English and drama

Advanced Writing Workshop: Technique

Module code: Q2023
Level 5
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Workshop
Assessment modes: Portfolio

“Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t use the wrong words.” – Ursula Le Guin.

Technique describes the formal, practical and stylistic aspects of writing. We need to understand technique as fundamental to making, to craft and to decisions about the work and its readers. No one style is suitable to all purposes.

On this module, we explore what different technical solutions can offer. For example, how do we take care of plot as well as detail? How might we use fewer words and say more? You’ll concentrate on the technical aspects of writing, including:

• prosody and the sound-effects of meter
• sentence structure and balance
• metaphor and imagery
• the pacing of narrative incident
• techniques of editing and proof-reading.

We encourage you to read and experiment with writing in different forms and genres. You develop your own writing technique and build your own portfolio.

Writers discussed vary every year but may include Mina Loy, Toni Morrison, Samuel Beckett, Denise Riley, Ruth Ozeki and Raymond Chandler.

Module learning outcomes

• Develop skills of revision, editing, and proof-reading.
• Develop competence in the close reading and analysis of texts, including one’s own, paying particular attention to and communicating effectively the technical aspects of prosody and language use.
• Practice creative writing in a range of forms, genres, and styles, and experiment both within and against their conventions.
• Examine writing from across historical eras and diverse, global cultures in order to articulate and communicate difference.
• Situate writing in the light of multiple ways of knowing, including via the emotions, the senses, and an awareness of our differing embodiment.