2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue
ENGL3042 The Practical Essay
40 creditsClass Size: 18
School of English
Module manager: Dr Benjamin Dunn
Email: b.a.dunn@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
Module replaces
ENGL3018, ENGL3019 and ENGL3023This module is not approved as a discovery module
Objectives
The Practical Essay is a 40-credit independent research project. This module facilitates and encourages independent, self-directed learning, providing a culmination to the research and practice-as-research introduced and experienced in earlier modules. Tailored workshops, rehearsal observation, and tutorial supervision, support the development of research topics and questions. These are at liberty to range across the creative adaptation of texts, approaches to devising, and dramaturgical interpretations of dramatic text. In this way, the Practical Essay is an opportunity to develop dialogues between the key fields of the English Literature and Theatre Studies degree programme. The module promotes a wide variety of responses to the research challenges it offers students, providing opportunities to express critical analysis, understanding and manipulation of knowledge through practical research and presentation. Given the collaborative nature of performance as a mode of exploring and demonstrating knowledge, and of practice-as-research as a discipline, students have the option to work individually towards their research output, or in small groups with clearly defined individual research trajectories and objectives.Learning outcomes
Students will emerge with knowledge appropriate to the individual subjects of their projects, but also endowed with skills, which include project management, time management, research, documentation and archiving of performance and performance preparation. Students will develop skills in critical thinking, independent working, collaborative working and negotiation, planning and organisation, analytical skills, flexibility of thought, use of knowledge and research skills, and the practical application of embodied expression. The module develops a sense of academic professionalism in building an awareness of one’s own skills and abilities, and confidence in articulating them; in managing time and workload effectively; in reflecting on, and benefitting from, one’s own learning and that of others.
Skills outcomes
Cooperative problem solving, working together to meet a deadline, versatility and flexibility in collaborative conditions, shared responsibility.
Syllabus
The Practical Essay is a 40-credit independent research project. This module facilitates and encourages independent, self-directed learning, providing a culmination to the research and practice-as-research introduced and experienced in earlier modules. Tailored workshops, rehearsal observation, and tutorial supervision, support the development of research topics and questions. These are at liberty to range across the creative adaptation of texts, approaches to devising, and dramaturgical interpretations of dramatic text. In this way, the Practical Essay is an opportunity to develop dialogues between the key fields of the English Literature and Theatre Studies degree programme. The module promotes a wide variety of responses to the research challenges it offers students, providing opportunities to express critical analysis, understanding and manipulation of knowledge through practical research and presentation. Given the collaborative nature of performance as a mode of exploring and demonstrating knowledge, and of practice-as-research as a discipline, students have the option to work individually towards their research output, or in small groups with clearly defined individual research trajectories and objectives.
The syllabus for this module is necessarily flexible to accommodate the wide variety of projects it facilitates. In semester 1, workshop and seminar approaches prepare and equip the students for their independent and collaborative work.
Teaching methods
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
| Studio Time | 0 | 0.00 | 200.00 |
| Supervised Practice | 2 | 0.50 | 1.00 |
| Practical | 6 | 3.00 | 18.00 |
| Seminar | 4 | 1.00 | 4.00 |
| Tutorial | 4 | 0.50 | 2.00 |
| Private study hours | 175.00 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 225.00 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 400.00 | ||
Private study
Teaching will be through a mixture of seminars, lectures, tutorials and practical workshops. There are also witnessed rehearsals. Practical workshops, focussed seminars, and individual tutorials in semester 1 prepare students for individual research. Then, weeks 8-11 of Semester 1 and weeks 1-8 of Semester 2 are the context for private study and practical exploration in rehearsal mode. There will be access to supervision throughout this period, including the supervisor witnessing rehearsal work in process. Students are expected to: define a research project with a research question or questions; to consider and implement research methodologies; and to explore through practical modes of enquiry, including online and traditional library research, workshopping, devised work, preparation of scripted materials, and the collection and collation of data.Opportunities for Formative Feedback
Semester 1• Preparation and Contexts
Weeks 1 - 6: A series of workshops and lectures to explore performance based research methodologies. Session facilitation will be a mix of in-house (staff led) and visiting practitioners, supplemented where appropriate by theatre visits. Task-based devising activities, along with guidance on keeping a learning journal, will support creative exploration, conceptualization and the development of appropriate research questions. An unassessed essay to be submitted in week 6 or 7 will take the form of an initial proposal for the Practical Essay.
• Research and Development
Weeks 8 - 11: Seminars and tutorials to support project development will be scheduled alongside a series of staff- and/or student- facilitated workshops, towards the sharing and group discussion of 5 minute performance segment/s in Wk 11. A finished proposal, encapsulated in a research question and responding to the outcomes of the 5 minute sharing, will be submitted by the usual January deadline which the School applies for core and option essays.
Semester 2
• Shaping and Honing
Weeks 1-8: (or weeks 1-9, depending on Easter), students will rehearse and prepare their work, with supervisors available and witnessing limited rehearsal of materials.
Presentation: All PEs and group projects will be performed on the weekend that Easter vac begins, that is to say immediately after teaching ends for Easter.
• Reflection and Evaluation
Week 9-11 (or 10-11): supervision meetings and group seminars to reflect on work, and in preparation for submission of critical appraisals.
Methods of assessment
Coursework
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
| Assignment | A 2000 word critical appraisal of the practical preparation and performance weighted at 30%, OR a 3500 word critical appraisal, weighted at 40%, for those working in a group on the practical assessment. The critical appraisal will incorporate a Digital Portfolio in both cases. | 30.00 |
| Practical | A 20 minute performance weighted at 70%, OR a 20 minute performance weighted at 60% (for those who opt to work in a group). | 70.00 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100.00 | |
Students will have the option of working independently (but may 'employ' peers to perform alongside or for them) or of working in groups (of no more than four) in which each individual will have a defined research project allied to the collective objectives. The practical essay in each case is a 20 minute performance. If opting for a group route, a greater emphasis is placed on the critical appraisal, as a form of assessment in which individual contribution to collaborative work is more straightforwardly identified, justified, clarified and outlined. A 'digital portfolio' is a new component of assessment, and the compilation of material and research for that portfolio will provide opportunities for formative feedback and feed into both supervision and peer support sessions. The compilation of the Digital Portfolio begins in Semester 1.
Reading list
The reading list is available from the Library websiteLast updated: 29/04/2024 16:13:47
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