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BA English Literature with Creative Writing

Year 3

(Award available for year: Bachelor of Arts)

Learning outcomes

The QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Creative Writing BA programmes, including those programme that offer English modules as cores, stipulates that “The final honours degree year is characterised by independent or self-directed work, providing a strong foundation for employment, for postgraduate study, and for continuing creative work in adult life: it normally includes a creative writing project of dissertation length accompanied by a critical/reflective commentary.” As self-directed, independent work thus lies at the heart of the Creative Writing degree benchmark statement, it is felt that the ordinary degree route should continue to incorporate the Final Year Project: Creative Pathway alongside the taught literature modules. The additional support likely to be required by students embarking on the Ordinary degree route will be offered within the existing Final Year Project in the form of a more structured (Taught) approach that will take the form of a series of specific tasks and activities of shorter length. Thus, in place of “a final honours degree year… characterised by independent or self-directed work,” the Ordinary degree structure will require tutors to commission and explain a series of shorter writing projects through the year. These could include the production of a sonnet, for example, or a short story from a non-autobiographical perspective. The overall length of the Final Year Project submission produced as a result of this Ordinary route will be reduced from the 10,000 to 12,000 words required in the Honours structure to between 6,000 and 8,000.


Material from that portfolio of work will not thus fulfil the following typical standards from the QAA honours benchmarks:

1) an independent and disciplined commitment to their own writing

2) the ability to generate and develop original creative work

Material from that portfolio of work will, however, fulfil the following threshold standards from the QAA honours benchmarks:

1) the ability to reflect upon their own creative process and outputs

2) an awareness of the rules, conventions and possibilities of written and spoken language in a range of forms, genres and media

3) the ability to read and respond to published work and work in progress

4) an awareness of the historical and cultural dimensions of language use and literature, including media technologies

5) an awareness of different audiences and modes of dissemination for creative work, both professional and informal

6) an awareness of the skills required for effective work in groups

Transferable (key) skills

It is intended that even via the ordinary route the completion of the writing portfolio alongside literary core modules will thus enable the student to gain a clear and objective view of the uses their creative writing work holds in the wider culture. This consolidated self-awareness will continue to inform regular discussions through Careers Service and the personal tutoring system regarding the next steps that the student might wish to take. The precise nature or use of the transference of creative writing skill will thus continue to vary from individual to individual, but through this regular conversation will be tied to a growing range of immediate and practical ends, from literary publication to emerging strands within the cultural economy.

Assessment

The varied and closely structured assessment of the final year project in particular thus constitutes a form of support designed to help the student complete the degree via the Ordinary route. Less emphasis will be placed on the sustained and developed originality of the writing produced, and a greater focus will fall on the internal qualities of each commissioned piece. Each of these units of assessment will need to be submitted and the student will need to gain a pass mark overall to proceed. The percentage of the overall grade given to each unit of assessment will be carefully established and clearly conveyed to the student. The nature of creative writing is such that it can continue to be the case that a student with a low GPA who has transferred onto the ordinary degree structure will continue to have the capacity from time to time to confound that aggregated picture with a piece of work of exceptional quality. Even under such circumstances, however, the predetermined percentage of that individual piece of work can be overridden by the course teaching staff. There must be a consideration instead of how and why the creative work of the individual student does not fit the regular assessment timetable of the degree and thus of the fact that their degree standard might not reflect their capacity under different circumstances to produce material of the highest standard.

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