darwin's theories of evolution to postcolonial revelations, LGBTQi movements and the #MeToo phenomena, literature and other textual forms reflect and create society. How do contemporary notions revolutionise texts and how do texts inform revolutionary ideas?

Publishing Studio: Technologizing the Word

A practical and intermedia publishing module, which might include book design, zine making, performance and exhibition as publication and screen-based media.

This year is all about narrowing down to your specialisation. Want to be a screenwriter? There's a module for that. Want to write for games? There's a module for that too. You can take modules in poetry, creative non-fiction or radio and theatre. You'll take two core modules, but otherwise you'll create your own personalised degree, focusing on your specific interests. You will progress to higher levels of analysis and creation, honing your skills as a writer and a critic. You will learn how to research, plan, pitch and build a profile as a writer.

Modules

Society and the Self

What is the role of identity in literature? How does literature represent the world's diversity? Who communicates identity and how?

Writing Now: Prize Winners, Bestsellers & Controversial Content

What wins prizes? What wins readers? What makes a bestseller? What is literature doing now, and where is it going?

Optional modules

Satire and Scandal
Poetry
Screenwriting
Magic and the Impossible
Fiction
Creative Non-Fiction
Games
Radio & Theatre

You can choose to take an optional placement year after your second year on a three-year programme.

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the RealWORKS employability team. 

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying. 

How you’ll study during your placement year 

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks. 

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation. 

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth. 

The final year of your English & Creative Writing degree is a culmination of the tools and knowledge gained in your first and second years. At this level, you will be working on two major 40-credit modules. In the first, Collaborative Project, you'll work in real-world collaborations; for instance, with community groups, sound projects, work placements and writing projects. We've had students create podcasts, poetry collections, and a range of community projects with partners such as Mind, the National Trust and others.

In the second module, Dissertation and Portfolio, you'll create a sustained piece of work, which you can continue or pitch after graduation. For the portfolio, you will have weekly 30-minute tutorials with your supervisor, allowing you to focus closely on your own writing. You can still choose option modules in the first study block, and in the second we ask you to consider experimentation and adaptation.

Modules

Collaborative Project

In this module you'll consider the writer's role as part of a creative eco-system, and/or literature's role in the creative economy through working on a live collaborative project. The project can be a placement in the writing-related industries, a case study or live brief with a business (for example, literary festivals, creative agencies, publishing houses, the heritage sector), or a collaborative project with peers culminating in an event performance or piece of creative practice.

Dissertation and Portfolio

Create an independent extended piece of creative writing or a collection of creative pieces in a genre, form, topic of your choosing, which sits alongside an extended essay on an area of publishing studies or English literature related to your creative piece.

Experiment and Adaptation

Engage with some of the limits of textuality, testing the boundaries of understanding, meaning and communication. By looking at how texts can be remediated, how they morph and repeat, you'll analyse how texts sit within the time and place of their production, but also how they can innovate and shift.

Optional modules

We Have Never Been Human
Crime and Dark Fiction
Children and Young Adult