2023/24 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL5900M Approaches to Creative Writing

30 creditsClass Size: 15

Module manager: Dr Jess Richards
Email: j.Richards3@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2023/24

Pre-requisite qualifications

N/A

Module replaces

N/A

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

This module introduces you to the study of Creative Writing at MA level. You will write regularly and gain practical experience writing fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. You will develop and hone your skills in the ‘creative writing workshop’ where you will receive feedback on your work from your peers and the tutor. You will engage with and discuss key contemporary texts and media ‘as a writer’ and explore key debates in creative writing with a growing awareness of the writer’s relationship to the literary community and industry. You will be able to discern and apply feedback in the development of your own work and demonstrate a reflexive approach to your creative process and to setting, adapting and achieving your writing aims. The module will prepare you to specialise further in advanced option modules and in your Research Project.

Objectives

Students will develop their creative writing practice through regular writing, including in response to set exercises. The module will have sessions focused on gaining practical experience writing fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The weekly workshops will be dedicated to giving and receiving feedback on student writing, examining key literary texts that demonstrate relevant genre conventions and innovations, and discussing texts and media that reveal key debates in creative writing, including the relationship of the writer to the literary community and industry.

Learning outcomes
1. To develop a Master’s level creative writing practice with experience of writing fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction

2. To gain experience of the advanced ‘creative writing workshop’ (giving and receiving feedback) and be able to select and apply that feedback in the development of one’s own writing

3. To develop a practice of ‘reading as a writer’ to identify genre conventions and innovations and key debates in creative writing

4. To gain awareness of the writer's relationship to the literary community and industry

5. To demonstrate a reflexive approach to one’s own writing aims and process

NB: Five (rather than four) learning outcomes can be necessary to teach and effectively assess the discipline of Creative Writing, especially in this core module, which encompasses the practical/creative and the contextual/reflective.

Syllabus

This module introduces you to the study of Creative Writing at MA level, and indicative content includes:

- Reading and discussing salient literary texts and media that demonstrate relevant genre conventions and innovations

- Reading and discussing texts and media that reveal key debates in creative writing, including the relationship of the writer to the literary community and industry

- Regular writing practice in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, with work submitted and read for the ‘Creative Writing Workshop’

- Participation in the ‘Creative Writing Workshop’ in which feedback is given and received in the session

- Set writing exercises

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	10	2.00	20.00
Private study hours			280.00
Total Contact hours			20.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

One unassessed informal presentation and brief extracts of work-in-progress submitted regularly for peer and tutor feedback.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Portfolio	A portfolio of 2,000 words of prose or the equivalent in poetry (e.g., 125 lines of verse, 2500 words if prose poetry, or an agreed equivalent in pages or other methods of delivery if visual/sound/performance/intermedia poetry)	70.00
Critique	A critical reflection of 2,000 words	30.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

If your assessment cannot be resit in its original form (eg group presentation which must be resat through another mode of assessment e.g., essay), say so here.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 15/08/2023 12:47:52

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