BA (Hons) Creative Writing with Foundation Year Bachelor's degree at Keele University

This module introduces you to key characteristics of fiction. You will gain an understanding of how these can be employed to explore the meaning of a text. Engaging with prose writers from all over the world, you will learn how to analyse core elements such as narrative voice, structure and the evocation of place, and develop your own ability to write short, creative prose pieces. You will attain a solid foundation for writing longer prose pieces in the future.

You receive a blank book and start to write. It's a journal: you submit it later, alongside your creative or critical piece. Back in Keele you look at children's writing from different periods and cultures. You consider imagination and myth, the politics of representation, the construction and subversion of gender roles. You think about voice and vision. Your expressive skills flower as you explore storytelling techniques and the transformative power of narrative.

This module prepares you for studying creative writing at university, introducing you to all the 'writing selves' needed when seeking publication and building an authorial profile. You will explore how self-narratives, new journalism, guerrilla-writing, and broadcasting platforms foster ways to extend and complement your practice outside traditional routes; how to deliver manuscripts to publishers, agents, and competitions, including how to respond to commissions via authentic briefs. You will a

This module introduces you to the characteristics and structure of poems, through an examination of 5 key 'modes' of poetry, looking closely at how these achieve their ends. You will learn how to identify these characteristics and structural elements through lecture input, discussion and consideration of example poems by a range of authors. You will also learn how to deploy this understanding into the writing of your own poetry, and share/discuss your own creative work with your fellow writers.

This module will introduce you to the key dramatic principles required to write scripts for stage and screen. Drawing on texts from contemporary theatre, film and television, you will learn a series of fundamental skills, developing your understanding of character, dialogue, and structure. You will engage in a combination of lectures, seminar groups, and practical writing workshops, and guided by feedback from peers and tutors alike, you will work towards writing your own original script.

The past is presented in many different ways, including in contemporary film and media. In this module you will consider 'public history', examine representations of the past in visual culture, and discuss the importance of these representations to collective memory, constructions of identity, and contemporary politics. Working with students from different subjects, you will begin to develop key skills for Humanities students, including how to evaluate and interpret sources and communicate your

This module introduces key theoretical and practical aspects of popular music, exploring its socio-cultural context, functions, performers, markets, and scenes. It challenges cultural assumptions about sound and listening, examining popular culture, fandom, and sound recording. You will learn about music dissemination, consumption, and sharing on digital platforms, covering ethics, strategies, methodologies, and realities in today's music world.

This module provides you with the foundational tools and skills you need to develop your student profile. You will learn about the different pathways in your cultural or creative field while developing your own identity as a cultural critic, creative, and citizen. You will explore and map out your personal and professional development goals and plans, ensuring you make the most of your time at university and beyond. You will gain professional skills in communication and team-working.

This module introduces you to the many ways that your literary knowledge and communication skills will be useful in future employment. Studying a range of poems, speeches, and plays, you will learn how to employ effective rhetorical strategies to communicate professionally with different audiences, enabling you to give speeches, design lesson plans or exhibitions, or run social media campaigns. The module includes masterclasses from professionals working in, for example, museums, theatres, and s

This module will develop and deepen your understanding of how narrative forms, genres and modes are used in creative writing. It introduces you to forms of creative prose besides fiction. It asks questions about how genre writing and creative nonfiction are formed, how writers read other literary texts – not as critics, and not necessarily as fans, but as practitioners – and aims to equip your own texts with the structures and techniques which are necessary to develop your own writing.

This module will develop your knowledge of key ideas about the creative processes behind the writing of original texts (poetry and prose). You will explore these processes, increase your understanding of the influences and sources that inspire new writing, and enhance your understanding of writers' workshops gained in your first year at Keele. Through the production of your own prose, poetry and critical analysis, the module will prepare you for your independent study project in your third year.

This module reflects on what writing can do in the world. It develops your place-writing skills, supporting you to create vivid settings that are closer to home (Stoke or elsewhere). It thinks about form, genre, and voice (regional/global Englishes). Building on writing's capacity to shape and reshape people's lived experiences of cities, towns and regions, the module includes practical training to equip you with the skills to conceive and plan your own ways of working with communities outside u

This module forms a gateway to the worlds of professional screenwriting and story development. It introduces you to key screenwriting concepts, which you will explore in practical, writing-based seminars. You will analyse a range of film and TV industry texts as well as producing a number of screenplay samples which respond to the theme of the seminars, receiving feedback in regular writing workshops. You will develop your own creative project plan, which will provide an invaluable basis for any

Building on your first year, in this second-year module you will extend your knowledge of different literary approaches and theories, exploring topics such as feminism, race studies, ecocriticism, and the history of emotions. You will explore how literature reflects and influences social issues, both those contemporary to the literature you study and those relevant in today's society. You will deepen your skills in critical analysis as you apply your literary understanding to real-world debates

This module builds on L4 introductions to cultural platforms/industries and to adaptation/script-writing, enabling a focused study of how the New Vic Theatre adapts texts for the stage; you will explore how the theatre as cultural industry produces social value through programmes of research and creativity; you will use this knowledge to reflect on societal impacts of cultural industries more widely, for example music, film, creative writing. You will be assessed in ways that enable you to refle

Why is brand culture so ubiquitous in how we understand ourselves and our society, and the way we live our lives? You'll investigate the histories and politics of marketing, advertising and consumerism, considering how and why promotional culture became such a key component of contemporary economies and societies. You'll think critically about the social and political impacts of