The module will introduce you to techniques for developing and sustaining creative writing and show you how to practice these techniques in your own short fiction, poetry and dramatic writing. There will be an emphasis on analysing imaginative texts to understand what makes them effective for different audiences and on practical writing exercises. Your practical work will address the processes, content, structure and formal features of imaginative writing genres. You will be given guidance on making use of journals and notebooks, on reading widely to inform creative writing practice and on engaging in constructive criticism. As the module progresses, you will explore the special techniques and conventions of writing short fiction, poetry and dramatic writing. Using critical skills developed through wide reading and from workshop analysis, you will re-draft your own work and produce a critical commentary evaluating the creative processes that you have pursued, analysing specific techniques used in your portfolio of imaginative writing, and identifying areas for future development.
View the full module definitionThe module is designed to equip you with the skill base to make an entry level submission to the industry, both in schemes for new writers and relevant competitions. You'll be expected to develop your own original idea for a short film, to this end it is vital that you acquire a real understanding of the form. The first half of the course will be spent analysing a range of short films and to understand how story ideas are generated and developed into a workable template. You'll then progress onto developing your own original idea in second half of the course.
View the full module definitionOn this module you will explore storytelling in many forms, studying how writers craft narratives for different media and platforms, studying how writers adapt the core concepts of new and existing stories, creating your own narratives, and analysing your creative work. You will also investigate craft, learning about other writers’ techniques and experimenting with and reflecting on your own writing practice. You will work across a range of forms, such as television, radio and comic scripts, podcasts, poetry, interactive fiction and writing for games, and engage in analysis of a diverse range of classic and contemporary examples. You will examine creative processes, both your own and those of others, from the collection of ideas, to planning in forms such as maps, outlines and treatments, to the production and editing of finished work. You will be required to engage in this process by maintaining a reading journal and writer’s notebook where you will record your responses to material viewed and listened to, read, played, and created; thereby encouraging the integration of viewing/listening/reading/playing and writing. Writing exercises will focus on practical writing techniques, such as writing an effective treatment or outline, and exploring the different techniques needed for different platforms and audiences so that each piece you produce serves to further expand and develop a shared fictional world. Seminar workshops are based around the reading and writing exercises prepared each week. You will be expected to read out and listen to other students’ work and engage in constructive criticism of the techniques and sources used; you will also discuss questions of audience, style, and research. In craft workshops, exercises will focus on how you direct your time, attention, and focus towards creative projects, and how you shape your personal narrative as a writer. You will study different ways of planning and executing work, document your own experiments, investigate what inspires and motivates you, share insights with your writing group, and contribute to peers’ understandings of self-concept and identity as well as your own. In Part 1, you will emphasise breadth, understanding and utilising the techniques and conventions that apply to different formats, technologies and platforms, preparing you for focus on selected platforms and techniques in Part 2.
View the full module definitionThis module demystifies the publishing industry and the author promotion activities of the literary world. It covers the process of being published, the different roles in publishing and types of publishing, cultural trends, and how books reach readers in a digital media environment. You'll learn about national and international publishing from small presses and independents to imprints and the ‘Big Five’. Through practical publishing exercises, you'll gain useful transferable skills such as developing ideas into engaging book concepts, editing your own work, and writing concisely.
