Creative Writing
UCAS Code: Combined Honours only – see combinations tab|Duration: 3 years|Full Time|Hope Park|UCAS Campus Code: L46Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
Creative Writing at Liverpool Hope will give you the chance to experience the joys of crafting the written word. The degree focuses on developing you as a writer of poetry and prose (fiction and creative non-fiction), across the broad field of literature (poems, short stories, novels, reflective and critical essays). Professional writing - reviews, blogs and articles for different kinds of media - is also studied. Our focus on creativity and employability means you will be able to produce engaging, innovative and marketable texts.
By studying Creative Writing, you will be empowered with an enhanced command of your craft, increased confidence in expressing your thoughts and emotions, an understanding of the values that inform your writing practice, and the technical skillset to deliver your work to various audiences. Your writing will be enhanced by studying under leading published writers and academics, and you will develop a range of workplace skills to prepare for fulfilling careers.
The degree will often challenge you and ask you to reach beyond your own experience and interests into those of contemporary and historical communities. Using these as creative stimuli, you will be required to reflect upon social contexts, power, and how truth and justice can be communicated or miscommunicated through creative writing. By the end of the degree, you should have a wide appreciation of forms, genres and applications. Included in the degree are field trips which provide material for writing exercises as well as widening your student experience.
Course structure
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, in which lecturers provide you with information and you are asked to input your ideas, seminars, during which you carry out writing exercises, and tutorials, which in your first year typically have no more than 10 students.
For the Creative Writing part of your degree, there will be approximately 6 teaching hours in your first year, approximately 6 teaching hours in your second year, and approximately 6 in your third year. On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend a minimum of 9 hours studying independently each week, as well as studying in groups to prepare for any group assessments you may have.
Assessment and feedback
Assessments are varied and reflect the diverse nature of the curriculum. During each year of study, there will be critical and reflective essays and a written exam or take-home task, as well as a practice-based portfolio in which you present a range of writing styles written to set word-limits.
Feedback is crucial to developing as a writer. In the first year, you receive weekly verbal constructive feedback on your work-in-progress during seminars and tutorials, plus detailed written feedback on all formal assessments, returned within four weeks of the assessment deadline. One-to-one appointments are also used to discuss the written feedback on work-in-progress prior to assessment deadlines.
In year two, feedback follows a similar pattern to year one. You are also required to participate in a weekly writing workshop, in which you receive detailed feedback from your peers as well as your tutor.
In year three, you receive regular feedback during your small-group specialist option seminar and one-to-one supervision on your research project.
Year One
Your first year lays down the foundation for this practice-based major in creative writing. You are introduced to the nature of creativity, the building blocks of writing practice and to the core writing techniques involved in creating poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. You will also learn the practice of ‘Reading as a Writer’ and how to reflect on your independent writing practice.
The Creative Process
You will be introduced to theories of creativity through practice such as by writing with the senses to improvise new texts in response to a range of stimulus. For example, you will go on a sound walk and practice close listening as a prompt for new ideas and use objects and imagery to explore the nature of your imagination. We will visit Tate Liverpool and explore writing with visual art. You will also be encouraged to keep a writer's notebook and to develop your observational skills.
Writing Practice
The writing practice part of the course provides the space to develop your own writing skills by understanding areas such as figurative language, poetic and prose forms, and critical writing. You will also experience the work and craft of drafting, revising and editing. Whilst you will learn theoretical aspects of these areas, the aim is to enhance your own craft through an exploration of the technicalities of writing. You will also revise the building blocks of language such as grammar and punctuation.
Writing Techniques: Poetry, Prose and Creative non-fiction
As part of your first-year studies, you will begin your journey through the complexities and pleasures of reading and writing in particular genres. Across the year you will have the opportunity to explore and write poetry, prose and creative non-fiction as you develop your portfolio of skills and written pieces. The work that you do in the seminars/workshops will provide the foundations for your first year assessments which build into a portfolio of short texts including a poem, a short story and a piece of creative nonfiction.
Year Two
Your second year encourages you to become an autonomous learner, building on the foundations in writing practice built in the first year. You will encounter topics that bring together contemporary literary and cultural issues with theories and philosophies of writing practice. You will explore such areas as writing and gender, writing as protest and environmental writing whilst continuing to develop and hone your practical writing skills. The vocational strand runs through the second year as you produce writing on demand.
Critical and ethical concepts in writing
As part of your second year studies, you will explore the ethical considerations of being a writer and begin to consider the professional implications of life as a writer. You will explore theories and philosophies of writing practice and gain experience in writing in relation to particular social topics such as race, migration, gender, environment and protest.
The writing and reading interface
You will continue with your commitment to reading as a writer and explore how the literary works you encounter inform your own writing practice, both practically and theoretically.
Writing Workshops in Poetry, Prose and Creative Nonfiction
You will participate in three blocks of writing workshops each focused on either poetry, prose or creative nonfiction. You will have the opportunity to share a work-in-progress draft with the workshop group for detailed feedback and critique. You will also be asked to offer feedback and critique on your fellow students’ writing. The workshops are at the heart of Level I as they allow you to begin to understand how your writing is read by others and to experiment with your writing style in a supportive and constructive environment.
Year Three
Your third-year studies, like the second year, build on the knowledge, skills and understanding developed across the course. Alongside this, you will examine the theme of ‘The Responsible Writer’ as well as progressing your individual writing skills and styles through working on advanced writing techniques.
The Research Project
Your final year also gives you the opportunity to advance your own interests through the Research Project where you take your own creative practice and place it within the wider context of both existing literary texts, theoretical concepts and ideas and the world of publishing.
The Vocational Seminar
By your third year, you will be developing your own voice in your writing practice and producing original work. You will be submitting your work for publication in magazines and for competitions. This is the point at which you will have the opportunity to deepen your understanding of the practicalities of being a writer in the world. You will explore the world of professional writing from issues of working with editors, collaborating with other writers, feature writing to life as a freelance writer. You will also explore ways in which creative writing can benefit society such as community writing and writing and diversity. Here, you develop the skills, knowledge and understanding to allow you to take your creativity into the world of work.
Advanced Studies in Poetry, Prose and Creative Nonfiction
Creativity requires continuous growth and development and your final year provides you with the opportunity to work with experts in poetry, prose fiction and creative non-fiction on advanced skills in writing techniques. Here, you will have the chance to explore the theories and complexities of issues such as characterisation, plot structure, free verse, poetic form, biography and autobiography, and writing for articles and podcasts. Under the guidance of our published writers, you will work to find your own voice as a writer and produce writing to a publishable standard.
Entry requirements
2022 Entry
During the August/September admissions period we are able to offer some flexibility in our entry requirements for courses that still have vacancies.
We are also offering a Foundation Year on many of our courses for students who have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualification level to enter directly onto our degree programmes.
Please call us to discuss the options available to you: 0151 291 3636
Careers
Creative writing at Liverpool Hope University will set you on the road to interesting and fulfilling careers. You will be able to publish as a poet, fiction writer, critic or blogger, write compelling features for magazines and broadcasters, develop multimedia applications for businesses, work on copy for advertising and public relations companies, or progress onto postgraduate study.
Employability is very much at the heart of this subject. Creative approaches to the production of factual or fictional material will be nurtured in order to maximise the development of transferable skills.
Enhancement opportunities
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2023/24 academic year are £9,250 for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,250.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
Additional costs
As well as paying your tuition fees, you will also need to consider the cost of purchasing core texts, which we estimate to be around £100.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2023/24 are £12,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is also available as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: