Course Catalogue

1. To provide students with a stimulating, research-informed programme that is concerned with the production, reception, and interpretation of written texts in English from diverse literary and cultural forms and genres from the sixteenth century to the present. 2. To enable students to produce clear, artistically coherent, and original creative work, which articulates a combination of research and creative ideas and to understand the technical requirements of the form in which they are writing. 3. To understand the role of readers and audiences in realising texts and performance/broadcasts as imaginative experience. 4. To enable students to acquire skills in analysing a range of forms of writing and exploring ways in which meanings and cultural identities are informed by historical, social, political, regional, and global processes. 5. To introduce students to the complexities of reading and issues of language, representation and meaning through attention to the dynamics and histories of textual production, reception, and interpretation. 6. To equip students to read a as writer – with an ability to analyse texts, performances, and broadcasts, and respond to the effective power of language using appropriate approaches, terminology, and creative strategies and to apply scholarly bibliographic skills where and when necessary. 7. To enable students to become rigorous, critical, and analytical in their thinking, while nurturing their intellectual and creative potential. 8. To develop students’ ability to contextualise their own work within the writing traditions that precede and surround them and to gain a critical awareness of the context in which writing is produced and how individual practice relates to that of predecessors and contemporaries, peers, and established practitioners. 9. To employ an imaginative and divergent mode of thinking which is integral to identifying and solving problems, to the making of critical and reflective judgements, to the generation of alternatives and new ideas, and to engaging with the broader issue of value. 10. To use the views of others in the development and enhancement of practice; formulate considered responses to the critical judgements of others, while developing a generous yet rigorous scrutiny in peer review and workshop activities. 11. To interact effectively with others, in team or group work, for example through collaboration or in workshop and seminar situations. 12. To edit their own work and that of peers with a high level of scrutiny, at the various levels of clause, line, sentence, stanza, paragraph but also at the structural level of overall scene, chapter, collection, book. 13. To initiate and take responsibility for their own work and gain the ability to self-manage and show a distinct ability to work independently, set goals, manage workload, and meet deadlines, viewing themselves as critical and creative practitioners. 14. To encourage students to recognise the skills and insights they develop through the course and help them identify career opportunities to use them.

As English Literature and Creative Writing is essentially a degree about communication, storytelling and the possibilities of language, its impact and significance, all teaching and learning activities will aim to develop these skills. A programme in English Literature & Creative Writing is centrally concerned with how meaning is produced, especially through verbal language. Students are therefore expected to use language sensitively and precisely. All teaching and learning activities involve opportunities for developing and improving communication skills: lectures enable students to develop skills in active listening and assimilating ideas and information; discussions in seminars also facilitate listening skills, spoken communication skills, responsiveness to others, group work and interpersonal skills. The amount of preparation needed for participation in seminars and workshops (reading texts or marking up drafts in advance and preparing ideas) is, in English Literature & Creative Writing as in most Humanities subjects, large in relation to the amount of class contact time. Private study (which is guided by tutors and supported by VLE) allows students to work independently, developing their own critical and creative ideas and lines of thought. It also necessitates the development of good time management and organisational skills. The acquisition of such skills is structured by tutor advice and by suggestions provided in seminars, tutorials, and personal development planning sessions as well as through online supported learning. Issues concerning the appropriate use of ICT systems and digital humanities methods and tools are introduced to students through Induction, tutorials and seminars. Lectures are used to disseminate knowledge and all aim to involve some element of interactivity. These are backed up by smaller group workshops and seminars for further discussion, creative writing exercises (which embed learning gained in lectures and put theory into practice) and active learning. Learning is taken out of the university and delivered externally via, for example, place-based or site-specific writing exercises, visits to galleries, museums, live literature events or the theatre. Learning is acquired through participation in lectures, seminars and tutorials, private study (which involves reading, thinking, writing and researching topics with guidance from tutors) and undertaking exercises and formal assessment tasks which serve to structure thought and creativity and to encourage the assimilation of ideas and knowledge. In general: Lectures introduce issues, explain particular concepts or outline theoretical approaches; to situate a particular topic, text or issue in the context of the wider concerns of a module; to present a series of alternative readings, arguments or critical and creative approaches; to locate arguments and readings within the context of intellectual debate in the field; and to stimulate the student to respond creatively. Seminars provide an interactive forum in which students can: expand on, investigate and debate issues raised in lectures and in a module overall; undertake detailed reading, original writing and discuss original and/or published texts; grow in confidence and skill in participating in discussion and exchanging ideas; develop their articulacy, quickness of thought, ability to communicate with others and produce original ideas; and learn ways of dealing with disagreement or difference of opinion, particularly in workshops where ideas and original writing will be challenged. At Level 4 students may not have studied creative writing previously, therefore, the introductory year also aims to bring the whole cohort to a comparable level of subject knowledge and competence using smaller, confidence-building assessment items and using formative and summative feedback. The smaller, regular assessment points encourage students to engage with their programme and develop ‘the habit’ of writing – writing

Throughout the Creative Writing programme many exciting opportunities will arise. We inform students of placements, volunteering and paid internship possibilities. All Creative Writing modules have professional practice embedded through them – whether it is presenting work correctly so that an agent or editor will take it seriously or researching a ‘script bible’ and writing a pitching document. Level 6 networks students with editors and agents, providing tuition on how to pitch articles to online or print media. The Writer at Work Project provides the skills and knowledge to devise, plan and manage a writing-related project. The skills gained during your course are also in demand in such areas as public relations, advertising, corporate communications, cultural journalism, research and the film and television service industries. Alternatively, you may want to pursue postgraduate study at MA and PhD level or go into teaching. Our graduates have gone on to work in publishing, corporate communications and in the film and television industries as writers, directors, researchers and actors. Employers include the BBC, Channel 4, FACT, L.A. Productions and Lime Pictures. Students have the opportunity to engage in work-based learning either via placements or via professionally set briefs – for example, writing a short script based on the current BAFTA funding criteria, or writing poems on a theme set by a magazine. Departmental staff offer support and make use of their extensive professional and industry contacts as needed to ensure that students are supported in their ambitions. The work placement coordinator agrees and monitors the placements and, along with the Screen School Student Development co-ordinator, ensures the placement programme complies with the LJMU Placement Learning Code of Practice. In addition, elements of study designed to assist students to learn about themselves and develop their employment skills are spread throughout the programme. Students are encouraged to apply for additional work-based learning opportunities as they arise. Recent examples include undergraduate involvement in paid internship projects interviewing and capturing the stories of staff and students at the University on the What’s Your Story? project.