COURSE OVERVIEW
- Focus on the practice of crafting written prose, facilitated through workshops that are dynamic and enlightening
- Participate in discussions led by tutors with high levels of professional expertise and many published works between them
- Choose from a wealth of fascinating courses, such as composing song lyrics, screenplays and Writing for Games
- Open to those who have taken a break from studies, or have followed less conventional academic routes to university
Fairy-tale fiction writer, graphic novelist and experimental playwright are just a few of the authorial roles you can explore on our BA in Creative and Professional Writing. If you wish to write extraordinary, imaginative texts, or take a more conventional route towards publication, then this programme is just right for you.
We train you to be the best professional writer you can be, whether that be compiling novels, poems or scripts, feature articles and travel writing, museum exhibition catalogues and biographies, or reports and copywriting.
Our three-year course encourages you to see writing of all kinds in relation to wider literary, cultural and professional contexts. We aim to give you confidence in your expressive powers to help you become a sophisticated and imaginative professional writer who can use different techniques, styles and tones to match a wide variety of audiences.
In Year 1, you learn to work in the four key genres of creative writing (fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and script) and develop skills in editing and proofreading. You are encouraged to develop your own creativity in a variety of ways and to examine ways in which writers use and break the rules of writing.
In Year 2, you choose to specialise in particular genres of writing, many of which relate clearly to specific professional/vocational environments. At the same time, you further develop your research, editing and publishing skills.
A variety of modules in Year 3 inspire you to use your own creativity to engage with employers and the wider community. You undertake an extended creative project, and there are further opportunities to specialise in a whole host of writing areas from comics and business storytelling, to digital and radio.
Careers
Our graduates are in high demand by employers from many industries due to their written and verbal communication, creative, planning and interpretation skills. They work as published writers, editors and copywriters or enter a range of careers within marketing, advertising, arts or teaching. Recent graduates have also successfully set themselves up as freelance writers. Others take higher degrees (MA or PhD) to further hone their writing skills.
The University of Winchester ranks in the top 10 in the UK for graduates in employment or further study according to the Graduate Outcomes Survey 2021, HESA.
Pre-approved for a Masters
If you study a Bachelor Honours degree with us, you will be pre-approved to start a Masters degree at Winchester. To be eligible, you will need to apply by the end of March in the final year of your degree and meet the entry requirements of your chosen Masters degree.
ABOUT THIS COURSE
Suitable for applicants from:
UK, EU, World
Study abroad
Our BA (Hons) Creative and Professional Writing course provides an opportunity for you to study abroad in the United States of America (USA). For more information see our Study Abroad section.
Learning and teaching
Our aim is to shape 'confident learners' by enabling you to develop the skills needed to excel in your studies here and as well as onto further studies or the employment market.
You are taught primarily through a combination of lectures and seminars, allowing opportunities to discuss and develop your understanding of topics covered in lectures in smaller groups.
In addition to the formally scheduled contact time such as lectures and seminars etc.), you are encouraged to access academic support from staff within the course team and the wide range of services available to you within the University.
Independent learning
Over the duration of your course, you will be expected to develop independent and critical learning, progressively building confidence and expertise through independent and collaborative research, problem-solving and analysis with the support of staff. You take responsibility for your own learning and are encouraged to make use of the wide range of available learning resources available.
Overall workload
Your overall workload consists of class contact hours, independent learning and assessment activity.
While your actual contact hours may depend on the optional modules you select, the following information gives an indication of how much time you will need to allocate to different activities at each level of the course.
Year 1 (Level 4): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
Teaching, learning and assessment: 300 hours
Independent learning: 900 hours
Year 2 (Level 5): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
Teaching, learning and assessment: 276 hours
Independent learning: 864 hours
Placement learning: 60 hours
Year 3 (Level 6): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
Teaching, learning and assessment: 252 hours
Independent learning: 948 hours
*Please note these are indicative hours for the course
Key areas of the student experience include:
- Opportunities to have work published in the student writing magazine
- The chance to attend the Winchester Writers Festival so they can meet authors, publishers and agents who attend
Location
Taught elements of the course take place on campus in Winchester.
Teaching hours
All class based teaching takes places between 9am – 6pm, Monday to Friday during term time. Wednesday afternoons are kept free from timetabled teaching for personal study time and for sports clubs and societies to train, meet and play matches. There may be some occasional learning opportunities (for example, an evening guest lecturer or performance) that take places outside of these hours for which you will be given forewarning.
Assessment
Our validated courses may adopt a range of means of assessing your learning. An indicative, and not necessarily comprehensive, list of assessment types you might encounter includes essays, portfolios, supervised independent work, presentations, written exams, or practical performances.
We ensure all students have an equal opportunity to achieve module learning outcomes. As such, where appropriate and necessary, students with recognised disabilities may have alternative assignments set that continue to test how successfully they have met the module's learning outcomes. Further details on assessment types used on the course you are interested in can be found by attending an Open Day or contacting our teaching staff.
Percentage of the course assessed by coursework
The assessment balance between examination and coursework depends to some extent on the optional modules you choose. The approximate percentage of the course assessed by different assessment modes is as follows:
Year 1 (Level 4)*:
98% coursework
0% written exams
2% practical exams
Year 2 (Level 5)*:
99% coursework
0% written exams
1% practical exams
Year 3 (Level 6)*:
99% coursework
0% written exams
1% practical exams
*Please note these are indicative percentages and modes for the programme.
