ENMCWD-Creative Writing Dissertation

Module Provider: English Literature
Number of credits: 90 [45 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring / Summer module
Pre-requisites: ENMPD1 Project Development 1 ENMPD2 Project Development 2
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2023/4

Module Convenor: Prof Peter Robinson
Email: P.Robinson@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module allows you to complete a sustained piece of creative writing of no more than 15000 words. Mentored by a member of staff, you will write an original, stand-alone creative work, whether it be a short story, a play, a screenplay or a collection of verse. You will have also worked in close contact with a peer community of creative writers conceiving and developing their own projects in ENMPD1 and ENMPD2. This group will have met regularly through Autumn and Spring terms to conduct workshops on individual member’s creative pieces. Those sessions will have allowed for serious critical discussion of your work and form the basis for ongoing re-conception and revision. In the course of completing the project in this module, you will also draw on those workshop experiences to complete an accompanying essay of up to 5000 words, which will focus on the generic and thematic issues arising out of your creative work and on how these issues have been addressed there. The module develops advanced research and writing skills and enhances qualities of independence, self-criticism, and active learning.

Aims:

This module aims to

 

—Enable you to finish to publication-level completion the creative writing project that you have conceived and developed in the core modules ENMPD1 and ENMPD2.



—Encourage you to develop and utilise the advanced research skills that you have acquired from ENMMT Materiality and Textuality, and to apply the understanding gained from your other module.



— Enable you to develop and integrate their critical skills in relation to contemporary writing, its contexts, and associated theoretical preoccupations and possibilities, with self-criticism in the evolution of your creative project.



— Enable you to produce an appropriately written creative project and coordinate it with a coherently argued accompanying essay, in a dissertation portfolio presented to a publishable-level standard.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of the module, it is expected that you will be able to write a well-conceived, appropriately researched and developed, stylistically coherent, and well-presented creative writing project together with a well-documented accompanying essay, both elements in the portfolio demonstrating advanced knowledge of their genre and style, advanced research and analytical skills, and the ability both to write creatively at this level and to reflect critically and creatively on your own work in its genre and context.

Additional outcomes:

It is expected that, by the end of the module, you will be able to:



—formulate questions and recognise relevant problems and complexities.



—examine and question your own assumptions, arguments, and choices of literary styles, theoretical and critical languages.



—analyse arguments made by others in terms of their assumptions and claims.



—read peers’ texts and documents analytically, and with an understanding of their conventions.



—think and debate with peers and with experts in the field.



—assess claims to literary, critical, and historical significance, and to think in an independent manner.

Outline content:

The dissertation portfolio will be composed on a subject chosen by you, in consultation with the Programme Director and the dissertation supervisor. The dissertation portfolio will form two distinctive pieces of work, one creative and one reflectively critical, that has been conceived, researched, and written by you.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Supervisors will provide up to 15 hours of individual supervision and guidance. In addition, there will be a two-hour seminar at the end of the spring term to prepare you for further developing, writing and revising these extended pieces of creative and critical work.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Seminars		2
Project Supervision			15
Guided independent study:
Wider reading (independent)	20	28	50
Preparation for tutorials	7	10	33
Dissertation writing			500
Essay preparation			235
Total hours by term	27	40	833
Total hours for module	900

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Portfolio	100

Summative assessment- Examinations:

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Formative assessment methods:

You will submit several drafts of your work, and you will receive tutorial feedback on these drafts.

Penalties for late submission:

The below information applies to students on taught programmes except those on Postgraduate Flexible programmes. Penalties for late submission, and the associated procedures, which apply to Postgraduate Flexible programmes are specified in the policy 'Penalties for late submission for Postgraduate Flexible programmes', which can be found here: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/cqsd-old-site-documents/penaltiesforlatesubmissionpgflexible.pdf
The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/cqsd-old-site-documents/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Assessment requirements for a pass:

In order to be eligible for the award of the degree, you must obtain a mark of or exceeding 50% for the dissertation.

Reassessment arrangements:

Re-submission of coursework.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

Last updated: 14 April 2023