BA (Hons) Creative Writing and Media Bachelor's degree at York St John University

Explore theories and concepts relating to analytical interpretation of media. Introduction to major issues relating media to social and cultural contexts. Assess and evaluate approaches to critical and analytical investigation.

Good writers are good readers. Introduction to theories, debates and practices in narrative, enhancing understanding of narrative in literature and culture generally. Examine codes and conventions governing production, structure, reception and interpretation of narrative through films, novels, poetry and plays. Consider relationship between narrative and culture and historical development of forms.

Introduction to variety of professional contexts for creative writers. Develop professional skills needed to work as a writer, working to deadlines and writing to briefs. Engage with different forms of writing from memoirs to scripts and graphic novels to blogs. Meet variety of inspiring visiting writers.

Introduction to core skills in creative writing including creating setting, poetic form, working with dialogue, and characterisation. Develop skills in workshopping and collaborating on creative work. Experiment with range of forms and ideas in group writing activities. Become confident in sharing work with others.

Explore concept of ideology by analysing viewing behaviour and beliefs of media audiences. Study media communication models and their histories. Engage with research surrounding audiences. Explore nature of contemporary mass communication and how ideology and meaning impact the communication process.

Think critically about how media informs, intersects and engages with concepts of identity. Engage with contemporary discussion and debate surrounding identity including considerations of race, gender, nationality and age. Evaluate theoretical, historical and socio-political influences and implications of contemporary mediated identities.

Read and produce range of fictional forms from flash fictions to novellas and short stories to novels. Develop understanding of characterisation, voice, plot, narration, dialogue and point of view. Produce own fiction portfolio.

Explore range of non-fiction texts including journalism, creative non-fiction, fictocriticism, manifestos, blogs and online journals, documentary, travel and life writing. Develop understanding of voice, structure and audience in relation to these forms. Consider blurred lines between fact and fiction. Make links between creative and critical writing and produce own nonfictional work.

Introduction to theory and practice of convergence technology, transmedia activity and network theory. Focus on continuing development and evolution of communication technologies and how they shape everyday lives. Consider developments in relation to social, political and cultural factors. Speculate on how these may affect production and consumption of meaning and content through media.

Engage in debates about production, reception and contexts of media and cultural products that have caused controversy. Debates about taste and reception of text in different traditional, new and emergent media. Introduction to terminology of aesthetic discussion and dispute including propaganda, artistic licence, canonical status, acceptability, pornography and censorship.

Explore various forms and uses of music within cultural production. Focus on evolutions of these processes and movements as indicators of cultural change. Explore possibilities for social, political and cultural exploration offered by study of music. Consider use within counter-cultural production, innovation, reception, distribution, protest and socio-cultural moments. Discuss concepts and theories surrounding authorship, activism, mode of production, meaning and representation.

Explore different ways books and films tell stories and what happens to literature and literary characters when translated onto screen. Introduction to theory, methods and conventions behind adaptation process. Examine specific examples of film adaptation. Can choose to experiment creatively on own adaptation project.

Develop research skills in preparation for more extensive independent research project in final year. Focus on selected science fiction primary texts and related theoretical, philosophical, inter-textual and historical secondary material. Develop important academic skills through research. Major discussions include race, environment, relationship between human and machine, and what it is to be human.

Become familiar with important critical debates surrounding visual culture. Appreciate vital relationship between word and image from traditional illustration through contemporary internet culture. Investigate how visual strategies can be used to communicate complex ideas.

Opportunity to engage with more vocational elements of working with media and explore entrepreneurial potential. Work in groups to produce creative portfolio and pitch idea to panel, which could be magazine, film festival or exhibition. Take into account marketing and advertising, business cases, product development and effective communication of ideas.

Work-related module developing understanding of relationship between creative writing practices and employability in creative industries. Opportunity to explore methods and means of literary publishing, production and performance. Develop transferable and employable skills through project work. Combines broad exploration of industry aims and ethics with first hand experience of specific editorial, commercial and practical processes.

From sonnet to prose poem, broaden understanding of formal qualities of poetry and how to produce dazzling imagery and perfect rhythm, manipulating voice and pace. Study range of contemporary poets supplemented by visits and readings. Produce own portfolio of poetry by end of module.

Address essential elements of scriptwriting including writing convincing dialogue, creating interesting characters and constructing coherent stories. Introduction to cultural, theoretical and industrial contexts of scriptwriting. Develop expressive and technical skills in writing scripts for radio, television, stage and film. Produce own original script by end of module.

Understanding of globalisation essential for engaging with processes of cultural, political and social change in modern world. Introduction to major theoretical debates and ideas surrounding contested idea of globalisation. Examine role media plays in reflecting and reacting to processes of change and its influence on emergent, resistant and dominant cultures.