Modules

This english and creative writing degree seeks to capture and analyse the most vital contemporary writing (across all formats and media) within the context of a rich literary, historical and theoretical past, developing your critical and creative eye.

Learn, debate and create under the guidance of leading academics, industry professionals and diverse guest speakers, whether in The Lighthouse, our state-of-the-art campus facilities, or any of our immediate and beautiful natural spaces.

By making your own choices, you'll build skills in areas like poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting, and digital games. Be the voice of your community by writing, editing or promoting Falwriting – our student-led online magazine – gaining vital (and CV-boosting), industry-ready skills.

Live collaborative projects will allow you to make priceless personal connections. Work directly with industry, educational, and community partners, creating a clear path to your desired industry or area of further academic study.

Year one:
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
Exploding the Canon: Writing Then & Now
Publishing Cultures
Breaking the Rules: Remix and Writing Back
Literatures of Revolution
Publishing Studio: Technologizing the Word

Year two:
Your second year is all about narrowing down to your specialisation, building on two core modules addressing contemporary literature and a collaborative project. You’ll then be able to branch out into different creative writing types to hone your skills in your optional modules.

Your core modules will explore key issues such as race, gender, sexuality and identity politics in contemporary literature, alongside delivering a dynamic collaborative project with your peers.

The optional modules in year two will give you the opportunity to grow your writing abilities in different specialisms including: writing for games, screenwriting, poetry, creative non-fiction and writing for radio or theatre. You’ll then hone your creative, analytical, critiquing and writing skills and learn how to research, plan, pitch and build a professional profile.

Modules
Society & the Self
Writing Now: Prize-winners, Bestsellers & Controversial Content

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

Year three:
Harnessing the knowledge and skills you’ve honed throughout your degree, in your final year you’ll work on a dissertation and portfolio, allowing you to create a critical and sustained piece of work. For these projects, you’ll have weekly tutorials with your supervisor, giving you a close focus on your own writing.

You’ll examine contemporary literature, focusing only on prize winners, bestsellers and controversial content published in the last five years. You’ll also choose from optional modules during the year, and you’ll study a module in experimentation and adaptation. 

Modules
Dissertation and Portfolio
Experiment and Adaptation
Writing Now: Prize Winners, Bestsellers & Controversial Content

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

The modules above are those being studied by our students, or proposed new ones. Programme structures and modules can change as part of our curriculum enhancement and review processes. If a certain module is important to you, please discuss it with the Course Leader.

Assessment methods

100% of your assessment will be coursework.

Assessment methods:
Coursework and e-learning exercises
Live creative industry briefs
Final year creative writing portfolio