BA (Hons) English and Publishing Bachelor's degree at the University of Derby

This module makes explicit the learning skills and strategies involved in creative writing, while also introducing you to the fundamental sectors and structures of the publishing industry. It helps you identify the skills you need to develop in order to write to a professional standard for your audience. You explore issues of writing craft, including key topics such as task management and deadlines, research skills, and elements of style. You learn how to evaluate and interpret sources creatively and analytically. Classes also cover contemporary concepts of authorship and how the traditional print publishing industry has adapted in recent years to the rise of online communication and self-pu

Assessment: Coursework

This module will focus principally on the mechanisms, techniques and theoretical approaches underpinning the marketing of literary outputs, including books, magazines, and ebooks. It will also explore Brand identity, including publisher brand, but focusing on authors as brands, particularly in recent times; The rise of digital and social media marketing and B2C exposure of authors’ work; The rise of self-publishing and the ways in which authors market and promote their own work. All publishers, including self-publishing authors, have a marketing orientation to their business operations. No product is brought to market without a thorough consideration of to whom it will sell, the quantities i

Assessment: Coursework

Within the publishing industry, an editor is the person who takes overall responsibility for all or part of the publisher’s output, including dealing with authors, helping to steer the editorial and commercial policies of the business, and ensuring that literary or scholarly standards are maintained. A slightly more recent, but subsidiary, meaning of ‘editor’ describes a range of people whose roles are to correct or alter a text ready for publication. Subject editors, copy-editors and proofreaders fall within this category. The principal focus for this module is upon the first of these definitions, although the module will also describe the processes performed by subject editors, copy-editor

Assessment: Coursework

This module aims to introduce some of the fundamental concepts of literary criticism, enabling you to put these into practice in the analysis of texts. It will encourage the critical examination of seemingly ‘natural’ assumptions about the nature of language, of meaning, and of interpretation. It will also acquaint you with the methodology and terminology which underpins current critical practices while building your analytical skills. Through this focus on skills the module will encourage you to reflect on your personal development, and to begin the process of linking your academic studies to your future goals. Assessment is by two pieces of coursework.

Assessment: Coursework

Focusing on the genres of the gothic, horror and science fiction, this module will explore representations of nonhuman ‘others’ in the literature and cinema of the fantastic. In examining this perennially popular area of culture, we will consider the ways in which cultural anxieties concerning the mind, the body, gender, race and technology are articulated in fantasy; we will also investigate the ways in which ideas of what constitutes the human have continually changed, and the ways in which these changes have been represented in fiction. From ghosts and vampires to cyborgs and aliens, we will consider a range of texts in the light of theoretical models drawn from such fields as psychoanaly

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

The English Literary Renaissance, in the context of the spiritual and cultural upheaval of the Reformation and the development of Humanism, produced some of the most significant achievements in English literature. This module will introduce you to a range of drama, poetry and prose from this critical and tumultuous period. We will study the sonnet form as well as the dramatic innovations of late Elizabethan comedy and tragedy. In this way, some key works by Shakespeare will be considered alongside those of other influential poets, dramatists and prose stylists of his age. Assessment is by two coursework essays.

Assessment: Coursework

This module will introduce you to some of the key figures and concepts which inform current critical practice, and acquaint you with the terminology and discourses which constitute that practice. The focus is upon poststructuralist approaches to literature and culture, and we will thus be discussing ideas which have developed from linguistics, psychoanalysis, Marxism, postmodernism, gender studies and post-colonialism, in relation to specific textual examples. We will also consider subsequent developments ‘post-Theory’. Assessment is by two coursework essays.

