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Both in workshops and through independent study, you will explore a wide range of short-form writing, including a variety of modes: international strict form poetry (e.g., sonnet, rondeau, terza rima, ghazal, villanelle, sestina), free verse, flash fiction, and historical flash fiction. Ethical questions about combining fact and fiction are addressed in an introduction to historical fiction. You may also explore review writing in real-world contexts and digital short-form writing on social media platforms, enhancing your transferable employability skills.

The focus on short-form writing across various genres enables you to develop clarity of expression and conciseness while practising redrafting and editing, building your confidence as a writer. A range of exercises will generate new writing. You will give one another formative feedback, and evaluate the responses your work receives, providing structured opportunities to consolidate writing skills for your final submissions.

Assessment: Collaborative Writing (20%) and Short Form Portfolio (80%)

This module focuses on journeys and places, offering the chance to explore key concepts underpinning your studies. You will take a post-disciplinary approach, using techniques from diverse areas to address questions related to journeys and places.

Interactive lectures with students from across the School of Humanities and Performing Arts provide opportunities to apply these concepts in subject-specific workshops and assessments.

Themes may include journeys, spaces, and the concept of welcome; (im)mobilities and journeys through time and space; representation and imaginative geographies; gender and placemaking; belonging and place attachment; and sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Assessment: Subject-specific Coursework 1 (30%) and Coursework 2 (70%)

In this module, you will develop performance skills relevant to chosen theatrical texts. Through analysing both linguistic and narrative structures of plays, you will explore critical and technical perspectives. Practical workshops will guide your exploration, consolidating knowledge through creative practice and collaboration.

Assessment: Solo Performance or Presentation (60%) and Essay (40%)

This year-long module develops your writing practice, focusing on your existing creative projects. You’ll plan, research, and develop these projects effectively, learning the importance of constructive feedback. Key activities include workshopping, character development, and place writing techniques.

Assessment: Feedback Report (20%) and Creative Work & Reflective Commentary (80%)

This module develops your skills in theatre and performance making, exploring approaches like directing and physical theatre. Critical analysis of performance texts and independent research are key components.

Assessment: Performance (70%) and Reflective Viva or Essay (30%)

This module prepares you for post-degree pathways by focusing on the skills, capabilities, and knowledge needed to thrive in professional environments. Emphasis is placed on core attributes and transferable skills while developing familiarity with the world of work.

You will critically engage with themes such as race, gender, identity, and geopolitical issues in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, conceptualizing a more equitable and sustainable society.

Through workshops, lectures, seminars, and independent learning, you will explore work environments connected to creative writing and related fields. Activities may include responding to real-world briefs, placements, community projects, and creating project proposals.

Assessment: Written Portfolio or Recorded Presentation (100%)

This module focuses on storytelling in diverse forms, such as poetry, hypertext, and scripted works. Narrative remains a powerful tool across media, marketing, advertising, and fiction. Themes may include narrative structure, characterisation, and story-world building.

You will study how storytelling adapts to contemporary settings, exploring narrative structure and how writers keep readers engaged. Additional topics may include writing for stage and screen, with a focus on structure and narrative.

Assessment: Story Craft Proposal (40%) and Story Craft Creative Work (60%)

In this module, you’ll work as part of a theatre company to stage a performance. The process involves realising a production, from initial research to final performance. You’ll gain valuable experience in ensemble work, performance skills, and the technical and creative demands of theatre.

Assessment: Creative Project (70%) and Reflective Viva (30%)

The theme of this module is writing for screens and with screens. You’ll develop skills in writing for various screen genres and platforms, focusing on optimising your writing for the 21st-century context. Genres may include podcasts, poetry films, TV or film scripts, web novels, and social media flash fiction. Collaborative work, such as creating a TV sitcom episode or web novel, is also included.

Assessment: Screentime Reflection (30%) and Screentime Project (70%)

This module provides professional skills and industry knowledge relevant to creative writing. Topics may include international publishing trends, copyright, digital marketing, and self-publishing. You’ll also hear from industry professionals and explore global developments in writing and publishing.

Assessment: Marketing Plan (30%) and Publication Project (70%)

This module explores cabaret performance from a practical perspective, examining how theatre can address politics and emancipate communities. You’ll engage with political activism through performance, using intersectional perspectives—race, gender, sexuality, class, and disability—to create work beyond entertainment.

Assessment: Performance (60%) and Essay/Presentation (40%)

This module offers the opportunity to perform in an off-campus venue following a successful audition. You’ll work with a professional director to prepare, rehearse, and perform in a public production. The module requires evening commitments during production week and focuses on developing professional working skills. If your audition is unsuccessful, you will need to select an alternative module.

Assessment: Performance (80%) and Reflective Portfolio (20%)

You’ll choose two options from the following modules:

Live Art
Explore experimental performance practices, including body art, living sculptures, and autobiographical performance. You’ll work with partners and collaborators, engaging with critical concepts and ethical debates surrounding these art forms.

Assessment: Performance (70%) and Viva (30%)

Staging Texts
This module focuses on decisions made when staging plays, exploring staging choices and their relationship to critical perspectives. You’ll analyse theatrical performances using evidence like digital materials, interviews, and prompt books.

Assessment: Presentation (40%) and Creative Portfolio (60%)

Theatre Company: Production
You’ll work as part of a theatre company to stage a public production, gaining experience in the full production process. The module involves technical production, design, and marketing tasks, alongside performance.

Assessment: Reflective Viva (30%) and Performance (70%)

Education and Performing Arts
This module explores performing arts education policy, pedagogy, and curriculum design, with a focus on contemporary performance pedagogy. You’ll examine the role of performing arts in the evolving English education system and apply creative methodologies to your project work.

Assessment: Practical 1 and 2, Creative Pitches (50% each)

This module challenges the traditional notion of ‘creative writing’ by exploring ‘uncreative writing’ practices. You’ll engage with chance procedures, conceptual writing, found texts, and experiments with artificial constraints. The module emphasises play and experimentation as key elements of creativity, encouraging you to transform everyday materials into artistic works.

Assessment: Uncreative Portfolio (100%)

The final-year dissertation provides an opportunity to work on a single form or genre of your choice. You’ll produce a professional creative work, accompanied by a critical reflective essay. This module focuses on redrafting, receiving feedback, and managing a professional writing project from conception to completion.

Assessment: Concept Testing (20%) and Dissertation (80%)