IMPORTANT DATES 2012-13
AUTUMN TERM
Monday 1 October 2012 Beginning of Autumn Term.
Monday 1 October Introductory Meeting of all MA students at
12 noon in The Writers Room, Millburn House.
Wednesday 3 October All module choices to be finalised.
Hand in completed orange registration cards to
Reception (H506).
Monday 5 November All Bibliography Exercises to be submitted
to the English Office (H506) by 12.00 noon.
Saturday 8 December End of Autumn Term.
SPRING TERM
Monday 7 January 2013 Beginning of Spring Term.
Monday 11 February 1st Autumn Term portfolio to be submitted.*
(week 6)
Part-time students can choose to submit their
first term option module portfolio for this
deadline.
Saturday 16 March End of Spring Term.
SUMMER TERM
Monday 22 April Beginning of Summer Term.
Monday 20 May 2nd Autumn Term portfolio to be submitted.
Part-time students who did not submit their
first term option module portfolio for the
February deadline MUST submit for this
deadline.
Monday 24 June 1st Spring Term portfolio to be submitted.*
Saturday 28 June End of Summer Term.
Monday 2nd September Submit all remaining portfolios and/or Long
Projects by 12.00 pm.
Wednesday 16 October 2013 Taught MA Examination Board
* - You have a choice as to which option module essay you submit for which deadline.
NOTE: All deadlines are final. No late work will be accepted without the written permission of the MA Convenor, which shall not normally be given without documented medical evidence or equivalently serious cause. It is expected that students in difficulty will request an extension which can only be granted by the MA Convenor, who can be contacted directly. The request for extension can be discussed as well with your Personal Tutor, but please remember that she/he cannot approve an extension. A medical note will be required in case of illness. Work which is late without permission will be penalised by 3 marks a day.
All assessed work must conform to the stated maximum word lengths. The maximum word lengths are inclusive of quotations and footnotes but not of bibliography. You will be asked to provide a word count of your essays on the cover sheet which you complete when the work is submitted. We allow a stated margin of up to 10% over or under-length for flexibility. Essays that are 10-25% over/under-length will incur a penalty of 3 marks. Essays that are more than 25% over/under-length will be refused.
NB - If you take an outside option module from those available to the MA in English Literature students, you must submit assessed work to your own degree’s word length (ie up to 10,000 words for MA in Writing students)
THE WARWICK WRITING PROGRAMME
Master’s Programme in Writing
This handbook should be read in conjunction with the general MA Students’ Handbook for the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. The general handbook contains practical information on practical matters such as registration for options, mail and messages, use of Common Room, IT services, transport, portfolio / essay binding, complaints procedures, and so on. Please consult your personal tutor if you have questions not answered by this documentation.
STAFF CONTACTS
Director of GraduateStudies, Department of English & Comparative Literary Studies / Dr Emma Francis / Room
H511 / 024 76 522403 /
Graduate Secretary / Mrs Cheryl Cave / Room H505 / 02476 523665 /
MA in Writing: Convenor and Examinations Secretary / Professor Maureen Freely / Room H527 / 024 76 523348 /
MA in Writing: Admissions Tutor / Professor Maureen Freely / Room H527 / 024 76 523348 /
Director of the Warwick Writing Programme / Professor David Morley / Room H521 / 02476 523346 /
INTRODUCTION
The MA Programme in Writing
The degree is intended for students who are already experienced as well as ambitious practising writers, whether published or not. While we don’t believe that creativity, as such, can be taught, or that it is only fulfilled in ‘the marketplace’, we do aim to help develop technical writing skills which students will find useful professionally, whether in full-time authorship or in related professions such as publishing, the media, or teaching.
Course content and methods of teaching and assessment involve a mixture of approaches based on workshops (see page 13) and portfolios, combined with more traditional academic pedagogies. At least as important as the teaching, though, are the space and stimulus to write within a community of people who have similar aspirations and are facing similar practical, imaginative and intellectual problems. The literary community at Warwick is a scholarly as well as a creative one: the University is one of the most highly ranked research institutions, nationally, to offer such a degree. Much of the value of the course comes from students’ working on the University campus and making use of the full range of activities which it offers.