Assessment: Coursework

This module will address the seismic cultural changes which have been drawn together under the umbrella term of ‘Modernism’. Roughly corresponding to the period from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War, Modernism embodied a decisive change in approaches to literature: modernist novelists such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce moved away from realist narrative conventions and experimented with form; Modernist poets such as T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound introduced a fragmented and allusive style of poetry whose impact remains significant today. In the course of this module, you will study some significant modernist writings in their intellectual and historical contexts; we will al

Assessment: Coursework

This module is an exploration of the British and European realist novel in the nineteenth century. You will study a selection of key texts and consider their wider cultural and socio/historical themes and issues. In the course of the module, you will also examine the narrative modes and generic conventions relating to realism. Assessment is by coursework and seminar participation, including a presentation and engagement in discussion.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

The Romantic era in British Literature – approximately the half century between 1780 and 1830 – was an especially rich one in the history of British poetry as well as being a period of great historical change and artistic innovation. This module aims to familiarise you with the key achievements of a number of important late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century British poets. The period was one of social and political upheaval, as a consequence of (for example) the impact of the French Revolution and the long war with revolutionary, and then Napoleonic, France; the agitation for Parliamentary reform and political rights; the movement to abolish the slave trade and slavery in the British co

Assessment: Coursework

This module is designed to develop your research skills and to apply them to different contexts. It will provide an advanced understanding of research methodologies and to consider different ways in which scholars undertake research. It will then enable you to put these skills into practice into two different contexts. The first of these is a short, group, applied research project, based upon a brief from an external partner. You will then produce an extended piece of academic writing based upon an individually devised research question. The module will encourage you to think about how research skills are transferable beyond university and prepare you for the greater emphasis on independent

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

This module considers how texts can and should be altered as they are developed for publication or circulation. Students hone their knowledge of English and learn editing skills and processes. Common issues, practicalities and industry standards are explained and analysed, including common author errors, syntax, punctuation, sentence structure and writing levels for different ages and abilities. Publishers’ house styles for the presentation of manuscripts are covered, alongside copy-editing best practice. The module prepares students for work as writers, copy-editors within organisations, or providing their own authorial services. Issues of representation and bias are explored.

Assessment: Coursework

Children’s and Young Adult (YA) publishing is a significant and exciting part of the global publishing market and generates significant revenue for writers, illustrators, designers, editors, agents, and publishers. This module will offer students an overview of publishing for children, starting with a history of children as readers and consumers of stories, novels, and picture books. The ancient oral tradition of stories for children will be examined, and how this evolved into book form in the mid-eighteenth century, yet the continuing importance of oral delivery, particularly for younger children. A selection of classic texts and authors will be studied – from Maurice Sendak and Dr. Seuss t

Assessment: Coursework

The module situates creative writing within games and gaming. In addition to the exploration of employment within the varied contexts related to gaming, you may: examine the cultural functions of games, including their uses and meanings as both personal and social practices; conceive and produce games in different forms; explore building narratives; understand the complexities of interactive narration and branching narratives; learn techniques in constructing game worlds; learn how to script (and learn how to cast) in-game dialogue; learn how to convey information necessary to play in the form of tutorial or rules material. Sessions may be delivered face-to-face, online or via a blended appr

Assessment: Coursework

This module will explore several of the canons of classical rhetoric, in particular those pertaining to the discovery of arguments (logical inference and deduction, and fallacies); the arrangement and structuring of persuasive argumentation; the use of stylistic figures and tropes in language to enhance emotional or persuasive effect; and the verbal or ‘performance’ delivery of an argument. Reference will be made to the long historical background, from Isocrates and Aristotle through the Tudor rhetoricians to the great political speech makers of recent times. Media studied may include political writings and speeches, advertising material, digital and online content and social media, scientif

Assessment: Coursework

In this module, you will examine the principles, practices, and theories behind book design and production, both in print, digital and multi-platform formats. You will be introduced to industry-standard software that is used to manipulate illustrations, and lay out text and images when typesetting books and magazines. You will also be introduced to the fundamentals of quality assurance when manipulating content, how to code text styles and how to prepare content for transfer to ebook formats. This module will also focus upon the role of writers as creators of content, examining the ways in which a writer’s work can be designed and formatted, as well as the ways in which writers can be briefe

