Module Information
Course Delivery
Assessment
Due to Covid-19 students should refer to the module Blackboard pages for assessment details
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Essay (3,500 words) | 60% |
| Semester Assessment | Presentation (15 minutes) | 40% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Essay (3,500 words) | 60% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Presentation (15 minutes) | 40% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Reflect and comment upon, in critical prose, their own creative practice.
2. Locate, and critically discuss, their own creative work within a relevant literary context.
3. Locate, and critically discuss, their own creative work within a relevant theoretical context.
4. Demonstrate, by the revision of work previously discussed in workshops, an ability to improve their writing in response to criticism.
Brief description
Writer as Scholar explores the significant role research and critical writing play in studying creative writing at MA level. By looking at examples of scholarly articles by creative writers, this module will introduce students to a range of research modes and methods, as well emphasising the necessity of in-depth and detailed critical and theoretical reading and analysis. The module aims to equip students with the necessary skills to write accomplished critical essays about their own work at MA level. It includes four workshops, which will enable students to receive formative feedback on topics covered.
Content
The opening seminar will introduce students to the important role research plays in creative writing – both inside and outside the academy. A range of approaches to research will be discussed alongside examples of scholarly articles by creative writers
2: Literary Context 1: Knowing Your Field
This seminar will explore why it is important for a writer to have an extensive knowledge of the genre in which they are working – its origins and evolution, as well as its defining techniques and themes.
3: Knowing Your Field Workshop
Students will workshop a 1000-word summary of the history and defining characteristics of their chosen genre.
4: Literary Context 2: Close Reading
As well demonstrating knowledge of one’s literary field in general, a student’s critical work should also show an ability to zoom in on specific texts. This seminar will the address the importance of close reading and detailed, comparative analyses.
5: Close Reading Workshop
Students will workshop a 1000-word piece of literary analysis comparing a short passage of their own work with a short passage from the work of another writer.
6: Theory and Textual Analysis
This seminar will look at the role critical theory can play in how we read texts – including our own. But it will also explore questions of methodology and how theoretical issues can shape our texts too.
7: Theory Workshop
Students will workshop a 1000-word piece of literary analysis that examines through a particular theoretical lens either a short passage of their own work or a short passage from the work of another writer.
8: Theory and the Creative Process
This seminar will discuss the ways in which the creative process itself – inspiration, insight, problem solving – can be addressed and contextualised within a theoretical framework.
9: Theory and the Creative Process Workshop
Students will workshop a 1000-word piece of writing discussing their own creative process with reference to at least one of the theories addressed in the previous seminar.
10: Creative Writing as Research
Creative writing research is often thought about in relation to the research done prior to writing, during writing, or after the writing is complete. This final seminar, however, will explore the idea that creative writing itself is a form of research – a legitimate ‘method of discovery and analysis’ (Laurel Richardson).
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | |
| Communication | Oral communication through seminar discussion and assessed presentation, written through assignments |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Giving and receiving peer feedback and feedback from tutors. Public speaking opportunities, adapting communication for different purposes and audiences. Team work in seminars. Authentic assessment will support development of transferable skills. Critical self-reflection and development of transferable skills in communication and research. |
| Information Technology | Independent and directed research for seminar preparation and work on summative assessment tasks. |
| Personal Development and Career planning | By reflecting on how theoretical and contextual knowledge can be used to improve the students’ understanding of their own creative practice. |
| Problem solving | Thinking through the most effective way(s) to discuss their own creative writing in relation to relevant literary and theoretical contexts. |
| Research skills | Reflecting on how theoretical and contextual knowledge can be used to improve the students’ understanding of their own creative practice. Engaging with relevant scholarship. |
| Subject Specific Skills | Conceptual and technical knowledge in key fields of creative writing and literary study. |
| Team work | Team work in seminars, preparing for and participating in workshops, engaging with a student-led agenda. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 7