‘Litbiz’, ‘Work in Progress’, ‘Writers at Warwick’ and other series and external links
Staff of the Programme have excellent links not only with other writers but also with publishing houses, literary journals and agencies, with national and regional organizations such as the Arts Council, PENand the Royal Literary Fund, and with other creative writing schools in Britain, continental Europe and the USA. An exchange programme enables MA students undertaking long projects to work in Milan under the supervision of Tim Parks. A regular series under the title Litbiz brings literary professionals – among them, publishers and agents - to the Writers’ Room, where they meet students informally over sandwiches before giving a talk chaired by one of the MA students. A more occasional series, Work in Progress, gives opportunities for writers – including Warwick staff - to read from and discuss their current projects.
In partnership with the Warwick Arts Centre, staff of the Writing Programme also help to organize a weekly series of public readings and talks by visiting authors throughout the academic year. More than 300 writers have appeared in the series since 1997, among them Monica Ali, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Umberto Eco, Bernardine Evaristo, Michael Frayn, Christopher Hampton, Tony Harrison, Nick Hornby, Clive James, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hanif Kureishi, Hermione Lee, Doris Lessing, Mario Vargas Llosa, David Lodge, Ian McEwan, Anne Michaels, Andrew Motion, Tim Parks, Michèle Roberts, Salman Rushdie, Will Self, Wole Soyinka, Meera Syal, Colm Tóibín, Derek Walcott, Marina Warner, Fay Weldon Edmund White and Gao Xingjian. We regard students’ active participation in these events as an essential part of their experience on the Writing Programme. Full details can be accessed at the Warwick Arts Centre website: www.warwickartscentre.co.uk.
An audio archive of past events can be accessed at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/writingprog/writersatwarwickarchive/
Please contact Matt Burman, Head of Programming, for more information.
The Writing Programme is closely involved with the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (formerly the Capital Centre). The Institute facilitates a number of activities which overlap with those of the Writing Programme - among them, writing for performance. It is housed in a large, newly converted block next to University House, ten minutes’ walk from the Humanities Building, which contains studios, exhibition space, IT facilities and a Writers’ Room which we use for a range of literary activities. A fellowship programme associated with the Capital Centre has brought to Warwick people like the poet and editor Fiona Sampson and the dramatist Adriano Shaplin, both of whom worked with the Writing Programme.
Other aspects of the Writing Programme’s work include international conferences and public debates on topics which have included Censorship, The Needs of Writers, Minority Cultures and the Establishment Press, Science Writing, Creativity, Women in the British Theatre, Writing for Children and Journalism and Public Policy. In 2008, students on the Programme organized Pencilfest: the First National Student Writers' Festival.
Writers’ Lunch: Please make a point of bringing your sandwiches to the Writers’ Room on Thursdays, any time between 1.30 and 3.00, and feel free to invite a friend with an interest in writing. The Writers’ Lunches are an opportunity for staff, students and visiting writers to meet informally. They generally involve an event in the LitBiz series.
A.L.Kennedy and China Mieville will run one-to-one tutorials and tailored masterclasses for MAW students during several visits over the year.
FULL TIME STUDENTS
THE COURSE STRUCTURE IN OUTLINE
There are two pathways through the Warwick MA in Writing. A) involves five taught modules in which a wide range of written work is produced. B) - the 'Long Project' route - involves three taught modules plus, as the title suggests, a long written project in any genre which the Programme is able to supervise. Permission to follow the 'Long Project' route depends on an assessment of the student's prior experience of writing and of a proposal submitted before the course begins, as well as on the availability of a qualified supervisor or supervisors. (NB supervision of the Long Project begins in Term 2 and continues through Term 3) Students enrolled on the module will receive a letter about their choices during the summer vacation and are asked to respond by 1 September
ROUTE A: ‘TAUGHT’
Full-time students take three modules in the autumn term, two in the spring. The summer is given to ‘writing up’, supported by additional workshops and 1:1 tutorials. The course is structured so as to give students a strong basis in creative work in the first term, followed by an element of optionality afterwards. What follows describes the normal pattern, but there is some flexibility over it. For example, a student who chose to switch to more ‘academic’ study in the second term would be able to do so, subject to her / his previous academic experience.