Assessment: Coursework

This module forms part of the placement year typically completed between the second and final stage of a degree programme. The module provides a framework for the development of reflective skills appropriate to all areas of professional practice including for example aspects of problem solving such as objective setting, planning, negotiating, demonstrating, and reflecting. The emphasis in this module is on the analysis and evaluation of work completed within the organisation and future employability planning. During the module students will develop a reflective portfolio where they record the skills, knowledge and experience developed during the placement experience and evaluate how this wil

Assessment: Coursework

This double module, extending over two semesters, aims to facilitate your undertaking a piece of independently researched work, on a subject area generated by you in negotiation with a designated supervisor. The topic will be theoretically-based, in depth, and will extend your understanding, skills, and analyses developed through the first two years of the programme. Your approach in terms of research methodology, theoretical basis and level of engagement will reflect the increased intellectual sophistication of the subject at Level Six. The varying skills accrued in this module will prove essential to your future employability and personal development, as well as providing an excellent fram

Assessment: Coursework

This module provides you with an opportunity to experience working in a cultural, creative, arts, heritage or related organisation and to develop valuable academic and transferable skills. The main focus is to negotiate and conduct a work-based project with an employer or other outside body. This might be a museum or gallery, a cinema or theatre, a radio or TV station, or an educational establishment, for example. It allows you to bring your academic skills to an organisation, to complete a project that would be useful to them (and, in many cases, the wider community), and gives you the opportunity to gain valuable work experience relevant to your chosen career path.

Assessment: Coursework

This module will examine the legacies of modernism, with particular reference to the French philosophical and literary movement known as Existentialism and the subsequent development of postmodernism. In relation to a diverse range of innovative and subversive works of literature, we will consider in depth existentialist notions of responsibility, bad faith, freedom and the absurd as well as postmodern ideas concerning the fictional nature of ‘reality’. Therefore, as well as engaging with major British, European and American writers of the twentieth century, we will consider concurrent developments in film, visual art, theory and philosophy. Assessment is by coursework and seminar participat

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

The module aims to explore the effects of colonialism and independence on both the coloniser and the colonised through the study of literary texts and post-colonial theoretical debate. It will concentrate on modes of representation, and will concern itself with the interdependent images of the colonial encounter at moments on both sides of the advent of independence. A range of concepts including the colonial encounter, creolisation, and hybridity will be discussed. Attention will be paid primarily o the British colonial (ad-venture) in India, Africa,and the Caribbean. The broad historical-geographical base is intended to enable you to examine and apply theories concerning representation and

Assessment: Coursework

Often regarded as the most profound of literary genres, tragedy stages conflicts between desire and law, individuals and institutions, human beings and inhuman demands. Beginning in Ancient Greece, the form evolved significantly during the Renaissance and is synonymous with Shakespeare’s greatest works. This module will examine tragedy and the tragic in plays from Classical Greece and Renaissance England, taking in some of Shakespeare’s major tragedies as well as the bloody revenge dramas of the Jacobean age. It will address, too, the rich critical and theoretical heritage which has grown out of a recurrent and widespread fascination with this bleak, often grim, but compelling and cathartic

Assessment: Coursework

This module aims to introduce you to a selection of contemporary texts dealing with the complex problematics of identity and, more specifically, its unique relationship to gender. You will also study key developments in form and current critical and theoretical and contextual debates surrounding the subject. Assessment is by coursework and seminar participation, including a presentation and engagement in discussion.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

The module aims to nurture your ability to read a wide range of contemporary dramatic texts more pleasurably and critically. It is organised around issues of intercultural performance, self-awareness, self-determination, resistance, and identity through the study of South African theatre in the apartheid era, West European, African and Caribbean theatre. Your study will include the analysis of wide ranging performances, dramatic texts and film/video/dvd recordings of African, Western European and Caribbean theatre. You will consider aesthetic, historical and socio-political contexts which produce this theatre, and the role of the dramatist as a voice of the community. The module also looks a

