Course summary

Creative writers express thoughts, feelings and emotions through words and have the ability to inform, provoke, captivate, inspire and move. You approach creative writing from a variety of perspectives – including fiction, poetry, screenwriting and drama – to explore how writers operate and how you can become an independent writer. Taught by practicing writers, poets and novelists the course utilises links to partner organisations to provide routes of progression into the literary professions. The programme modules blend practical craft-based learning of writers’ techniques with critical theory to gain an understanding of the changing role of the writer within society. You broaden your skills base through experimentation and reflect upon your personal motivations, aims and interests as a developing writer through taught seminars, writing workshops, self-directed projects and tutorial supervision. The course is campus-based and taught by blended learning, with some face-to-face sessions and some taught online. You may also be interested in our MA Creative Writing (Online) which is taught entirely online. Graduates go on to a wide choice of professions and careers. Apart from the more obvious routes of publishing, editing and freelance writing, many work in the wider creative industries (television, journalism, new media) or in workplaces that require advanced writing skills. The practical and flexible design of the course means that it is also highly suited to teachers wishing to up-skill their portfolios in relation to the Creative Writing A level; writers developing their teaching and workshopping skills to work in the community; and those using writing in therapy, healthcare and other professional settings. If your job has a requirement to work on live briefs and projects with an imaginative or research element, you will find the transferable skills offered by this MA a natural fit. The course will help you if you want to develop a career using writing. Also, many students take our MA to extend their skills for their own personal development and fulfilment. Visit Teesside University’s website to apply to start in September.