English and Creative Writing
UCAS Code: QW38
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
The Access to HE Diploma to include 30 Level 3 credits at Merit. Plus GCSE English at grade 4 / C or above.
GCSE/National 4/National 5
5 GCSEs at grade 4 / C or above to include English.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
UCAS Tariff
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About this course
This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.
Studying English is viewed as a traditional subject with a long history of providing impeccable academic credentials. This course combines stylistics, language and literary theory with creative practice, to help you understand the theories behind writing, to understand your writing style and voice, and to improve your understanding of how language is used in society. It also offers a vocational element.
It has a number of distinctive features by combining humanities with creative freedom, allowing you to explore emerging genres such as games narratives and graphic storytelling. It has innovative, open and participatory content that includes digital streamed performances and online workshops pitched at schools. It has global student collaborations focusing on intercultural narration, and includes digital entrepreneurship, which is the monetising of creative work via YouTube and Social Media, meaning that students work towards publication-ready outputs.
Research-inspired (and research-led) teaching is embedded in the course through academic expertise derived from research activity and publications, including active involvement with national and international scholarly organisations and conferences. Lecturers are all active researchers and practitioners whose research and practice informs their teaching.
Key course benefits;
- Broad range of modules, such as fantasy, children’s writing, film or journalism.
- Enhance your critical thinking and judgment, developing the communication skills sought by employers.
- Second year writers’ retreat in Whitby, staying next door to the Abbey and the graveyard, which was an inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
- Inspiring programme of visiting lecturers – which has previously included Mez Packer, Commonwealth Prize nominee and author, and Lyle Weir, performance poet and singer-songwriter.
- Significant links with a wide variety of employers and media practitioners, such as Writing West Midlands and Theatre Absolute, many of whom offer professional experience opportunities.
- Opportunity to participate in an exciting range of educational and cultural field trips, for example, to view modern adaptations of Shakespeare’s work at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company (RSC) in Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Opportunity to join societies such as The Literature Society and The Coventry Words Magazine Society, which organise visits by writers and writing events, as well as overseeing editorial and production for the creative writing magazine.
Modules
Your main study themes are:
**Language and Linguistics** The analysis of the nature and structure of English language, its meaning, form and context, including how words and sentences are formed, how we make and hear sounds, how languages change and vary, and how language is organised in the brain.
**Literary Genres:** A study of the different genres in the study of literature, such as poetry, drama, prose fiction and film. You will develop an awareness of literary conventions, literary history and how both are related to social and cultural contexts. You’ll gain insights and opinions about different literary genres and be familiar with the analysis and interpretation of poetic, narrative and dramatic texts.
**Stylistics** Analysing style involves looking closely and systematically at the formal features of a text and then considering how those features affect and contribute to the meaning and interpretation of the text in question. We will examine the linguistic models and analytic techniques that can be used to describe, analyse and interpret a range of literary, as well as non-literary texts.
**Poetry** We will explore the cultural and political expression of influential poets from the Romantic era to the present day. In order to develop your own poetic writing, you will learn to recognise different genres of poetry and how to produce a variety of strict and ‘free’ forms of poetic texts.
For more information about what you will study, please visit our website.
Tuition fees
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The Uni
Coventry University
School of Humanities
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
English studies (non-specific)
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Creative writing
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
English studies
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
English is one of the most popular degree subjects and in 2015, more than 11,000 students graduated with English degrees - although this does represent a fall from recent years. As good communication is so important to modern business, you can find English graduates in all parts of the economy, although obviously, you can't expect to get a job in science or engineering (computing is a different matter - it's not common but good language skills can be useful in the computing industry). There's little difference in outcomes between English language and English literature degrees, so don't worry and choose the one that suits you best. More English grads took another postgraduate course when they finished their degree than grads from any other subject - this is an important option. Teacher training was a common choice of second degree, as was further study of English, and journalism courses. But many English graduates changed course and trained in law, marketing or other languages -or even subjects further afield such as computing, psychology and even nursing. This is a very flexible degree which gives you a lot of options
English studies
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
The jobs market for this subject - which includes creative writing and scriptwriting courses - is not currently one of the strongest, so unemployment rates are currently looking quite high overall, with salaries on the lower side. But nevertheless, most graduates get jobs quickly. Graduates often go into careers as authors and writers and are also found in other roles where the ability to write well is prized, such as journalism, translation, teaching and advertising and in web content. Be aware that freelancing and self-employment is common is common in the arts, as are what is termed 'portfolio careers', having several part-time jobs or commissions at once - although graduates from this subject were a little more likely than many other creative arts graduates to be in conventional full time permanent contracts, so that might be worth bearing in mind.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
English studies
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£18k
£22k
£23k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
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It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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