View the full module definitionOn this module you'll explore storytelling in many forms, studying how writers craft narratives for different media and platforms and adapt the core concepts of new and existing stories, creating your own narratives, and analysing your creative work. You'll also investigate craft, learning about other writers’ techniques and experimenting with and reflecting on your own writing practice. You'll work across a range of forms, such as television, radio and comic scripts, podcasts, poetry, interactive fiction and writing for games, and engage in analysis of a diverse range of classic and contemporary examples. You'll examine creative processes, both your own and those of others, from the collection of ideas, to planning in forms such as maps, outlines and treatments, to the production and editing of finished work. You'll be required to engage in this process by maintaining a reading journal and writer’s notebook where you will record your responses to material viewed and listened to, read, played, and created; thereby encouraging the integration of viewing/listening/reading/playing and writing. Writing exercises will focus on practical writing techniques, such as writing an effective treatment or outline, and exploring the different techniques needed for different platforms and audiences so that each piece you produce serves to further expand and develop a shared fictional world. Seminar workshops are based around the reading and writing exercises prepared each week. You'll be expected to read out and listen to other students’ work and engage in constructive criticism of the techniques and sources used; you will also discuss questions of audience, style, and research. In craft workshops, exercises will focus on how you direct your time, attention, and focus towards creative projects, and how you shape your personal narrative as a writer. You'll study different ways of planning and executing work, document your own experiments, investigate what inspires and motivates you, share insights with your writing group, and contribute to peers’ understandings of self-concept and identity as well as your own. In Part 2, you'll emphasise depth, focussing on selected platforms and techniques, building on the foundation laid in Part 1.
View the full module definitionEntering higher education is exciting; but it can also be a daunting experience. At ARU, we want all our students to make the most of the opportunities higher education provides, reach your potential, become lifelong learners and find fulfilling careers. However, we appreciate that the shift from secondary education, or a return to formal education is, in itself, quite a journey. This module is designed to ease that transition. You'll be enrolled on it as soon as you receive an offer from ARU so you can begin to learn about university life before your course starts. Through Into ARU, you'll explore a virtual land modelled around ARU values: Courage, Innovation, Community, Integrity, Responsibility, and Ambition. This innovative module is designed as a game, where you collect knowledge and complete mini tasks. You'll proceed at your own pace, though we you to have completed your Into ARU exploration by week 6. If for any reason you're unable to complete by that date, we'll signpost to existing services so that we can be confident that you are supported.
View the full module definitionRuskin Modules are designed to prepare our students for a complex, challenging and changing future. These interdisciplinary modules provide the opportunity to further broaden your perspectives, develop your intellectual flexibility and creativity. You will work with others from different disciplines to enable you to reflect critically on the limitations of a single discipline to solve wider societal concerns. You will be supported to create meaningful connections across disciplines to apply new knowledge to tackle complex problems and key challenges. Ruskin Modules are designed to grow your confidence, seek and maximise opportunities to realise your potential to give you a distinctive edge and enhance your success in the workplace.
In this module you’ll learn the tools of effective short fiction writing, beginning with the literary short story and moving on to explore short fiction for younger readers and some areas of genre fiction. You will understand the scope and the conventions of short fiction in English through analysis of a diverse range of classic and contemporary examples. You’ll look at the creative process from the collection of ideas at the notebook stage to the production and editing of a finished narrative, and you will engage in this process by maintaining a reading journal and writer's notebook where responses to literature that is read, and created, are recorded.
View the full module definitionIn this module you'll explore the various kinds of editing and copywriting that are carried out in the professional world by both freelancers and full-time editors and writers. You'll learn the basics of editing across content editing, copyediting, and proofreading. You'll practice writing copy for brands and products following industry brand guidelines, and learn about search engine optimisation (SEO), tone of voice, concise writing, and creating effective headlines. The industry uses traditional skills and digital tools to carry out these core skills. You'll have the opportunity to use digital technology in a critical and creative way in your work. You'll work toward creating a portfolio of varied copywriting and editing work, together with a critical evaluation of these processes in industry.
View the full module definitionThis module introduces the techniques and conventions of dramatic writing, with an emphasis on writing for stage performance. The skills and knowledge required to create effective performance texts are studied through a combination of reading, critical analysis of diverse examples from the genre, practical writing exercises and readings of your own work in progress. We'll explore elements of dramatic writing such as monologue, dialogue, narrative, character and physical and vocal connection, and you'll learn the conventions of presentation for dramatic texts. Through reading and discussion, you'll be introduced to a range of dramatic styles and structures and to different modes of theatre. We'll explore dramatic form and ensemble work through practical writing and performance exercises. You'll study the dynamics between writing and performance as you draft and re-draft your own short dramatic texts. Later sessions focus on workshop treatment of sustained pieces of dramatic writing that you are preparing to submit for your assessment at the end of the module. We'll read and partially stage extracts, confronting the challenges of audience and staging.
