(MA) Master of Arts
Literature and Creative Writing
Current
University of Essex
University of Essex
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Masters
Full-time
MA QW3012
10/05/2023
Details
Professional accreditation
None
Admission criteria
A 2.2 degree in Creative Writing, Theatre/Drama Studies, Literature, Film and Media Studies, Modern Languages , Art History, Music, Philosophy, History, American Studies, Performance studies, Journalism, Law, Politics and Sociology.
You may be asked to provide a piece of creative writing if you do not hold a degree in a relevant field.
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) code
IELTS 7.0 overall with a minimum component score of 5.5 except for 6.5 in writing
If you do not meet our IELTS requirements then you may be able to complete a pre-sessional English pathway that enables you to start your course without retaking IELTS.
Additional Notes
The University uses academic selection criteria to determine an applicant’s ability to successfully complete a course at the University of Essex. Where appropriate, we may ask for specific information relating to previous modules studied or work experience.
Course qualifiers
A course qualifier is a bracketed addition to your course title to denote a specialisation or pathway that you have achieved via the completion of specific modules during your course. The
specific module requirements for each qualifier title are noted below. Eligibility for any selected qualifier will be determined by the department and confirmed by the final year Board of
Examiners. If the required modules are not successfully completed, your course title will remain as described above without any bracketed addition. Selection of a course qualifier is
optional and student can register preferences or opt-out via Online Module Enrolment (eNROL).
None
Rules of assessment
Rules of assessment are the rules, principles and frameworks which the University uses to calculate your course progression and final results.
Additional notes
None
External examiners
Dr Lorna Burns
Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Literatures
University of St AndrewsDr Tim Atkins
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
University of Roehampton
External Examiners provide an independent overview of our courses, offering their expertise and help towards our continual improvement of course content, teaching, learning, and assessment.
External Examiners are normally academics from other higher education institutions, but may be from the industry, business or the profession as appropriate for the course.
They comment on how well courses align with national standards, and on how well the teaching, learning and assessment methods allow students to develop and demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed to achieve their awards.
External Examiners who are responsible for awards are key members of Boards of Examiners. These boards make decisions about student progression within their course and about whether students can receive their final award.
Programme aims
The aim of the course is to provide the opportunity to engage in the study, and the creation of, literature by exploring it both from a critical and a creative writing perspective. The deep and detailed critical study of literary works, across a range of genres, fields and periods, with attention paid to social, historical and theoretical perspectives, will enhance the student’s own creative writing and their composition of original works. In turn, the study and practice of creative writing will deepen the student’s understanding of form, structure, genre, and the process by which a work of literature comes into being. Creative writing modules will require the student to take part in practical writing workshops, learning to give and receive feedback on their own work and that of others, and to write reflectively on their processes as a writer. The course aims to develop the student’s writing skills, both as a critic and as a poet, playwright, or prose-writer. The student will take a compulsory module in research skills, which will focus on developing all the skills used by a literary critic in terms of researching, planning, structuring and writing a dissertation. The student will also learn skills appropriate to creative practice as research, including how a creative work may constitute a research investigation, and how this may be reflected upon and contextualised in an accompanying critical commentary. In this way the student will be prepared to undertake doctoral research towards a Ph.D. if they wish to take this route, either in a literary critical direction or in creative writing. After taking an equal number of literary and creative writing modules during the taught part of the course, the student will then choose whether to undertake a creative or critical research dissertation.
Learning outcomes and learning, teaching and assessment methods
On successful completion of the programme a graduate should demonstrate knowledge and skills as follows:
A: Knowledge and understanding
A1: Detailed knowledge of a varied range of literary texts
A2: Understanding of research methods appropriate to a creative and/or critical dissertation
A3: Understanding of social, historical, political and theoretical contexts for literary works
A4: Methods, structures and forms used in creative literary compositions across a range of genres
A5: Creative workshop participation and facilitation
A6: Understanding of a writers approach to researching, planning and completing a literary composition
Learning methods
The reading lists for all modules will be inclusive and diverse, covering a wide range of authors across genders, nationalities and ethnicities, and engaging with subject material that is diverse and speaks to as wide a range of learners as possible. Literature is taught largely through two-hour discursive seminars, with all learning and reading materials available in advance on Moodle or via the library for students to read at their own pace. Seminars will involve pair and group-work, and all students are encouraged to engage and see this as a crucial aspect of their learning. Tutorial support and one-to-one consultation with academics is available to all postgraduate taught students to support them in the development of the above knowledge and understanding.
