No upfront fees - all eligible part-time students can now get a government-backed tuition fee loan, which is only repayable if you are earning more than £21,000 per annum. More information on tuition fee loans

Is this the course for me?

Do you want to develop your writing skills? If you feel the urge to write, this course offers an opportunity to explore your imagination and try a whole range of genres from short stories to poetry, from the novel to writing for theatre.

Guided by published writers, you will focus primarily on the practicalities of writing, aiming to produce original work and to develop your own voice. You will learn techniques to stimulate creativity, how to edit your work and the conventions for submission to agents or publishers. The course is designed specifically for adults and caters for both beginners and those who are already writing regularly, but who wish to develop their work within a structured framework and with the benefit of regular feedback from fellow writers.

The course can be taken simply for pleasure or personal development, but it will also prove useful to anyone seeking to have their work published.

For those wishing to develop their career profiles or to progress to more advanced study, the course provides an ideal way of improving critical and communication skills and of gaining a valuable extra qualification. Throughout the course, primary emphasis will be placed on the actual processes of writing and on the practical use and manipulation of language for specific effects and purposes. Practical activities will be informed by critical analysis of examples taken from the works of established writers.

Assessment

Assessment is by a course submission for each module. You will be asked to complete two writing projects for each module. Some of these may take the form of a portfolio of shorter exercises completed during a module. You will also have the option in your second year of submitting a longer writing project in place of two standard pieces of coursework.

Career relevance and employability

This course will help you to develop your practical writing skills across the range of genres, forms and styles. It will help you to develop your skills of critical analysis in reading your own and others’ work, and it will encourage you to explore your potential for creativity in thought, language and imagination. It will also advance your knowledge and understanding of the professional world of writing and publishing, and of related agencies and networks.