BA English with Creative Writing
About this course
English with creative writing brings together two disciplines that have always been deeply connected: the study of literature and the practice of making it. Reading widely and analytically, engaging with the history of the novel, the poem and the play, teaches you what good writing does and how it does it. Creative writing, meanwhile, gives you the chance to apply those insights in your own work, developing your voice, experimenting with form and learning to revise with honesty and discipline. Studying both together means your reading informs your writing and your writing deepens your reading. At the University of Southampton, you will develop your creative and critical writing across this three-year degree, exploring the connections between literature and visual culture, science and politics that the university highlights as central to the programme. You will study literature in a range of periods and genres, encountering canonical works alongside more recently recognised texts, and you will develop your own creative practice with guidance from faculty who include award-winning novelists, journalists and playwrights. Writing workshops, where you give and receive detailed feedback on your own and others' work, are fundamental to the creative writing strand, and you will graduate with a substantial portfolio of work in your chosen forms. The skills the degree develops are highly transferable: the ability to communicate clearly and engagingly, to read critically, to understand how language creates effects and to revise your work towards a specific purpose are valuable across many professional contexts. Graduates go on to careers in writing, publishing, journalism, copywriting and content creation, broadcasting, teaching, arts administration, the civil service, law and a wide range of other sectors where strong literacy and communication skills matter. Some go on to further study in creative writing, English, journalism or publishing, including masters programmes in creative writing at various institutions.
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