CREATIVE WRITING PORTFOLIO - 2025/6

Module Overview

This is a level 7 compulsory module for Creative Writing. Worth 60 credits out of the 180 total credits required for the MA, this module provides students with the opportunity to explore the challenges of producing a sizeable, polished and cohesive portfolio of Creative Writing. This portfolio may consist of a single extended piece of writing, a lengthy extract from an even larger project, or a collection of pieces of a shorter length. An agreed wordcount for students submitting poetry or other literary forms should be negotiated with their supervisor. Each student will be assigned a tutor who will assist them in choosing their subject matter and literary approach, and who will provide advice, encouragement and formative feedback over the course of the writing process, as well as suggesting relevant reading material which may help inspire or critically locate the project. The tutor will also help with time management and planning, and will offer guidance on producing a portfolio that is both critically-informed and creatively-accomplished. This module also allows students to reflect at length on the project’s relationship to previous work in the field, form or genre, on the writing processes and thinking behind the creative choices made, and to locate the work productively in theoretical, historical and cultural contexts. This module is compulsory.

Module provider

Literature & Languages

Module Leader

SZCZEPANIAK Angela (Lit & Langs)

Number of Credits: 60

ECTS Credits: 30

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

The content of the module depends in each case on the specific subject, literary mode and genre of writing as chosen by the student in consultation with their tutor.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate:

• their ability to identify a creative project area and to realise this as a large piece of work in specific prose, poetic or other writing form or forms


• their creative ability in writing on themes or in techniques related to their own interests as creative writers


• the development in their critical writing skills in analyzing texts from a range of genres


• their understanding of the context of their work in historical and cultural terms, and to familiarize themselves with the history of literary production


• their development of research and writing skills, such as those introduced and developed in ELIM005


• productive and informed critical reflection on both critical and political agendas of literary studies and on their own place within theoretical positions

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:
* End of Academic Year Creative Writing Portfolio (12000 to 13000 words creative prose or equivalent for poetry or other literary forms, plus 2000 to 3000 words of self-reflective critical commentary, to produce 15000 words or equivalent total) (100%)

The summative assessment is an opportunity for students to develop their writing into a polished piece of creative work in a form/genre of their choosing. The Critical Commentary element of the portfolio offers an opportunity for students to employ their research skills to determine and develop the literary context of their creative work to better understand where they may fit in a contemporary literary landscape (e.g. literary markets, readerships, or specific publication streams).
 

Formative assessment and feedback
Verbal feedback in tutorial sessions on the creative process and the primary and secondary reading covered and the research context explored, as well as written and/or oral feedback on up to 3000 words of prose (or equivalent) of creative and/or critical writing, leading up to, and informing, the summative assessment at the end of the module.

Module aims

• This module assists students to: produce a considerable body of highly-accomplished creative writing, developing areas such as voice, style, imagery and register, control and appropriateness of structure and grammar,
  character-development, descriptive precision, achievement of contrast and dramatic intensity,intellectual and emotional complexity and so on.
• reflect on and engage with the specific challenges of attempting a longer piece (or collection) of creative writing
• identify the specific creative challenges posed by a project of this kind, and to reflect on and engage with these challenges in a productive fashion
• build confidence in making creative decisions and in designing a long creative project in a well-informed and productive way ¿ and build ability to explain and justify them lucidly
• develop more effective personal writing habits, as well as more effective habits of editing and revision
• engage in independent guided research, exploring the history of the form, genre, mode and/or literary techniques they are employing in their work, as well as the key critical and theoretical issues raised by their project
• produce a piece of critical writing which draws on their own creative practice and critical research in an insightful, fully informed and persuasive manner

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Help students produce innovative, imaginative and exciting publication standard creative work


• Engage students in exploring and effectively realising their creative ideas as practical and inventive larger creative pieces or portfolios of smaller pieces


• Hone and develop students’ critical skills in analyzing texts from a range of genres: prose, fiction, poetry, drama, etc by developing their familiarity with a range of literary techniques and devices, and confidence in using critical and theoretical language


• Assist students in locating literary texts in historical and cultural contexts, and to familiarize themselves with the history of literary production by developing in them an in-depth knowledge of the literary, theoretical and historical contexts relevant to the work in the MA dissertation


• Equip students with the research and writing skills they will need to produce critically informed analyses of literary texts and engage with contemporary literary criticism by developing their experience in drawing on their own critical thinking to enhance their skills of literary analysis, and by developing more advanced independent research skills


• Facilitate in students productive reflection on both the critical and political agendas of literary studies and on their own place within theoretical positions by developing their abilities in reflecting lucidly and in an informed manner on their critical goals and how they have attempted to achieve them, in planning, writing, rewriting and editing a large-scale project in Creative Writing, and in producing a sizable analysis of a topic in the field of Creative Writing

The learning and teaching methods include:
Single-student tutorials, the exact timing of which, over the course of the year, is to be agreed between student and tutor.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: ELIM020

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.