Course summary

This course encourages you to see writing of all kinds in relation to wider literary, cultural and professional contexts. We want you to become the best writer you can be, whether that be creating novels, poems or scripts, feature articles and travel writing, museum exhibitions and biographies, or reports or copywriting. Whichever genre you feel most comfortable with, the most important thing is that you demonstrate a high level of technical skill, an aptitude for expressing yourself through writing, and a commitment to hard work and personal development. You utilise advanced communication and writing skills in a variety of creative and professional contexts, learning how you can use different techniques, styles and tones to match a wide variety of audiences. In the first academic year, you learn to work in the four key genres of creative writing (fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and script) and develop skills in editing and proofreading. You are encouraged to develop your own creativity in a variety of ways and to examine ways in which writers use and break the rules of writing. In the second academic year, you choose to specialise in particular genres of writing, many of which relate clearly to specific professional/vocational environments. At the same time you further develop your research, editing and publishing skills. In the final academic year, you may take professionally orientated modules that focus on areas such as exhibitions, radio plays, film script and creative non-fiction for children, and modules that focus on aspects of creative writing practice.