Assessment methods
Assessment methods are varied and appeal to varied learning styles and aptitudes. They include creative writing, in different genres and of different lengths; as well as presentations, research articles, blogs or other online assignments, and critical essays. At MA level students are encouraged to write their own essay titles, in consultation with academic staff, according to their own interests, so that their learning is personalised and self-directed.
B: Intellectual and cognitive skills
B1: Apply theoretical perspectives to literary works and composition
B2: Analyse literary works in the light of political, historical and social contexts
B3: Compare and evaluate literary works for aesthetic merits of structure and composition
B4: Apply an understanding of genre and literary techniques to students own composition
B5: Construct and articulate an evidence-based argument
B6: Critically analyse and reflect on students own writing
Learning methods
Intellectual and cognitive skills are developed through seminars and creative workshops. Learning activities include group discussion, pair-work, presentations, creative and critical tasks led by guided instructions and analysis of visual and literary material.
Pre-production preparatory assignments are offered for the practical course components.
Individual guidance, in addition to formal seminars, is available through academic support hours.
Final year projects and the dissertation allow students to apply these skills.
Assessment methods
All students are offered extensive one-to-one support in completing all assessments. Students are guided in their study with a range of different types of learning resource made available on Moodle. Students choose whether to write a critical or a creative dissertation. Learning is therefore tailored and chosen by the student to their own needs and interests.
C: Practical skills
C1: Plan, organise and complete a long-form dissertation
C2: Write in a scholarly and critical style
C3: Write creatively with flair and imagination using appropriate literary techniques
C4: Develop reflective skills in articulating and analysing the creative processes of self and others
C5: Ethical and appropriate research skills in using archives, libraries, databases, interviews
Learning methods
Students have a wide choice in this MA to select modules that are closest to their skills, talents and interests. They will be asked to complete both critical and creative assignments. Workshops and seminars develop skills in listening, giving and receiving feedback, understanding one’s own creativity and that if others, collaboration, articulating an argument and presenting material to a group. Detailed attention to students’ writing is paid by creative writing staff. For the long dissertational project, students will be guided through how to research in an ethical, thorough and methodical way using resources such as databases, libraries, and archives, and also through methodologies such as conducting interviews, and surveying audiences, or readerships. Students will be given one-to-one supervisory support to plan and write their dissertation whether it is critical or creative.
Assessment methods
Assessment is flexible and students can create their own critical essay titles or choose what type of literary work they create. Support is always available. A range of assessment forms, critical , creative as well as varied across presentations, film essays, blogs or online posts, reviews, research articles and reflective writing, develop a range of different skills and competencies.
D: Key skills
D1: The course demands high levels of engagement in communication through group and class discussion, as well as many forms of written communication.
D2: Students will be required to make use of a range of IT skills - typing, research skills, organising data, creating presentations and so on.
D3: The course develops skills in creative and critical thinking which are key to problem-solving.
D4: The course demands collaboration in creative writing workshops and in working in pairs and groups to complete both critical and creative tasks.
D5: The course demands the development of reflective writing and the analysis of one's own writing, to become an effective 'first reader' and 'first editor' of one's own creative work
Learning methods
All skills are developed through inclusive workshop and seminar learning/teaching events where the emphasis is on listening, inclusion, debate and collaboration. All students are given access on campus to high quality learning resources and to IT equipment, as well as media equipment (audio and visual recording equipment etc).
Assessment methods
All creative assessments are accompanied by a reflective essay in which the student reflects on, examines and evaluates their own progress, learning and creative processes. Students are encouraged to identify their own strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities and to be analytical of their own learning journey.