Program Overview

The English Language and Creative Professional Writing integrated joint degree enables you to develop your own writing talent whilst acquiring a deep understanding of the forms and functions of the English language and the ways in which texts are constructed. The programme offers a supported, stimulating and multicultural environment in which you can create, analyse and interpret different genres and styles of writing and gain understanding of the nuances of meaning implicit in various choices of words, phrases, and grammatical structures.

The Creative Professional Writing and English Language degree will introduce you to key theories, concepts and debates in the field, such as the relationship between author and audience or the influence gender, age, class in communication. Above all, it will enable you to communicate more effectively in writing and to enhance your own creative and critical judgement. You will also develop a range of subject specific and transferable skills, including higher order conceptual and communication skills, enterprise, digital literacy and IT awareness, all of which are of immense value in graduate employment.

What happens on the course?
Your modules will fall broadly into four categories: Textual Analysis or ‘Reading as a Writer’ modules; Language and Society modules; Craft of Writing modules; and Working as a Writer modules. The Textual Analysis or ‘Reading as a Writer’ modules are designed to raise your awareness of the ways in which texts are crafted in order to address a particular audience with a particular purpose in mind. They teach you how to analyse texts using insights from linguistics and how to read with an eye for technique. The emphasis here will be on what you can learn from other writers across a spectrum of syles and genres.
The language and society modules focus on the ways in which language use changes over time or varies from place to place or according to context. You will study the history of the English language, sociolinguistics, gender and language, conversation analysis, semantics and pragmatics (that is, the analysis of meaning and language use in context). You also have the option of studying modules in psycholinguistics and teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
Craft of Writing modules focus on you as a writer and are designed to help you explore your creative imagination whilst developing the skills required to express it and Working as a Writer modules have a vocational dimension and offer the opportunity to develop skills that will enhance your employablity as a writer.