ENMCWDS: Creative Writing Dissertation

Module code: ENMCWDS

Module provider: English Literature; School of Humanities

Credits: 80

Level: Postgraduate Masters

When you'll be taught: Full year

Module convenor: Professor Peter Robinson, email: P.Robinson@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s): IN THE SAME YEAR AS TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST TAKE ENMPD1 AND TAKE ENMPD2 (Compulsory)

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: No

Last updated: 21 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module allows you to complete a sustained piece of creative writing of no more than 15, 000 words. Mentored by a member of staff, you will write an original, stand-alone creative work, whether it be a short story, play, screenplay, a collection of verse or hybrid. 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 Semester 1 and Semester 2 to conduct workshops on individual member’s creative pieces. Those sessions allow 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. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate substantial knowledge of the literary genre, including its history, in which you have chosen to work
2. Employ the writing techniques, formal conventions, and stylistic devices of the genre including its real-world institutions and reader relations
3. Articulate complexly interrelated structures in relation to the needs of others, including readers
4. Demonstrate imaginative independence of vision and awareness of cultural sensitivities and issues
5. Prepare publication-ready word-processed documents to deadline and show ability to use current reviewing software
6. Use search engines, library catalogues and archival resources in self-generated research projects
7. Exemplify advanced levels of knowledge in the composition of English including an openness to reconsideration, revision, and self-reflection
8. Show constructively critical sensitivity when responding to the work of others in face-to-face feedback situations

Module content

The dissertation portfolio will be composed on a subject chosen by you, in consultation with the Programme Director and your 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. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

Supervisors provide up to 22 hours of individual supervision and guidance. Two hours of supervision are given at the end of First Semester to prepare you for the further developing, writing and revising of your extended pieces of creative and critical work during work on the dissertation in the Second Semester and Summer, with the remaining 20 hours of supervision spread over this period by arrangement between you and your supervisor. 

Study hours

At least 22 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 50% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• 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 three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/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.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

You will submit several drafts of your dissertation work for supervision sessions, and you will receive feedback on these drafts. 

Reassessment

Additional costs