We try not to make last-minute changes in course plans but modifications are sometimes necessary because of staff illness or other unforeseen circumstances.
AUTUMN TERM
Full-time students will study:
· Research Methods (for module details, see pp13-14) AND
· Warwick Fiction Workshop I (for module details, see pp 24-25) OR
· Non Fiction Workshop (for module details, see pp 19-21)
And ONE OF THE FOLLOWING
· Life-writing in History (for module details, see pp 18-19)
· Writing for Children and Young People (for module details, see pp 30-33)
· Writing Places (for module details, see pp 33-34) or
· Another module selected from those offered at MA level by the faculty of Arts, subject to the permissions both of the director of the MA in Writing and of the module convenor.* Modules change from year to year and may be restricted in terms of students numbers but the list is likely to include: The British Dramatists in Society 1965-2005; Writing, Language, Cultural Transfer; Resource Fictions. More details can be found on the websites of individual departments – in the case of English,
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/modules/
They should also allow time for:
● Participation in workshops and other events
SPRING TERM
Module choices for the second term need to be made by the end of September. As numbers may be restricted on some modules, students will be asked to name their second and third choices.
Full-time students will study two of the following:
● Crossing Borders (for module details, see pp 14-15)
● Ecopoetics (for module details, see pp 15-18)
● Poetry & Music (for module details, see pp 21-22)
● Seven Basic Plots (for module details, see pp 22-24)
· Warwick Fiction Workshop II (for module details, see pp 25-27)
· Warwick Writing Progamme for Schools (for module details, see pp 27-29 )
· Writing Poetry (for module details, see pp 35-36)
· Writing about Human Rights and Injustice (for module details, see pp 36-39)
· or Another module selected from those offered at MA level by the Faculty of Arts, subject to the permissions both of the director of the MA in Writing and of the module convenor.* Modules change from year to year and may be restricted in terms of student numbers but the list is likely to include: The British Dramatist in Society, 1965-2005; Resource Fictions. More details can be found on the websites of individual departments – in the case of English, http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/modules/
SUMMER TERM
Continuation of written projects under supervision
Participation in workshops and other events
ROUTE B: LONG PROJECT
Permission to follow the 'Long Project' route depends on an assessment of the student's prior experience of writing as well as the availability of a qualified supervisor or supervisors.
AUTUMN TERM
Full-time students following Route B will study
· Research Methods (for module details, see pp 13-14) AND
· Warwick Fiction Workshop I (for module details, see pp 24-25) OR
· Non Fiction Workshop (for module details, see pp 19-21)
They should allow time for:
· Participation in workshops and other events
SPRING TERM
Module choices for the second term need to be made by the end of September. As numbers may be restricted on some modules, students will be asked to name their second and third choices.
· Long Project: 1:1 tutorials begin
Plus one of the following:
● Crossing Borders (for module details, see pp 14-15)
● Ecopoetics (for module details, see pp 15-18)
● Poetry & Music (for module details, see pp 21-22)
● Seven Basic Plots (for module details, see pp 22-24)
· Warwick Fiction Workshop II (for module details, see pp 25-27)
· Warwick Writing Programme for Schools (for module details, see pp 27-29)
· Writing Poetry (for module details, see pp 35-36)
· Writing about Human Rights and Injustice (for module details, see pp 36-39)
· Another module selected from those offered at MA level by the Faculty of Arts, subject to the permissions both of the director of the MA in Writing and of the module convenor.* Modules change from year to year and may be restricted in terms of student numbers. See exemplary list above.
*Because some Warwick MA programmes involve foundation elements such as a preliminary training in literary theory, students interested in a particular module should be careful to find out whether their previous academic experience gives them sufficient grounding for it.
Plus participation in workshops and other events