BA English Literature with Creative Writing

This course will teach you to become a more skilled writer, editor and close reader of fiction, with emphasis on the literary short story. In most weeks half of the class will be a seminar to focus upon an aspect of fiction-writing (typically including discussion of a story, close reading of extracts from a variety of fiction, and writing exercises). The other half will consist of a workshop to critique fiction submissions from the class (about three per session). Each student will write two stories to be critiqued in workshop, one of which you will choose to submit later for assessment, after continuing work on it. Each time you submit fiction to the class you will have a twenty-minute one-to-one tutorial to discuss next steps to improve your story.

From week 4 onwards, you will workshop your classmates’ stories, with each student submitting fiction twice over the semester. You will annotate other students’ submissions carefully, providing line edits and an overall summary to outline the story’s strengths and weaknesses, and your suggestions for how to make the story better.

Aims

• To identify and develop writing, reading and editorial skills in fiction by means of exercises and engagement with new texts in workshop context.

• To foster powers of critical thinking and skills in written and verbal forms of expression.

• To encourage students to join in productive group-work in a workshop context in order to reflect on their own learning and to assist with the learning processes of other students.

• To provide students with skills that are both related to the discipline and transferable to appropriate professional contexts.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course unit the successful student will have demonstrated:

• Writing, reading and basic editorial skills in fiction.

• A level of critical and analytical thinking and skills in written expression appropriate to work that will form part of the final degree assessment.

• Confidence in presenting his or her own work, and critical skills in discussing the work of fellow students in constructive ways.

• An ability to engage in group-work in order to reflect on and develop his or her own learning and to assist with the learning processes of other students.

• Skills that are both related to the discipline and transferable to appropriate professional contexts.

Written and face-to-face (upon arrangement)

Students will be required to read the contributions of fellow-members of the group.

Other information

Entry to this course is by competition only. Places will be offered on the basis of samples of creative work submitted during the second semester of year 1. Those who have been successful in their application for the course will have been informed before pre-registration.