Unit information: Planning a Creative Dissertation in 2021/22

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%)

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ENGLM0074).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.