Module Information

Module Identifier
WRM6420
Module Title
Modes in Contemporary Poetry
Academic Year
2025/2026
Co-ordinator
Dr Gavin Goodwin
Semester
Semester 1
Reading List
View example reading list on Aspire
Other Staff
 

Course Delivery

 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Portfolio  12 pages poetry portfolio and a 1500 word critical commentary on the poetry submitted, plus annotated bibliography (bibliography is not included in the word count) 5000 Words  100%
Supplementary Assessment Portfolio  12 pages poetry portfolio and a 1500 word critical commentary on the poetry submitted, plus annotated bibliography (bibliography is not included in the word count) 5000 Words  100%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Demonstrate, in both creative and evaluative writing, an understanding of modes used in poetry;

Demonstrate, in critical prose, an understanding of their own writing processes;

Improve their work in response to criticism.

Brief description

The module will consist of five 2-hour seminars and five 2-hour workshops. In the seminars, students will be introduced to the theory and practice of five poetic modes. For the workshops, they will write poems in these modes, which will be discussed and subsequently revised for the assignment.

Estimated Student Workload
20 hours contact time
80 hours preparation for seminars and workshops
100 hours preparation of portfolios

Content

In seminars and workshops students will study and write poems in range of poetic modes. The module begins by looking at the differences between poems that aim for a sense of reduced affect (with feelings and reactions underplayed or implicit) and those that aim for a sense of heightened affect (with feelings and reactions foregrounded and made explicit). The second part of the module explores poetry characterised by extreme brevity (minimalist mode), poems that eschew narrative linearity (disjunctive mode), and poems that foreground language itself as a shaping medium (linguistic mode).

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Communication Oral through workshop and seminar discussion, written through assignment
Improving own Learning and Performance Through revision of work in response to workshop feedback
Information Technology Through Blackboard and wordprocessing skills
Personal Development and Career planning Through critical reflection and the development of transferable communication skills.
Problem solving Through dealing with problems of writing and research
Research skills Independent and directed research for seminar preparation and work on summative assessment tasks.
Subject Specific Skills Creative writing (poetry), literary research and criticism
Team work Through co-operation in workshops and seminars

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7