Writing Workshop: Your Professional Practice

Module overview

The writing workshop is at the heart of the MA in Creative Writing. Each week, you will meet with your writing tutor and fellow students for a two-hour workshop in which you will develop your craft through writing exercises, structured group feedback, and individual mentoring. You choose the project you wish to develop over the course of the semester. Workshop teaching involved close reading of the draft of your work-in-progress, seeking to develop it in keeping with your aims as a writer. In Semester 2, alongside your creative work in the workshop, you will learn how to position yourself as a professional writer. You will read widely in the contemporary publishing landscape, identify your audiences, and critical reflect on how engaging with editors, agents, and audiences can inform your creative work.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

revise and edit creative writing to a professional standard
write fluently in a range of styles

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

relevant theories of writing and literature
how to achieve originality, linguistic versatility, and structural control in your writing
the process of development and revision involved in a creative project

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

situate your work as a writer within the contemporary publishing landscape
revise and edit creative writing to a professional standard

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

This module will make use of writing exercises (in class and extended writing assignments), creative and critical reading, peer assessment, guest workshop sessions, and one-to-one tutorials. The writing tutor will work closely with you to develop your voice and hone your writing technique. Close and careful attention to your fellow writers' work will be key to your success on this module.

Study time
Type	Hours
Seminar	24
Independent Study	276
Total study time	300

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Anne Lamont (1995). Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

George Saunders (2022). A Swim in the Pond in the Rain.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Critical commentary	25%
Portfolio	75%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Portfolio	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Written assessment	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External