Writing educational change:  Creative Writing, Fiction & Community

What can fiction teach us about communities?  Drawing on fiction set in a wide variety of diverse communities, including London, this fascinating module shows how fiction becomes a way of making sense of experience – both for the reader and the writer.  You’ll learn how to read texts critically and summarise, paraphrase and quote correctly – as well as interpret relevant published data. 

What does the module cover?

Explore how to read fiction and examine its language to discover what it can teach us about communities.  Critically analyse the key concepts underpinning the recent increase in the highlighting of fiction of localised communities and the issue of race.
Learn to critically evaluate information sources and reflect on and record your own reading, writing, learning and skills in a literature journal.

More Information

Module Code:

ED026

Key topics

• The debate over representation of localised communities and the issue of race in recent fiction
• The controversy over recent critical acclaim of texts and contrasting local boycotts
• Why fiction?
• The rise of community writing groups and reading groups and the role of commercial booksellers in promoting books
• Creative writing in an educational context – the changed English curriculum
• The changing audience for fiction and how this is manipulated by commerce
• Students’ literature survey
• Students’ own writing
• Reading our writing

Pre-requisites

None

Number of credits & study time

20 credits / 200 hours

Assessment

In this module there are a number of formative assessments that you’ll need to complete as part of your study and forward to your academic tutor for grading and comments.

You’ll also need to successfully complete a two summative assessment counting towards your final grade:

Assignment 1: Power Point Presentation (30%)
You’ll be required to select an example of fiction set in a community of your choice, present an extract of this to a group and respond to the group’s comments (Max 10 slides).

Assignment 2: Portfolio of creative writing (70%)
You’ll need to produce a portfolio of drafted creative writing. This work should be independent creative writing and include an introductory commentary of your own creative writing during the course addressing issues of community, race, gender and audience (3000- 3500 words).