View the full module definitionIn this module you will be introduced to the art of creative non-fiction. You'll explore the art of the essay as it has developed in the English Language and explore the concept of what creative non-fiction is. Using the key text, and additional collections, you'll explore issues of style, research, and personal expression as we investigate various genres of creative non-fiction writing including travel and food writing, writing about history, and science writing for lay audiences. You will practice applying fiction-writing skills such as characterisation, point of view choices, description, and plotting to non-fiction narratives. In class, you will participate in workshopping your ideas and drafts. We will further discuss platforms, contexts, and readerships in the current market.
View the full module definitionThis module provides training and experience in writing film reviews within a professional context. You'll begin by exploring the nature and purpose of reviewing films, and consider the impact and influence of film reviewers on notions of taste and cultural and social value. You'll then work through the professional practices of the reviewing process. You'll gain experience in writing reviews for a variety of different readerships, across a range of print and digital formats. Seminars are designed to illustrate review philosophies; planning and structuring of reviews; tailoring the review according to a brief; keeping film diaries; and developing a personal writing style. You'll share and develop ideas in small peer groups and will benefit from regular formative feedback from the module tutor. You'll also have the opportunity to review films in a live context, through our links with the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse and Take One magazine. You'll also be encouraged to keep a film diary and to review for the student-led Ruskin Journal.
View the full module definitionIn this module you will study the development of science fiction as a genre, concentrating on major texts from the postwar period. You are expected to acquire an understanding of the history of science fiction and an awareness of debates around its origins, as well as a critical understanding of the problems of defining it in relation to other forms of literature. The emphasis is on science fiction as a literature of ideas, and you will have the opportunity to explore and compare examples of several key science fiction tropes. These would typically include alien invasion, posthuman identity, utopias and dystopias, alternate history, time travel and post-apocalyptic science fiction. You would also be invited to consider changes in the representation of issues such as race, class and gender in science fiction. The main focus will be on science fiction as a literary form; however there will be opportunities to consider science fiction in other media – film, comics, TV and computer games – as well as engage with aspects of the history of science fiction publishing, such as book cover design and marketing.
View the full module definitionThe module aims to develop your skills in web-based journalism and online media production using a range of online media formats. Through a series of topic led discussions, reading, class exercises and small project briefs you will examine the language and practice of new/digital media and reflect on its uses. Online Journalism is presented as a distinct practice involving the use of a variety of writing styles from multimedia content to interactive and social media. The module includes examples from factual and non-factual content and addresses a range of topics including fake/false news, blogging, vlogging, the rise of the image driven web, implications of media sharing, online communities, citizen journalism, personal online profile management, digital storytelling, working with images, building a freelance career.
View the full module definitionThis module focuses on the idea of ‘cult’ in relation to film, television and wider media. It explores key themes and debates concerning the distinction between cult and mainstream media, and how cult media, along with its cultures and practices, influences and shapes trends within mainstream media. In this module, we’ll explore the historical development and varied applications of the term ‘cult’, while also addressing theories of quality, taste, and cultural capital in a media context. We’ll look at how cult media articulates and explores alternative conceptions of cultural identity (in terms of sexuality, gender, youth cultures and fan cultures). You'll consider how discourses such as text, industry and audience contribute to the formation of cult genres, with case studies that may include horror, sci-fi, fantasy, anime and comic book media. Throughout the module, you'll engage with theoretical concepts such as genre, media convergence, fan studies, taste, cultural capital and camp.
