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Creative Writing & English

QW38 Creative Writing & English

QW 38 - 3 years

The English Department, rated ‘Excellent’ in the most recent Assessment of Teaching Quality, is offering an exciting BA in Creative Writing and English Literature. This is an integrated and self-contained single honours programme. The scheme is taught by practising writers, and aims to develop both your creative and your critical skills. It will help you to develop your range and capabilities as a writer, and enable you to work confidently in a variety of forms and genres. It will also help you to develop a reflective writing practice which is informed by a knowledge of past and present writing in a variety of forms and genres; an understanding of the literary, cultural and socio-historical contexts in which literature is written and read, and an awareness of the range and variety of approaches to literary study and to the practice of writing.

Year 1

In your first year you will take three core modules: `The Writer`s Art (1): A Beginner`s Guide to Technique`, `The Study of English`, and ‘Aspects of Genre’. ‘The Writer's Art (1)’ is organised thematically around the formal and technical issues which typically confront the inexperienced writer, such as plotting, use of images, contextualisation, dialogue, and voice. The workshop format enables students to learn how to give and receive constructive criticism and to edit and revise their own work throughout the module. ‘The Study of English’ is a skills and methods module, which focuses on a range of different approaches to reading and writing about literary texts of different periods. ‘Aspects of Genre’ explores the genres of poetry, drama and the novel through a detailed study of texts from different periods. You will also be given the chance to take three option modules, including‘The Writer’s Art (2): Transpositions’, which is based upon a series of writing tasks which involve ‘transposing’ a pre-existing piece of material in some way: for example from one medium to another, or from one genre to another, and ‘Contemporary Writing’, which introduces you to a range of recent poetry, drama and fiction. ‘The Writer's Art’ modules and ‘The Study of English’ are taught in workshop classes and are assessed by means of short task-based assignments. ‘Aspects of Genre’ and ‘Contemporary Writing’ are taught by lectures and weekly seminars and are assessed by a combination of coursework and an end-of-module examination paper.

Years 2 and 3

All Creative Writing and English Literature students take a common core, to which they add Writing options. The core consists of: ‘The Writer’s Art(2): Set Forms’; ‘Reading Theory/Reading Texts (1)’, ‘Reading Theory/WritingTexts’, and the final year Writing Project, which will give you an opportunity to engage with an extended piece of your own writing in any form including a longer piece of fiction, a collection of poems or short stories, or a dramatic text. In addition you will take four core modules organised on a historical basis: Medieval and Renaissance Writing, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Writing, Nineteenth-Century Writing and Twentieth-Century Writing. You may select your options from the following list: Writing Short Fictions; Traditional Poetic forms; Writing at the Millennium; Experimental Writing; The Electronic Text; Writing Lives: Autobiography. (Additional modules are currently being developed.) The emphasis of these modules will be on producing and refining your own writing, and you will present your own work regularly for feedback and suggestions.

Assessment

Reading Theory/Reading Texts (1) and the core period modules are assessed by a combination of coursework and an end-of-module examination. All of the other modules are continuously assessed. The final year Writing Project is assessed by means of a portfolio of writing accompanied by a commentary.

Louise Jenkins BA English Literature and Creative Writing Oxfordshire

I chose to study at Aberystwyth because of the course and its location by the sea. It was very, easy to settle into studying. I’ve lived in town for the whole three years and you just feel like you’re part of a community straight away, everyone’s so friendly, and it’s crazy on Saturday! The department’s pretty good. The tutors are good and if you have any questions they have office hours you can go visit them in. The Arts Centre is really good, they show more arty films as well as the more recent ones. And they have special themed weeks, for example every two weeks they show horror films. At Aberystwyth it is laid back and comfortable and there’s no pressure. The social life is really good. I think it has 52 pubs, which is crazy. I haven’t been to all of them! There are two clubs in town which are good, and everyone tends to go to the same place, so you make friends just by going out. I would definitely recommend Aberystwyth to others, especially if you’re from the city and you want something completely different. It’s the place to come. You do feel far away from home, but that’s a good thing!