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Creative and Critical Writing Dissertation (895Q3)

60 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Summer teaching

The dissertation is a final, extended research project of 15,000 words, completed under the supervision of a nominated member of faculty who specialises in the relevant field. If you're on the Creative and Critical Writing course, you have an opportunity to submit creative work (up to 10,000 words) together with a critical component providing an illumination of your creative concerns. This critical component is not a personal reflection on how you write (what you had for breakfast this morning, etc), but a rigorous critical text that engages with ideas and material that you have been reading and researching during your MA studies and that bears, in a clear and persuasive critical fashion, on what you are submitting in the creative component of the dissertation. There is considerable flexibility regarding the balance of word-count between the critical and creative components, so long as the critical section is at least 5,000 words.

It is also possible to submit a final dissertation that is critical-only. With the help of your supervisor, you will establish a dissertation topic of your own choice, build an extensive bibliography, read widely in secondary literature and in theory, and produce a long, carefully argued dissertation whose critical component will be presented in conformity with MHRA referencing conventions. Each dissertation on the CCW MA is singular or ‘bespoke’, its proportions and structure worked out in consultation with your supervisor.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 600 hours of work. This breaks down into about 2 hours of contact time and about 598 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.