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

This interdisciplinary module will engage with a number of literary and cinematic representations of crime and transgressive behaviour, in the context of a range of historical factors and critical-theoretical perspectives. Beginning with Thomas de Quincey’s mischievous plea for murder to be considered as one of the fine arts, we will discuss texts chosen from a range of genres, chiefly drawing on British, European and American writings. As well as examining the origins of the detective story and the significance of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, emphasis will be placed on the figure of the criminal as existential (anti-) hero and the separation of aesthetics from morality. Assessment is

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

In this module, you will read widely in modern and contemporary poetry in order to gain some understanding and appreciation of the range of poetry currently practised in the English speaking world. We will consider the way in which poetry evolves out of a conversation with other poems (tradition) out of a dialogue with other media, and out of a response to contemporary life and its philosophical traditions. The module emphasises the close link between a careful and attuned reading and appreciative critical writing, and you will have opportunity through seminar discussions to familiarise yourself with the poetic techniques and formal effects that underpin modern experimental poetry. At the sa

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

The Eighteenth Century was a crucial era in the development of ‘modern’ ideas about society, politics, literature, and the self. This module gives you the opportunity to study in depth one aspect of the literary culture of the eighteenth century. The narrow focus will allow you to become familiar with the historical contexts and generic conventions relevant to the topic of the module. Through the detailed study of one topic or issue, we will aim to gain critical insight into eighteenth-century intellectual life more broadly. To broaden your perspective of the era, you will also engage with the analysis and evaluation of the visual image in terms of art and of cultural documents. Assessment i

Assessment: Coursework

This module concentrates on extending students’ range of writing and exploring the challenges of achieving publication. In practical workshops, students are encouraged to attempt genre styles. The literary and popular distinction is examined, as well as a selection of genre forms. Students are encouraged to explore outlets for publication in order to understand the audiences of areas under discussion, while also considering how to challenge and extend genre forms. Workshops in this module are run according to the latest Subject Benchmark Statement: Creative Writing (QAA).

Assessment: Coursework

This module offers an overview of contemporary publishing and creative writing. It is designed to get you thinking about where these creative industries are heading. So many discussions around current trends in writing and reading offer polarised alternatives (print vs digital, highbrow vs mass market, traditional publishing vs self-publishing, etc.), but such arguments are often over-simplified and misleading. So much of what we consume and create now, in the written world, is hybrid in nature. In this module, you engage with and contribute to current theories and debates about print culture and the roles of publishers and writers. Examining the contemporary state of writing and publishing

Assessment: Coursework

Enterprise and entrepreneurship are essential within the economy, as they create jobs, wealth and value. Individuals contribute toward this through applying an enterprising mindset, an individual and unique combination of enterprising behaviours, attributes, and skills which can be used in a variety of contexts. For instance, this could be in starting and growing a business (i.e. in an entrepreneurial context) or applying to existing organisations, whether large companies, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) or not-for-profit organisations (i.e. in an entrepreneurial context). Being able to apply an enterprising mindset is highly desirable in today’s fast-moving business environment whe

Assessment: Coursework

This employability-focused module prepares students for the contemporary publishing workplace. It covers topics such as networking, teamwork, career planning, pitching, presenting, data analysis, interview skills, freelancing, crisis management, communication, how to get the most out of work experience placements, and what to expect of an entry-level position. Students workshop their CVs and cover letters, and practise job applications. Guest speakers from across the industry give insight into their work.

Assessment: Coursework, Practical

Students have a choice of Independent Study topics in this module: a research-based dissertation, or a major writing or publishing project. The options have been designed to offer parity of learning and experience, so that whichever option you choose you will be required to undertake similar amounts and levels of work, both supervised and independently, and have equivalent opportunities to demonstrate your achievement and abilities against all of the module learning outcomes. 1 Research dissertation Following a number of formal sessions to study research methodologies, you will choose, develop and refine a research topic, consisting of an in-depth investigation on a theme, subject or issue o

Assessment: Coursework