Introduction to Imaginative Writing

This module introduces techniques for developing and sustaining creative writing and teaches you how to practice these techniques in your own short fiction, poetry and dramatic writing. There is an equal emphasis on analysing imaginative texts to see what makes them effective for different audiences and on practical writing exercises. Practical work addresses the processes, content, structure and formal features of imaginative writing genres. Guidance is given on making use of journals and notebooks, on reading widely to inform creative writing practice and on engaging in constructive criticism. As the module progresses, you will explore the special techniques and conventions of writing short fiction, poetry and dramatic writing and you will present your work in these genres to your fellow you, developing materials for a portfolio of imaginative writing to be submitted at the end of the semester. Using critical skills developed through wide reading and from workshop analysis, you will re-draft your work and produce a critical commentary evaluating the creative processes you have pursued, analysing specific techniques used in your portfolio of imaginative writing, and identifying areas for future development.

Language and Criticism for Writers

This module supports you through the first semester of a writing-intensive degree programme. It teaches essential skills for working with language, for participating in workshops and for undertaking critical evaluation of creative work. The main areas covered are grammar and style; producing critical commentaries for creative and professional writing assignments; performing and presenting work with care and confidence; giving and receiving constructive criticism; maintaining journals and notebooks; making language choices in relation to audience expectations and working with drafts. You are introduced to key critical and analytical terms and are taught how to use these in developing your own writing practice. Seminar workshops focus on reading and writing exercises that you have prepared each week. Working in small groups, you will give and receive feedback, work through questions and problems and practise applying critical, analytical and technical terms. Through these sessions, you will gain confidence as writers and workshop participants, identifying the benefits of studying Writing as a degree subject.

Introduction to Film Studies

This introductory module provides an analytic and creative approach to the study of films and film practices, and introduces you to some of the key features of film language and theory. In addition to contemporary and classical Hollywood, you begin to study experimental practices and products, and films and film-making contexts from a range of cultures. The medium of film is acknowledged as a distinctive language, art form and industry which has developed dramatically since its novelty beginnings in 1895. The use of film as ideological tool is investigated via consideration of the way in which films shape our beliefs and influence our behaviour through conforming with, (re)shaping or challenging the dominant. Via lectures, seminars and screenings, you learn to identify and debate the relative merits of different films and begin to develop the skills of critical judgement that are crucial to the subject. Visits to cinema venues and film festivals allow for first-hand experience of issues faced by the film industry, while seminar activities such as shot analyses and oral presentations encourage an appreciation of the links between conceptual and practical approaches.

Film Reviewing

The module provides an introduction to film reviewing. You begin by exploring the nature and purpose of reviewing films, and then work through the various steps of the reviewing process. The module equips you to write original reviews for a variety of different readerships. Seminars are structured around exercises designed to illustrate - with the aid of carefully selected examples - review philosophies; planning and structuring of reviews; tailoring the review according to a brief and/or a particular audience; keeping film diaries; and developing a personal writing style. Seminars also help you understand how to respond critically to films by exploring aspects of genre, dramatic structure, performance and the technical background of film production, with examples from mainstream, independent and foreign language films. These explorations are reinforced by formative assignments, leading to the creation of a portfolio of reviews in a variety of styles and for a range of readerships.

Writing Short Fiction

Theorising the Specular and Classical Hollywood Cinema

Screenwriting: The Feature Film

Major Project in Writing or Film Studies

Writing Poetry

Screenwriting: Adaptation

Visualisation, Research and Storyboarding (Recommended)

Film Reviewing

History of Cinema

Introduction to Video

Anglia Language Programme

Screenwriting: Script to Screen

Creative Writing

Writing Drama

News and Feature Writing

Film, Identity and Globalisation

Documentary Film Theory

Video Documentary

Animation

Introduction to European Cinema

European Cinema and Identity

Anglia Language Programme

Writing for Radio

Storytelling and Performance

Autobiography: Self, Narrative and Truth

Film Art

Film, Modernity and Postmodernity

Multiplexed: Contemporary Popular Cinema

Creative Practice in Film and Video

Working in Film, Communication, English and Media

Anglia Language Programme