Aims

This module provides an introduction to a variety of processes and practices involved in the development of creative work.

It is concerned with the development of knowledge, understanding and experience of a range of creative approaches to writing.

It encourages critical consideration of creative methods and habits, and introduces a variety of intellectual and practical approaches to the compilation of a creative work.

It supports and encourages students to take responsibility for their learning and to develop creative thinking and judgement.

It aims to inspire students to use their understanding of a variety of creative practices as a means of improving their own creative work.

Outline Of Syllabus

In the lectures students will be introduced to a variety of creative practices, approaches and influences, and explore and discuss the ways that these can affect creative writing. These will be followed up by weekly writing workshops for which students will practice, evaluate and develop their own creative work as a response to the topics of the lectures and the independent research that the topics have instigated.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

A programme of lectures and workshops will support the development and critical evaluation of individual creative writing practice as well as encouraging students to identify the context in which they are working. The lectures will cover subjects such as the habits and processes that lie behind certain creative works, and the potential creative practices available to creative writing students. The workshops will provide peer and tutor support and feedback on individual creative work, developing the ability for critical reading of others’ work as well as for self-evaluation and drafting. This module places emphasis on the production of a considered body of new creative work, developed through an increased awareness of a range of creative practices. The writing of an author’s preface or afterword develops the idea that creative writing can act as a method of research and a method of discovery, as well as developing a critical awareness of the context in which the creative project has been produced and how individual practice relates to that of predecessors and contemporaries, peers and established practitioners.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The creative work will illustrate the student’s ability to analyse, select, and utilise new ideas about creative practices, and will demosntrate their ability to apply their understanding of the effects of creative process to their own creative practice.

The author’s preface or afterword will provide an appropriate context for students of creative writing to illustrate the relationship between their own creative practice and their understanding of those that they have assessed and evaluated throughout the module.