View the full module definitionThis module provides you with the opportunity to explore creative and technical processes involved in devising and developing a short narrative film, from script to screen. The module thus differs from other screenwriting modules in that you'll actualise your scripts in video. In particular, it draws attention to the importance of visualisation, communicating narrative through image, sound and action. Although films are created in a collaborative way, the distinct roles of producer, director, writer and editor are defined and discussed so as to encourage understanding of the interrelationships between each of them in ensuring the most effective realisation of the script ideas. You'll begin by viewing and discussing script and film work by new and established writers and directors and use these discussions to develop their original ideas into five-minute screenplays. A pitching session to peers and lecturers allows for the selection of some of those scripts to be produced into short films, with you working collaboratively in small groups to devise and realise those scripts to completion. You'll be expected to undertake script revisions and rewrites during the production process, as an integral part of interpreting and developing your ideas, and as the realities and practicalities of the production become evident. The module ends with a screening and critical discussion of all short films, with an opportunity to receive feedback from peers and lecturers.
View the full module definitionKnowledge of a foreign language can be a major asset both in your academic and professional life. The Anglia Language Programme offers you the opportunity to study a foreign language as part of your course.
The Creative Industries Major Project module will allow you to engage in a substantial piece of individual research and creative/technological work, focused on a topic of your choice that is relevant to your degree course. Your topic will be assessed for suitability to ensure sufficient academic challenge and satisfactory supervision by an academic member of staff. Your project can be a dissertation or an agreed combination of solo or group creative/technological practice and an individually authored piece of writing. In trimester 1 you'll have a series of lectures to prepare you for this level of research, help you to develop of an appropriate methodology, and to decide upon the shape of your project. Your supervisor will then meet with you to formalise your negotiated assessment outcomes, agreeing and documenting any % split between writing and creative practice. In trimester 2, regular meetings with your supervisor will take place, so that the project is closely monitored and steered in the right direction. The project developed in this module is the most self-directed piece of work that you will produce during your undergraduate studies. The successful completion of this module will enhance your employability, evidencing your ability, appropriate skillset and specialist interests.
View the full module definitionIn this module you'll develop knowledge and skills necessary for the understanding and creation of fictional worlds, the basis for a range of creative writing, editing, teaching, and reviewing undertakings. The module will explore worldbuilding, the creation of fictional worlds, in historical fiction and in the speculative genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. You'll develop a range of worldbuilding skills, including: researching worlds to maintain plausibility, consistency, and verisimilitude; and portraying worlds while avoiding exposition. You'll also work on developing your imaginative range. You'll delve into the similarities between the worldbuilding techniques and aims of historical fiction, a genre often thought of as broadly ‘realist’, and the ‘non-realist’ speculative fiction genres. On this module, you'll study the skills and techniques needed to successfully build worlds for a range of media. You'll be asked to consider the ethical issues which arise while trying to create a fictional worlds, whether based in reality or the imagination. You'll also be asked to consider the needs of different audiences and different platforms. You'll additionally be expected to engage in primary and secondary research for your work and to reflect on how you incorporate such research into your writing. And you'll explore what it means to write within a genre, and whether the lines between genres are clear cut or blurred.
View the full module definitionIn this module you’ll gain the technical skills required in the writing of poetry by facilitating a flexible use of traditional forms and rhythms. You’ll look at contemporary and modern poetry and explore important developments in technique and learn to appreciate the benefits of close reading to open up possibilities for language use. Seminar workshops focus on reading poetry and on creative exercises, aimed at helping to develop sophisticated approaches to the relationship between form and content.
View the full module definitionThis module will explore the various essentials of being a working writer. We will look at different kinds of income available to working writers, including stipends attached to residencies, revenue from publishing and self-publishing, freelance writing and editing opportunities, and funding from arts charities. You'll learn how to develop an online presence through web design and use of social media, including how to use online tools to build a network of writers, artists, and industry professionals. With these resources in mind, we will also discuss festivals, conventions, and other literary events. You will build toward a portfolio of curated and new work that you can use to present yourself.
