Unit information: Exploration for Creative Dissertations in 2020/21

Unit name	Exploration for Creative Dissertations
Unit code	ENGLM0072
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
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

In this unit, students will undertake the initial stages of writing a full-length manuscript, including: research, relevant reading, the creation of ancillary materials (which might include character sketches, maps, mood-boards, timelines, setting descriptions, etc) and planning. The student will also begin experimental writing in parallel with their research, with the clear understanding that early drafts may need considerable revision. A tutor will meet with the student for two hours during the teaching block, usually broken up into three or four sessions of supervision.

Intended Learning Outcomes

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

1. Work independently on a sustained piece of writing, including by setting goals, managing their own 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. Examine how reading influences creative practice and analyse the relationship between writing and its commercial and aesthetic contexts, articulating an understanding of the relationship between writing and genre, literary convention, publishing, performance, and different media.
4. Use and develop information retrieval and analytical skills, including the ability to interpret, evaluate, synthesise and organise material.
5. Recognise and articulate their aesthetic sensibility in relationship to appropriate models and develop an understanding of their own processes of intellectual inquiry.
6. 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.

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 and what forms of exploration the student will undertake on the unit. 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 1 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 2500-word summative creative writing assessment (or equivalent, in the case of poetry/script) of original creative writing, to assess learning outcomes [ILOs 1, 2, 6]. (50%)

1 x 2500-word summative folder of research, reading notes and/or ancillary material demonstrating that the student’s dissertation project has been developed with an appropriate awareness of relevant contexts [ILOs 3,4,5] (50%)

Reading and References

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