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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2022/2023

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Centre for Open Learning : Literature, Languages and Cultures

Undergraduate Course: Starting to Write (LLLG07031)

Course Outline
SchoolCentre for Open Learning CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis is a for-credit course offered by the Centre for Open Learning (COL); only students registered with COL should be enrolled.
This is a course for beginners or those wishing to refresh the basics of writing poetry and short stories. The writing exercises are designed to build confidence and stimulate and encourage original and lively work. Learn how to revise a first draft and how to give and take critical feedback in a positive, constructive way.
Course description Part 1(Term 2)
1. Introductions. Getting started and organised. Springboard exercises.
2. Writing from life as a way into fiction
3. Close observation and the 5 senses
4. Show, Don't Tell
5. Everything happens somewhere: a sense of place
6. Whose story is it? Point of view.
7. Character driven narrative
8. A continuation of week 7
9. Imagery 1: litany (list poems)
10. 10. How to edit your work.
Part 2 (Term 3)
1. Getting restarted. Springboard exercises
2. Monologue
3. Imagery 2: haiku
4. Imagery 3: simile, metaphor & symbol
5. Structure: the 'shape' of your story.
6. Journey plot & quest narrative
7. A continuation of week 6
8. To rhyme or not to rhyme: free verse v traditional forms
9. A continuation of week 8
10. Editing: presenting your work for publication
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. understand how they can nurture the creative process
  2. practice elements of the craft (such as dialogue, creating character)
  3. identify strengths and weaknesses in their own work and others' work
  4. edit their work beyond the initial draft
  5. understand the need to experiment and practice writing to find their own confident voice
Reading List
Essential
Goldberg, N., 1986. Writing Down the Bones. Boston: Shambala.
Recommended
Sweeney, M. and Shapcott, J., 2004 Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange Times. London: Faber & Faber.
Prose, F., 2007. Reading Like a Writer. New York: Harper Perennial
Rekulak, J., 2001. The Writer¿s BLOCK: 786 Ideas To Jump Start Your Imagination. London: Running Press
Web sources
http://www.poetrykit.org/
Handouts
Handouts will be provided weekly.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Additional Class Delivery Information 20 tutorials of 2 hours each spread over two terms and starting in January
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserMs Kate McHugh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1589
Email:
Course secretaryMs Kameliya Skerleva
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email:
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