Module Information
Module Identifier
WR10220
Module Title
Critical Perspectives on Creative Writing
Academic Year
2020/2021
Co-ordinator
Semester
Semester 1
Other Staff
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 | Reflective Diary (1500 words) | 50% |
| Semester Assessment | Essay (2000 words) | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Reflective Diary (1500 words) | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Essay (2000 words) | 50% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Demonstrate reflective practice skills and an understanding of the importance of these to a writer’s development.
2. Demonstrate an increased knowledge and understanding of approaches to critical material.
3. Demonstrate understanding of literary and scholarly practice.
4. Produce work that demonstrates wide reading and a sound understanding of critical context.
5. Demonstrate, by the revision of work previously developed in exercises, an ability to improve their writing in response to feedback from peers and tutors.
Brief description
What are the critical processes that underlie our creative work? How do we talk about our creative work in a scholarly way? How do we use research?
This module explores ways in which writers engage with the literary, cultural and theoretical contexts for their work. It introduces creative writing students to a range of critical perspectives, teaching them how to examine and analyze these approaches and encouraging them to develop a scholarly approach to creative practice so that they can write effective critical commentaries.
Including both seminars and workshops, students have the opportunity to try out their critical writing and receive formative advice. Throughout the module, students will be given examples of good practice to discuss and compare.
This module explores ways in which writers engage with the literary, cultural and theoretical contexts for their work. It introduces creative writing students to a range of critical perspectives, teaching them how to examine and analyze these approaches and encouraging them to develop a scholarly approach to creative practice so that they can write effective critical commentaries.
Including both seminars and workshops, students have the opportunity to try out their critical writing and receive formative advice. Throughout the module, students will be given examples of good practice to discuss and compare.
Content
1. What are we doing when we write? An introduction to reflective practice and why it matters.
The introductory seminar will introduce a framework for reflective practice and suggest ways in which students might adopt a reflective approach to their writing.
2. How do writers talk about their work? Expressing technical and stylistic decision-making.
Students will explore scholarly ways of discussing and expressing the creative act. They will learn how to approach their work objectively and discuss their technical choices.
3. Workshop: exploring reflective practice and discussing technique.
4. Literary sources: How to compare your work to other writers’ work.
This session will ask students to consider questions of genre, theme and writing style. It will discuss ideas of the literary canon and the anxiety of influence, allowing students to situate their practice in a literary context.
5. Writing in context: what influences our writing.
Students will be asked to explore the variety of contexts that might be discussed in a critical analysis of a piece of writing, from history to science, economics to environment. It will examine appropriate ways of discussing and analyzing these contexts.
6. Workshop: using contextual sources
7. Scholarly sources: ways of finding and using secondary critical material.
This seminar will look at secondary critical material and how it might be used to inform and analyse creative work. The session will look at library and online resources, processes for accessing articles, and ways of comparing critical approaches.
8. Scholarly structures: references, footnotes, bibliographies
This seminar will focus on the structures for writing good critical work and encourage students to form good scholarly habits.
9. Workshop: Incorporating critical material
10. Towards a theoretical framework.
This seminar introduces students to the variety of theoretical approaches that they might encounter, and suggests ways of using these in the critical analysis of their own work.
The introductory seminar will introduce a framework for reflective practice and suggest ways in which students might adopt a reflective approach to their writing.
2. How do writers talk about their work? Expressing technical and stylistic decision-making.
Students will explore scholarly ways of discussing and expressing the creative act. They will learn how to approach their work objectively and discuss their technical choices.
3. Workshop: exploring reflective practice and discussing technique.
4. Literary sources: How to compare your work to other writers’ work.
This session will ask students to consider questions of genre, theme and writing style. It will discuss ideas of the literary canon and the anxiety of influence, allowing students to situate their practice in a literary context.
5. Writing in context: what influences our writing.
Students will be asked to explore the variety of contexts that might be discussed in a critical analysis of a piece of writing, from history to science, economics to environment. It will examine appropriate ways of discussing and analyzing these contexts.
6. Workshop: using contextual sources
7. Scholarly sources: ways of finding and using secondary critical material.
This seminar will look at secondary critical material and how it might be used to inform and analyse creative work. The session will look at library and online resources, processes for accessing articles, and ways of comparing critical approaches.
8. Scholarly structures: references, footnotes, bibliographies
This seminar will focus on the structures for writing good critical work and encourage students to form good scholarly habits.
9. Workshop: Incorporating critical material
10. Towards a theoretical framework.
This seminar introduces students to the variety of theoretical approaches that they might encounter, and suggests ways of using these in the critical analysis of their own work.
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | N/A |
| Communication | Oral communication in seminar discussions and workshop feedback. Written communication in workshop tasks and assignments. |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Responding to the feedback of peers and the tutor to improve writing skills. Demonstrating the ability to undertake independent research and for focused reading of relevant texts. |
| Information Technology | Word-processing required for workshop tasks and assignments, as well as digital resources for research. |
| Personal Development and Career planning | Responding to the feedback of peers and the tutor. Independent self-reflection. |
| Problem solving | Analyzing and employing reading and writing skills. Planning and developing workshop exercises and assignments. |
| Research skills | Undertaking research into key contexts, themes and techniques and presenting this in a scholarly manner. |
| Subject Specific Skills | Practical proficiency in creative writing; revision and editing. Close reading. Analysis of texts and research sources. |
| Team work | Group discussion in seminars and peer feedback in response to workshop tasks. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 4