English and Creative Writing BA (Hons)

at Coventry University

Why you should study this course

Studying English is viewed as a traditional subject with a long history of providing fantastic academic credentials.

• This course combines stylistics, language and literary theory with creative practice, to help you understand the theories behind writing, to understand your writing style and voice, and to improve your understanding of how language is used in society. It also offers a vocational element.
• Our course combines humanities with creative freedom, allowing you to explore emerging genres such as games narratives and graphic storytelling. It has innovative, open and participatory content that includes digital streamed performances and online workshops pitched at schools.
• It has global student collaborations focusing on intercultural narration, and includes digital entrepreneurship, which is the monetising of creative work via YouTube and Social Media, meaning that students work towards publication-ready outputs.
• We have significant links with a wide variety of employers and media practitioners, such as Writing West Midlands and Theatre Absolute, many of whom offer professional experience opportunities.
• There are opportunities to participate in an exciting range of educational and cultural field trips, for example, to view modern adaptations of Shakespeare’s work at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company (RSC) in Stratford-upon-Avon. There may be some additional costs for optional trips and opportunities, and such trips may also be subject to availability.
• You will have an opportunity to join societies such as The Literature Society (which may be subject to additional costs, application processes and/or subject to availability) and The Coventry Words Magazine Society, which organise visits by writers and writing events, as well as overseeing editorial and production for the creative writing magazine.

What you'll study

The course combines stylistics, language and literary theory with creative practice, combining both critical and creative thinking.
The creative part of the course includes poetry and descriptive prose in the first year, exploring the use of figurative language in the form of poetry and travel writing.

Year one
The creative part of the course includes poetry and descriptive prose in the first year, exploring the use of figurative language in the form of poetry and travel writing.

Modules

• Discourse and Digital Media (30 credits)

• Poetry for Digital Times (20 credits)

• Skills for Writers (10 credits)

• Approaches to Literature for English (30 credits)

• Magazine Publishing (20 credits)

• Add+vantage module (20 credits)

Year two
In the second year, you will explore short fiction for both adults and children.

Modules

• Cin-aesthetics (10 credits)

• Language and Society (20 credits)

• Interactive and Game Narratives (20 credits)

• Modernism (20 credits)

• The Short Story Workshop (20 credits)

• Add+vantage module (20 credits)

Final year
In the final year, you will explore script writing for film, stage and radio. All students study towards a 40-credit Dissertation in an area of the subject of their choice, under the individual supervision of a member of staff with cognate interests.

Modules

• Employability for Writers (10 credits)

• Screenwriting (20 credits)

• Writing for the Theatre and Radio (20 credits)

• Speculative Fiction (20 credits)

• Post-War Literature (20 credits)

• Add+vantage module (20 credits)

• Optional Modules – students to select up to 40 credits