Creative Writing and Journalism BA Honours

The first year of the course introduces you to essential journalism skills and creative writing skills that you can apply across a range of media, including narrative storytelling, finding your voice and exploring character, dialogue and conflict.

This module aims to give students a firm grounding in the analytical, research and communication skills that will be essential for progression through the rest of their programme. Students will develop these skills through investigations both of different critical and academic approaches to written and visual texts and of the contexts (commercial, social and historical) in which those texts are produced and consumed.

This module encourages critical reflection and a reflexive approach to the practice of socially responsible and ethical journalism. Students will be introduced to and start to develop their own voice, both written and verbal, journalistic skills and experiment with their own writing techniques.

Storytelling introduces students to theories and aspects of storytelling that are common to prose fiction, creative non-fiction, journalism, media, and communications. It equips students with the knowledge and skills to complete various forms of storytelling in different formats. In this module, students critically assess the relative success of examples of creative writing and journalism, critically reflect upon their own work and take constructive/developmental feedback on board for improving their writing.

The Practising Journalism module aims to introduce students to key journalism conventions; enable students to think critically and reflexively about journalism practice; and equip students with the core journalism skills, techniques and knowledge that will lay the foundation for their degree and journalism career.

In the second year, you'll have the opportunity to develop your creative strengths in such fields as fiction and digital storytelling for a multi-media world as well as deepen your specialist journalistic knowledge and skills across print, broadcast, online, mobile and emergent technologies.

Writing Bestsellers introduces students to the literary traditions, theories and technical aspects of a variety of genres of commercial fiction. It equips students with the knowledge, skills and opportunities to produce creative writing that successfully fulfils genre-specific requirements. Students critically analyse the relative success and merits of published examples of genre writing, and explore the nature, debates and trends in the contemporary commercial market(s) for different genres of fiction. Student also develop and practise their skills in providing and taking on board feedback, and pitching work for the realisation of commercial and industry-related opportunities.

Story Lab builds on core journalism and creative writing skills and aims to develop skills in the practice of screenwriting and conceptualisation of documentary stories for the screen. It aims to enhance students’ awareness of visual storytelling strategies, story structure, and the opportunities and constraints involved in developing short stories for film. It attempts to enhance students’ critical and practical understanding of how to research, develop and construct fictional and documentary stories, and to equip them with industry-appropriate ways to format and communicate their ideas for screen

This module will develop students’ capacity to evaluate and appreciate good research practices, and how they inform and advance the production of social knowledge. Students develop their understanding of research methods and processes, and how these could be applied for both academic and storytelling purposes. The modules emphasizes the transferability of academic research skills and concepts to practical creative work and prepares students for CWJ3001 Independent Project, whether that takes the form of a written dissertation (academic research), or a creative project.

Digital journalism module builds on core journalism skills and aims to develop knowledge and practice in digital and multimodal journalistic content creation. It also aims to develop understanding of how factors such as monetisation, non-linear design, audience interaction and mode of dissemination affect the journalistic editorial and production process, as well as enable students to practise effectively as ethically-astute digital and multimodal creators, managing different types of outputs, while maintaining focused professional objectives in the process of taking digital stories from concept to consumption.

In your final year, you will consolidate your skills to a professional standard and fully prepare for a career in the animation industry, identifying potential career paths and preparing a graduation show reel, portfolio and promotional material. You will research and write a contextual dissertation that connects to your practical areas of interest.

This module equips students with a critical understanding of defining works of Creative Non-Fiction within a range of specific genres. Students develop, receive feedback on, and edit their own synopsis and sample chapter(s) relating to a piece of written Creative Non-Fiction. Students gain the knowledge, skills and opportunities to produce creative writing that successfully fulfils genre-specific requirements. Also, they further practise skills in providing and acting on feedback and pitching their work for commercial purposes.

This module builds on the journalism skills developed at levels 4&5, enabling students to produce multi-platform and digital media output. Students will develop skills in operational procedures and best practice in a professional newsroom environment, which remains the main venue for content generation. They will also develop the practice of reflection on performance through sessional debriefs and constructive criticism.

This module provides the student with the opportunity and support to plan and develop a major independent project that can either (a) be in any of the genres of creative writing or journalism that they have studied on the programme (e.g. fiction, film/play script, creative non-fiction (e.g. life-writing), long-form journalism, portfolio of feature articles), or (b) take the form of an academic dissertation. Students will produce work that explores their own particular interests, that draws on and develops skills acquired on previous modules, and that can be used as a summation of their capabilities (a “calling card”) beyond university. Also, students explore the place of the project within the publishing/media/academic environment and reflect critically on the processes by which the project is developed.

This module enables students to develop skills and practices at an appropriate professional level for the workplace, in industries relevant to the rest of their work in their BA Creative Writing and Journalism programme. It aims to prepare them for possible future career paths in such fields as publishing, the media, journalism, copywriting, advertising and public relations, social media management, marketing, and branding, as well as being preparation for the professional publishing and media environment that will form the context for their future activity as writers and journalists.

You will be studying at our north London campus in Hendon.

The teaching is varied and exciting, from creative workshops and listening to talks by speakers from the industry to practical work using our extensive media production tools. You will work on your own creative and practical projects, and put together a portfolio of work. You'll also attend demonstrations, lectures, seminars, workshops and one-to-one tutorials, and supplement all this with online and independent study.

For one-to-one support, you will meet with either your personal tutor or module leader. We will also share our library of online resources.

Your work will be divided into credits. Each credit is equal to 10 hours of study time. You will complete 120 credits per year of study, which are broken down into modules of typically 30 credits.

Timetable

Your course timetable will balance your study commitments on campus with time for work, life commitments and independent study.

We aim to make timetables available to students at least 2 weeks before the start of term. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on-campus sessions.

Typical weekly breakdown

During your first year, your weekly timetable will typically consist of:

• 8 hours of lectures/seminars

Independent learning

Outside of teaching hours, you’ll learn independently through self-study which will involve reading articles and books, working on projects, undertaking research, and preparing for assessments including coursework, presentations and exams.

Teaching vs independent learning

Here is an indication of how you will split your time:

Year 1

Our excellent teaching and support teams will help you develop your skills, from research and practical skills to critical thinking. Our Sheppard Library is open 24 hours a day during term time. And we offer free 24-hour laptop loans with full desktop software, free printing and Wi-Fi to use on or off campus.

Assessment is entirely through coursework, and you will work on many different types of assignments.

Your portfolio of creative work will include fiction writing, news and feature writing, audio or video interviews, web pages, blogs, short film scripts, your final year independent project and much more. You will also submit commentaries accompanying your work, essays, reports, critical analyses and case study evaluations and give presentations.

Assessments

Some assessed work will be done in groups. You will receive regular feedback on your work throughout the course, including in class and in online discussion forums, where students will discuss each other's work, and you will also be encouraged to reflect on your work yourself.

We'll test your understanding and progress with informal and formal tests.

The informal tests usually take place at least once per module, from which you’ll receive feedback from your tutor. The grades from these tests don’t count towards your final marks.

There are formal assessments for each module, usually at the end, which will count towards your module and your final marks.

Assessments are reviewed annually and may be updated based on student feedback or feedback from an external examiner.

To help you achieve the best results, we will provide regular feedback.