Creative Writing and the Writing Industries

The module aims to introduce students to a range of different research methods; develop their research skills to Master's level; and enhance their library skills. It also aims to introduce them to different ways of engaging in research cultures appropriate to the focus of their studies; enable them to develop a research profile; understand ethics approval; and gain skills in the presentation of their research. The module prepares students for the Dissertation module and aims to provide them with skills useful for disseminating the results of their dissertation after they graduate.

The module will provide exposure to a range of commercially popular writing genres in which our teaching team have experience and expertise, such as Crime Writing, Eco-Writing and Historical Fiction. Students will examine recent examples and experiment with writing in those genres themselves. Students will learn about the breadth of possibilities in each genre by reading it, writing it, and responding to the work of their fellow students.

This module looks at diverse ways that the past is preserved in contemporary literature and culture and how it is written about. This might include historical novels, memoirs, non-fiction and public-facing information and reviews. We will consider what we can learn about contemporary society from the way these topics are being written about in contemporary (post 2000) texts.

Activities include two field trips to local heritage sites, to consider how their stories have been told, and how they remain relevant to a twenty-first century public. You will be challenged to use your skills as a writer to create contemporary work inspired by a heritage site.

The module will consider how writers produce full-length pieces of creative work, routes to publication and the professional contexts in which contemporary writers work. This will include material that is specific to the development of writers' own profiles in terms of planning, writing, editing and moving towards publication/performance, but will also relate to other aspects of professional practice such as working in educational contexts, running workshops, applying for funding and developing an online profile.

Skills in these areas will be developed through group work, presentations and research. In coursework, students will demonstrate the development of their own creative work, as well possible outlets for their writing, develop areas of professional activity and develop a coherent view of the relationship between their profile as writers and the writing industries.

On this collaborative, project-based module, students will collectively plan, curate, promote, and hold a modest literary festival at the end of semester two, open to the public and the Loughborough University community. This will involve developing and utilising practical skills in terms of event planning and organisation, logistics and scheduling, and marketing and promotion. Intellectual and literary discussions will inform decisions over invitee authors, the design, tone, and theme of the festival, considerations of representation and equality, and the drafting of interview questions and introductory speeches. With training and preparation from lecturers, all students will undertake a piece of public-facing presentation such as an interview or blog. Creative writing students take part in a showcase of their work from the MA.

The aim of this module is to explore forms of literary, cinematic and other cultural production that have emerged in the United States during the particularly fraught era of the twenty-first century. Creative writing students will be challenged to produce their own work responding to the style, subject or issues of the texts studied.

The module will give students the opportunity to develop a significant, sustained body of writing informed by advanced research skills. Students will use research methods learned in Resources for Advanced Research (semester 1) to conduct research into an aspect of their literary-critical or creative work, and deploy their findings in the subsequent writing. Students will have the opportunity to work one-to-one with a specialist in their field over six tutorials.

The module will give students the opportunity to develop a project that relates to their skill-set and aspiration, and building on the professional development work done on The Writer and the Writing Industries module.

The module will give students the opportunity to develop a significant, sustained body of writing informed by advanced research skills. Students will use research methods learned in Resources for Advanced Research (semester 1) to conduct research into an aspect of their literary-critical or creative work, and deploy their findings in the subsequent writing. Students will have the opportunity to work one-to-one with a specialist in their field over six tutorials.

The module will give students the opportunity to develop a project that relates to their skill-set and aspiration, and building on the professional development work done on The Writer and the Writing Industries module.