Undergraduate Studies in Creative Writing

English with Creative Writing is a degree that allows you to combine the study of literature as well as time devoted to developing your own skills at writing stories and poems. At each level, 75% (or 3 Units) of the courses that you study will be exactly the same as if you were studying for a single Honours English degree. (For further information on the specific courses studied, please consult the online prospectus). In addition to these courses, you also pursue another unit which consists of a workshop where you participate in creative writing exercises, learn the technical aspects of storytelling and poetic structure from the point of view of a writer, and read each other's work in an honest but detailed discussion forum. The workshop fosters ways of freeing up your expression and experience, but also seeks to teach the importance of discipline as a vehicle for producing engaging and moving writing. Over the three years, you will build strong links with the other writers in your group. You will be expected to participate wholeheartedly in sharing your work and in listening to and reading the work of your peers with care and attention, so that your feedback is both positive and helpful for their development.
In the Spring Term of Level 3, the group workshop is substituted by one-to-one tutorials with one of the CW staff. This allows you the opportunity for individualised feedback on your work while you develop your substantive final portfolio of 12 000 words.

Each year the competition for places on this course is increasing. You will need to show some evidence of an involvement with Creative Writing in your UCAS application and prepare a portfolio of two or three pieces of writing of approximately 3000 words or 5-7 poems (non-fiction pieces will be considered, but no plays or filmscripts).