2023/24 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL1055 Writing Matters

20 creditsClass Size: 300

School of English

Module manager: Dr Danielle Williams
Email: d.williams2@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2023/24

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

Writing and communication skills are vital to most professional careers. They are also extremely valuable in the areas of English and cultural studies. This module examines theoretical approaches and rhetorical strategies used to write about literature. It also explores debates around specific literary texts. Through lectures, seminars, and practical workshops, you will cultivate a deeper understanding of how writing works, learn how to share insights with greater efficacy and sophistication, and practice how to transfer this knowledge to future workplace contexts.

Objectives

- Understand writing as a process (plan, invent, draft, revise, edit)  
- Learn how to use the concepts of purpose, audience, exigence, context, medium, and genre to analyse and write effectively
- Advance critical reading and critical thinking skills through the texts read and analysed
- Develop the rhetorical knowledge needed to engage with the writing of others productively, critically and ethically
- Understand and use various elements of expression to create desired effects 
- Understand how stylistic and genre conventions of literary analysis work to constrain as well as enable our choices as writers
- Represent sources accurately and ethically through summary, paraphrase, quotation, and to incorporate and reference sources
- Read sources carefully to evaluate information and arguments for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, truth, timeliness and bias 
- Equip students with analytical and composing tools needed to accurately assess and effectively adapt to a wide spectrum of writing situations
- Practice reflection as a means to learn and strengthen metacognitive knowledge and rhetorical abilities 

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, you should be able to: 
1. Demonstrate an ability to read analytically and develop an awareness of the craft of writing in different academic and professional contexts.
2. Give and receive constructive criticism. 
3. Participate actively in the various forms of writing and research practised within the School, including writing critically, using textual evidence to support a written argument, engaging with outside sources ethically and learning referencing conventions.
4. Reflect on the writing process and on the work that it produces. 

Skills outcomes
- Write clearly, accurately and effectively
- Analyse and evaluate information, and form arguments
- Communicate well in writing and orally
- Articulate complex ideas
- Demonstrate independent and imaginative thinking
- Engage with scholarship
- Do close and critical reading
- Analyse texts and discourses
- Give and receive feedback
- Be open to alternative views
- Reflect on practice and assumptions
- Initiate work and take responsibility for it
- Be organised and work to deadlines
- Carry out independent research
- Exhibit bibliographic skills
- Be culturally sensitive
- Make decisions
- Recognise and use the power of language
- Understand social and commercial impact of their own work

Syllabus

During the early part of the module, students will read, discuss and analyse a key literary text and a variety of critical essays that engage with different theoretical approaches. Students will develop a shared vocabulary by engaging with critical concepts, analysing the generic conventions of essays, and learning about writing processes. Building on this foundation, students will go on to conduct their own research on the key text, develop their own essays, give each other feedback during peer writing activities, and reflect on their learning and writing processes. This module will also develop close reading skills, so that students can confidently and ethically join conversations about literature and culture, and are equipped to use their communication skills in the workplace.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	10	1.00	10.00
Practical	10	1.00	10.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			170.00
Total Contact hours			30.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Opportunities for formative feedback will be provided in seminars through discussion and formative assessments, including an oral presentation of their research at the end of the teaching term. Students will also have the opportunity to give and receive peer feedback on drafts in progress in seminars and during guided activities in practical workshops. Students could have additional opportunities to receive individual formative feedback from peers and the tutor verbally and/or in writing during model analysis exercises.



The portfolio will be the culmination of written work produced throughout the semester. An essay plan, annotated bibliography, and essay drafts will be unassessed and receive formative feedback during the semester, and the portfolio essay will receive a final mark based on how effectively students have revised and implemented feedback.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Source Analysis	1000-word essay analysing the strategies used in an essay about a literary text	30.00
Portfolio	Portfolio of written work (1500-word essay)	60.00
Reflective log	250-word metacognitive essay	10.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Students will prepare an unassessed oral presentation based on their research as part of the seminar work.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 01/03/2023

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