Programme summary for MA Writing: Imaginative Practice by distance learning

About the programme

The MA in Writing: Imaginative Practice develops creativity, creative writing skills and creative experience in a supportive and challenging environment.

Taught online, via distance learning methods by a team of renowned writers with international experience.
Focus on new writing: expand personal frontiers; create hybrid forms.
Practice as research approach.
Emphasis on producing work for publication/performance/production that expresses contemporary writing and the cosmopolitan and international flavour of our university.
Interdisciplinary workshops in drama, music, new media, film, fiction, and new poetic forms.
Students are encouraged to explore the areas of Realisms, Genre, and Adaptation, leading to preparation for a practice-based dissertation.
Instruction on dissemination of outputs, including an examination of the issues surrounding access to distribution channels, agents, publishing, performance contexts, and alternatives to traditional avenues, including the Internet and the future of publishing.

Programme structure

The programme comprises of four 30-credit modules entitled ‘Experience’, ‘Adaption’, ‘Genre’ and ‘Research Methods in Creative Practice’, and a 60-credit module entitled ‘Practiced Based Dissertation’.
We expect distance learning students to study the programme over two years or more on a part-time basis. To complete the programme over two years students would study as follows:

Year 1:

Semester A : Experience: Encounters with the Real

Semester B: Adaptation: Transformation and Form

Year 2:

Semester A: Genre: Explorations of Expression

Semester B: Research Methods in Creative Practice

Semester C (Summer): Practice-based Dissertation

Subject to student numbers we may offer the programme for study over one year on a full time basis as follows:

Semester A: Experience; Genre

Semester B: Adaptation; Research Methods in Creative Practice

Semester C (Summer): Practice-based Dissertation

Career opportunities

While the programme will provide the groundwork for future novelists and writers working in poetic forms (whether that be in the printed word, music, or art installation), there will also be, among the graduates, emerging dramaturges, with skills in script development and an engagement in critical approaches to performance writing. These skills can lead to careers in both the performing arts and the film and television industry as script readers and editors, as well as providing a firm foundation for those interested in becoming future theatre directors, playwrights, and screenwriters.

Support

Support from a personal tutor, dissertation supervisor and specialist distance learning
student advisor
Individual feedback on your writing, through email and online chat
Individual online tutorials from module leaders and tutors
Research as practice training, skills support, including IT and learning resources
University-wide support network, student finance advice, careers advice, and help from the student support office
Access to Royal Literary Fund Fellow in Writing Centre.

Admission

We require a first degree (2.1 or above), in addition to an interview and submission of a portfolio of creative writing. Applicants with a degree or equivalent experience, who may not meet the entrance criteria above, but who can demonstrate their potential as writers and a strong desire to participate in the programme, are encouraged to apply.