| CODE | ENG5081 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Fundamentals of Advanced Research and Practice in Creative Writing | |||||||||
| 今日黑料 LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | |||||||||
| EQF/MQF LEVEL | 7 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | English | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit offers a comprehensive introduction to the principles, practices, and professional contexts of contemporary creative writing. Through lectures and workshop-based sessions, students will engage with the full spectrum of writerly activity: developing practical skills in drafting and redrafting, cultivating reflective habits, and examining how creative work circulates within wider literary, cultural, and digital environments. The unit brings together foundational aspects of craft—such as process, voice, close reading, and revision—with broader perspectives drawn from literary theory, critical-creative practice, media ecologies, and the politics of representation. Students will be introduced to workshop conventions and to the idea of the writing community; explore creativity, planning, and imaginative research; and consider how writers work with and against technologies ranging from social media platforms to generative AI. Further sessions address questions of identity and appropriation, evaluative judgement, and the expectations shaping contemporary publishing landscapes. Across the unit, students will participate actively in reading, discussion, and peer review, while also generating and developing their own creative work for assessment. By the end of the study-unit, students will have gained both a conceptual framework and a practical toolkit for sustaining a writerly practice within and beyond the MA programme. Study-unit Aims: - To introduce students to core principles, practices, and processes that underpin contemporary creative writing and editing; - To develop students’ confidence in participating in workshop environments and in contributing constructively to a writing community; - To familiarise students with a range of creative, critical, and reflective methods, including journalling, drafting, redrafting, close reading, and practice-based research; - To cultivate an understanding of creativity as both an individual process and a socially, culturally, and technologically situated activity; - To encourage students to engage critically with issues of identity, representation, and ethical authorship; - To explore how digital media, social platforms, and emergent technologies shape contemporary creative writing practices; - To enhance students’ awareness of editorial, evaluative, and publishing practices, and to support the development of work suitable for submission and further professionalisation; - To support students in identifying, articulating, and developing their own writerly identities, habits, and long-term creative goals. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - discuss the core principles that underlie contemporary creative writing practice, including process, voice, revision, and close reading; - recognise how creative work is shaped by literary theory, critical-creative practice, and wider cultural, social, and technological contexts; - identify the conventions, opportunities, and expectations of workshop-based environments and writing communities; - evaluate questions of identity, representation, and ethical authorship as they relate to creative practice; - describe how digital media, social platforms, and generative technologies influence the production, circulation, and reception of creative writing; - demonstrate firm awareness of the stages of drafting, redrafting, and self-editing, and the principles that guide each stage; - discuss the functions of editorial processes, publication venues, and professional pathways relevant to contemporary writers; - reflect critically on their own writerly development, habits, and creative objectives within a sustained practice. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - apply a range of creative and critical techniques to their own writing across different genres, styles, and modes; - develop and sustain a regular writing practice supported by effective habits, planning, drafting, and self-editing strategies; - offer clear, constructive, and contextually aware feedback on peers’ work within workshop environments; - adapt their writing for different audiences, purposes, and media, including digital platforms; - engage creatively and responsibly with questions of voice, representation, and positionality in their own work; - identify and refine stylistic issues such as redundancy, abstraction, structure, and diction during revision; - navigate editorial expectations by preparing cover materials, short bios, and submission-ready drafts; - evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of works-in-progress and make informed decisions about further development or revision. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-requisite Qualifications: Please refer to the eligibility considerations for the programme, which have been supplied separately | |||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2026/7. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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