Creative Writing at De Montfort University - UCAS

Course options

Course summary

Find your voice and discover your own creative writing path through studying with us at DMU. By embedding stimulating themes throughout our distinctive course structure we give you the opportunity to develop skills across fiction, poetry, memoir, the graphic novel, screenwriting, non-fiction, audio and performance writing, concrete poetry and new media. You’ll examine the relationship between word, image, and sound and, by the end of your course, you won’t just be writing – you’ll also be producing your own professional-standard publications. As a final confidence boost, we include final-year voice coaching to help you leave DMU as a self-assured public performer. You can select a route through this degree in Drama, Education, English Language, English Literature, Film, History, Journalism or Media. Key features

  • We’ll help you to experiment and push beyond your comfort zone to produce podcasts, audio-visual pieces and multimedia digital work.
  • Creative Writing at DMU is ranked number one in the UK for graduate prospects (Complete University Guide, 2023).
  • Select a route through this degree in Drama, Education, English Language, English Literature, Film, History, Journalism or Media. These carefully chosen routes will complement and enrich your understanding of your main subject, alongside broadening your skillset to give you a wider range of career paths available upon graduation.
  • Industry-focused skills are embedded throughout the curriculum and you will graduate as a confident writer with the tools to professionally promote, present and publish your work.
  • We’ll encourage you to join regional writing networks, participate in spoken word events, and perform and publish your work through book fairs and festivals, including DMU's annual States of Independence book festival.
  • You’ll learn from successful published writers and become part of a creative and passionate community of writers.
  • Work beyond classroom boundaries in a variety of stimulating settings to promote creativity, including urban walk workshops, museum trips and ghost story workshops in a deconsecrated chapel.
If you are interested in advanced entry into Year 3 of this course, please visit the DMU website for the course details: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/pre-edu-2030/creative-writing-ba-degree/creative-writing-ba-degree.aspx

Modules

First year Block 1: Exploring Creative Writing Block 2: Writing Identity Block 3: Writers Salon OR you can select to study one route from the list below: Drama route – Shifting Stages English Language route - Evolving Language English Literature route – Introduction to Drama: Shakespeare Film Studies route – Disney, Warner Bros and the Business of the Film Studio Education route – Childhood, Social Justice and Education History route – Global Cities Journalism route – Understanding Journalism Media route - Media, Culture and Society Block 4: Shaping Ideas Second year Block 1: Writing Place Block 2: Word, Image, Sound Block 3: Story Craft OR continue with the route selected in the first year: Drama route – Theatre Revolutions English Language route - Sociolinguistics English Literature route – Text Technologies Film Studies route – Screen Archives - Preservation, Conservation and Usage Education route – Preparing for Professional Practice and Cultural and Educational Transformations History route – Humans and the Natural World Journalism route – Beyond News: Peace Journalism and Opinion Writing Media route – Public Relations and Strategic Communication Year Long: Personal Projects Third year Block 1: Genre Specialism Block 2: Writing and Publishing Block 3: Uncreative Writing, Creative Misbehavior OR continue with the route selected in the first year: Drama route – Performance, Identity and Activism English Language route - Language and Identity English Literature route – World Englishes: On the Page and Beyond Film Studies route – British Cinema - Creativity, Independents and Interdependence Education route – Adult Learners and Lifelong Learning OR Reflection on Practice: Teaching and Learning OR Gender and Education History route – The World on Display Journalism route – Music, Film and Entertainment Journalism Media route – Gender and TV Fictions Year Long: Dissertation

Assessment method

We want to ensure you have the best learning experience possible and a supportive and nurturing learning community. That’s why we’re introducing a new block model for delivering the majority of our courses, known as Education 2030. This means a more simplified timetable where you will study one subject at a time instead of several at once. You will have more time to engage with your learning and get to know the teaching team and course mates. You will receive faster feedback through more regular assessment, and have a better study-life balance to enjoy other important aspects of university life. Structure This degree programme is carefully designed to develop your potential by ensuring you encounter the full range of forms open to the 21st century creative writer, whilst also allowing you the flexibility to focus, for assignments, on projects and genres that interest you most. We want you to learn that practicing a particular kind of writing can hone your craft in a different form. In the first year, the focus is upon shorter work, and the importance of developing your editing and re-drafting skills; and your capacity to accept and evaluate feedback from others. This process will enable you to take a critical and reflective approach to your work (Both creative and reflective writing will be assessed). But you will also practice shaping and developing your own ideas, and practice reading as a writer to learn new craft skills. As you progress through your studies the assignments lengthen, and the focus upon research intensifies as you are expected to situate your own writing alongside your reading of other writers in your field. This involves developing a more sustained writing practice informed by an understanding of the conventions of particular genres, and your management of readers’ expectations. You will also consider how your sense of the ways in which creative work is published and marketed will help you understand how your own practice might fit in – or resist – contemporary conventions. In all years, the modules reinforce the knowledge that reading and analysing the work of other practitioners – your fellow students included - will help you understand and develop your own formal and technical abilities. You will experience a range of assessment modes alongside creative writing pieces in the core genres, for example, creative CVs, publications projects, case studies, field trips, and hypertext and audio-visual work. The bulk of the assessment is centred on creative writing coursework and critical reflection – you will take a reflective, critical, and analytical approach to their work and to learn to read as practitioners. You will gain insight into your own creative methods by situating your work in relation to other writers, research materials, and critical writings. Contact hours You will be taught through a combination of workshops, lectures, tutorials, group work and self-directed study. In your first year you will normally attend around 10 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and workshops) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 28 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.


How to apply

Application codes

Course code:
W800
Institution code:
D26
Campus name:
Leicester Campus
Campus code:
Y

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Year 1
  • Year 2

Entry requirements

Qualification requirements


Student Outcomes

Operated by the Office for Students
70%
Employment after 15 months (Most common jobs)
75%
Go onto work and study

The number of student respondents and response rates can be important in interpreting the data – it is important to note your experience may be different from theirs. This data will be based on the subject area rather than the specific course. Read more about this data on the Discover Uni website.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

England £9250 Year 1
Northern Ireland £9250 Year 1
Scotland £9250 Year 1
Wales £9250 Year 1
EU £15750 Year 1
International £15750 Year 1

Additional fee information

Please note that fees are subject to an annual review. Any increase in fees for Home students would be based upon a review of our provision and in line with the fee cap set by the government. For Overseas students such reviews will be based on a market assessment and communicated to students at least 6-months before any programme commencing. Please visit the tuition fees pages of our website for further information: dmu.ac.uk/funding
Creative Writing at De Montfort University - UCAS