View the full module definitionOn this module, you'll study historical and contemporary works of crime and detective fiction in English. Texts will include classics of the genre, particularly from the ‘Golden Age’ of detective fiction, being further attuned to how the genre accommodates female writers and writers of colour. Your key considerations will be the development of the genre across time, while being inclusive of new developments and contexts, especially gender, race, and national identity, and how these concerns are crafted by in the novel form. Your understanding of the representation of trauma, victim and police perspectives, and wider contexts of identity will be showcased in the final assessment.
View the full module definitionWhat can we learn from studying celebrities and celebrity culture? While the very idea of celebrity is often denigrated and dismissed as so much cultural fluff, it is a profoundly important and socially significant subject – perhaps now more than ever. This module offers you a unique chance to dig into the world of celebrity culture -a topic that has deep cultural and social significance. You'll examine what celebrity means in a 21st-century mediascape from the ‘insta-famous’ to YouTubers, from reality TV presidents to young environmental activists, from film stars to sporting icons. Drawing from a range of academic literature, this module seeks to define and interrogate the notion of ‘celebrity’ across different historical and national contexts, from pre- to post-digital eras. You'll explore fraught political and range of spheres including film, TV, music, politics, and sports.
View the full module definitionThis module builds on the skills you have acquired in Screenwriting: The Short Film at Level 4 and Script to Screen at Level 5. Through small group work and discussion with the seminar leader, you'll develop an original screenplay idea. The module will cover basic narrative conventions, including the role of conflict, the line of action and plot reversals, character building, and atmosphere. You'll be encouraged to experiment with the representation of place, space and time, and build in subplots when appropriate. You'll be expected to consider your target audience, and will be given the opportunity to explore the role of genre as a means of making narrative choices.
View the full module definitionThis module introduces you to the process of writing a novel. You'll approach the project from idea conception and then progress to the development of elements including plot, main character/protagonist, conflict, setting, and other narrative choices. Class meetings will be split between discussion of these elements and directed writing sprints, giving you the opportunity to work individually in a writing-community setting. In addition to writing in class, you will also strengthen your critiquing skills by workshopping your classmates’ writing. The module will also develop your synopsis and query-letter writing skills as you explore the role of agents and editors in the publishing industry and the routes towards novel publication.
View the full module definitionIn this module you'll look at a range of texts written in the last 10 years, examining formal and thematic issues and the relationships between them. You'll consider narrative experimentation and the recycling of old stories and forms; the representation of and return to history; posthumanism and the limits of the human; globalisation and technology. The module will invite you to consider the power and role of literature in contemporary society and the impact of literary prize culture on publishing and publicity. It will encourage you to reflect upon literary developments that have led to 21st-century writing and thus the texts’ relationship to those studied on other modules on the degree. Since there is inevitably an absence of established critical texts on the contemporary works studied, you'll consider alternative sources of critical opinion (academic journals, the internet, broadsheet and broadcast journalism), existing relevant theoretical material and the ways in which new novels demand and shape new criticism. Each seminar will begin with one or more student presentations incorporating close reading, a thematic focus and critical issue. The presentations will be followed by close reading and discussion of related texts in the seminar group. These activities will allow you to develop your analytical skills as well as your abilities in communicating the research and analysis that you will apply to the literatures under discussion. Working with other students in class you will develop your social capital and critical skills in whole and small group discussions. You will develop your sense of identity as a critical and adaptable thinker, problem-solver, researcher and creative agent as you apply theoretical material to the primary literatures under discussion.
View the full module definitionStarting with an exploration of the various modes within which film journalism functions, you'll explore the world of professional film journalism, enabling you to create original features for a variety of readerships in a range of media. Seminars are structured around an exercise designed to illustrate - with the aid of examples from the professional context - how to work with editors; planning and structuring interviews; developing, drafting and revising reviews and features; tailoring output according to a professional brief and/or a specific audience type; and developing a personal style. You will understand the practicalities of professional journalism in print and other media, with examples drawn from mainstream and specialist sources, at national, regional and local level.
View the full module definitionKnowledge of a foreign language can be a major asset both in your academic and professional life. The Anglia Language Programme offers you the opportunity to study a foreign language as part of your course.