Unit information: Planning a Creative Dissertation in 2020/21

Unit name	Planning a Creative Dissertation
Unit code	ENGLM0074
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Mimi Thebo
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	N/A
Co-requisites	N/A
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This is an independent study unit, with some tutor supervision, to allow and support students to undertake the initial stages of writing a full-length manuscript. Students will plan how they will approach writing the manuscript and construct a plan of work. At the same time, the student will be continuing to write the manuscript, with the clear understanding that considerable revision may be required both within the unit and beyond it.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Understand the skills required to work independently, including setting goals, managing workload and meeting deadlines.
2. Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, demonstrating an awareness of voice, idiom, idiolect, simile, metaphor, analogy, rhythm and media-specific restraints.
3. Use and develop information retrieval and analytical skills, including the ability to interpret, evaluate, synthesise and organise material.
4. Recognise and articulate their aesthetic sensibility in relationship to appropriate models and develop an understanding of their own processes of intellectual inquiry.
5. Anticipate and accommodate requirements that may change when creating an original work. Be able to work productively and negotiate creative contexts that are ambiguous, uncertain and unfamiliar.
6. Engage with written and oral feedback.

Teaching Information

Guided Independent study forms the majority of the teaching in this unit. Students work with lecturers to evolve a plan for what materials will be produced in planning the creative dissertation. Students and lecturers will generally also, at this point, begin to formalise a literature survey to support this writing. There will be one or two supervision points during the unit, during which the student will receive formative feedback and then there will be a tutorial after summative assessment to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the student’s submission (all supervision to total 2 hours). Please note that the student will also be receiving detailed feedback on the original creative writing in Workshop 2 and that the student will be producing enough original creative writing to submit different portions of the original creative work in both units.

Assessment Information

A portfolio of writing to include:

1 x 3000 words summative assessment (or equivalent, in the case of poetry/script) of original creative writing. [ILOs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] (60%)

1 x 2000 word summative portfolio that documents the planning process, which might include notes, detailed chapter plans, an analysis of form, tone, register, story arcs, collection shapes, etc. This must include a time-based planning scheme demonstrating how much will be written by a series of achievable deadlines. [ILOs 1, 3, 5, 6] (40%)

Reading and References

Students will evolve their own reading/viewing list, together with their tutor.