Module Identifier WR10220  
Module Title WRITER'S ART 1: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO TECHNIQUE  
Academic Year 2004/2005  
Co-ordinator Dr Matthew C Francis  
Semester Semester 1  
Other staff Mrs Carol M Marshall, Professor Jeremy P Poster, Dr Richard J Marggraf-Turley, Dr Tiffany S Atkinson  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   10 x 2-hour seminars  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Students will present two portfolios, each the equivalent of 2,500 words including examples of both fiction and poetry and a critical commentary of approximately 500 words. A page of at least 14 lines of poetry is counted as 250 words. The fiction included in each portfolio must amount to at least 750 words, and the poetry to at least two pages.100%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmission of failed elements 

Learning outcomes

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

1. construct a short story;

2. construct a poem;

3. demonstrate, in critical prose, an awareness of their own writing processes;

4. demonstrate, by the revision of work previously discussed in workshops, an ability to improve their writing in response to criticism.

Aims

This module is a practical introduction to a range of techniques and styles in poetry and prose. It aims to give new writers a basic understanding of the craft of writing and confidence to work in a variety of forms and genres.

Brief description

Workshops will be a principal feature of each seminar. Students will submit in advance work on a set theme for discussion by the rest of the group. These workshops will be supplemented by discussion of published texts and practical exercises. Themes and texts will be chosen to illustrate the topic of that week'r seminar.

Content

There will be 10 sessions in all, addressing a range of different topics and covering both poetry and prose. The module will be taught by a number of different tutors and has been designed with a view to allowing some flexibility, both in the tutors? selection of topics and in the order in which topics will be discussed, but each tutor will address a substantial proportion of the topics shown in the indicative list below:

Getting started
Stories and storytelling
Poetic form
Metaphor and imagery
Plot construction
Description
Diction
Economy and suggestiveness
Defamiliarisation
Sense of place
Monologue and dialogue
Showing and telling
Point of view

Reading Lists

Books
No set texts, but students will receive an advisory reading list.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4