Feedback
We are committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to you on your academic progress and achievement in order to enable you to reflect on your progress and plan your academic and skills development effectively. You are also encouraged to seek additional feedback from your course tutors.
Further information
For more information about our regulations for this course, please see our Academic Regulations, Policies and Procedures.
Entry requirements
2023 Entry: 104-120 UCAS tariff points
Our offers are typically made using UCAS tariff points to allow you to include a range of level 3 qualifications and as a guide, the requirements for this course are equivalent to:
- A-Levels: BCC-BBB from 3 A Levels or equivalent grade combinations (e.g. BBB is comparable to ABC in terms of tariff points)
- BTEC/CTEC: DMM from BTEC or Cambridge Technical (CTEC) qualifications
- International Baccalaureate: To include a minimum of 2 Higher Level certificates at grade H4
- T Level: Merit in a T Level
In addition to the above, we accept tariff points achieved for many other qualifications, such as the Access to Higher Education Diploma, Scottish Highers, UAL Diploma/Extended Diploma and WJEC Applied Certificate/Diploma, to name a few. We also accept tariff points from smaller level 3 qualifications, up to a maximum of 32, from qualifications like the Extended Project (EP/EPQ), music or dance qualifications. To find out more about UCAS tariff points, including what your qualifications are worth, please visit UCAS.
In addition to level 3 study, the following GCSE’s are required:
- GCSEs in Mathematics and English Language at grade 4 or C, or higher. Functional Skills at level 2 is accepted as an alternative, however Key Skills qualifications are not. If you hold another qualification, please get in touch and we will advise further.
If English is not your first language, a formal English language test will most likely be required and you will need to achieve the following:
- IELTS Academic at 5.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in all four components (for year 1 entry)
- We also accept other English language qualifications, such as IELTS Indicator, Pearson PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and TOEFL iBT.
If you will be over the age of 21 years of age at the beginning of your undergraduate study, you will be considered as a mature student. This means our offer may be different and any work or life experiences you have will be considered together with any qualifications you hold. UCAS have further information about studying as a mature student on their website which may be of interest.
Course enquiries and applications
Telephone: +44 (0) 1962 827234
Send us a message
International students
If you are living outside of the UK or Europe, you can find out more about how to join this course by emailing our International Recruitment Team at International@winchester.ac.uk or calling +44 (0)1962 827023
Visit us
Explore our campus and find out more about studying at Winchester by visiting us at an Open Day.
Year 1 (Level 4)
Modules Credits
Prose Fiction 1A | 15 | |
This module is designed as an introduction for students exploring their creativity through developing their own fictional writing and studying exemplary works in the short form. It will enable students to improve their own creative and critical skills, and to learn how to express observations, experiences and perceptions in the form of prose fiction, whilst at the same time developing evaluative skills. It will focus on key tents of fictional writing through analysis of texts and by associated practical exercises. We will discuss such key topics as point of view, characterisation, dialogue, plot, setting and other aspects of the fiction writer’s craft in relation to students’ own work and the work of published authors. The key skills of researching, drafting, revising and editing will be stressed throughout. |
||
Prose Fiction 1B | 15 | |
This module builds on the work of Prose Fiction 1A, broadening the students’ experience of composing their own fictional writing through the close study of more and more varied, formally and stylistically bolder exemplary works in the short form. Their creative and critical skills will be further sharpened, through analysis of texts and associated practical exercises. We will expand the sense of possibilities available to writers in such key areas of choice as point of view, characterisation, dialogue, plot, setting. The key skills of researching, drafting, revising and editing will be stressed throughout. |
||
Scriptwriting | 15 | |
In this module students will be introduced to the conventions, forms and techniques of scriptwriting. Students will develop their narrative skills, with particular focus on how film stories are told through scenes and images and transitions suggested to the director by the writer, i.e. by indications of mise-en-scene and montage. Students will develop their skills in the communication of film script narrative though ‘pitch presentations,’ and will practise the writing of outlines and of film script on the page according to the film industry standard. The module will concentrate on fiction film (as opposed to documentary) and will utilise seminars, workshops, and screenings. |
||
Poetry Now! | 15 | |
This module is designed to enable students to express their own creativity through various poetic strategies, introducing students to a varied range of poetry. Although historical forms and traditions will also be a source of reference there is to be a particular focus on twentieth- and twenty-first century developments, whilst engaging directly with some of the key issues in the production of poetry – including its oral, aural and visual performative aspects. Practical work will be done in workshop groups, graduating to the production of independent poems in different forms. |
||
Persuasive Writing | 15 | |
This module is designed as an introduction for students into the various techniques and strategies of rhetorical writing. It will begin by looking at examples of rhetorical writing from past and present, with an intention to examine and analyse how they work and what they are trying to achieve. Students will then explore how best to develop specific pieces of writing that are intended to persuade, cajole, and seduce the reader for particular reasons and in order to achieve specific effects. The intention all the while is for their writing to be professional, polished, and always suitable to the subject matter. |
||
Creative Non-fiction | 15 | |
This module is designed to enable students to work with non-fictional writings, and to learn how to express experiences and perceptions within some of the key strands of this written form (e.g. the memoir, the themed personal essay, the interview-based portrait of a person or research-based portrait of a place etc.) The module is also intended to develop students’ creative and critical skills in tandem, understanding how to read and interpret writing as well as how to produce it. As such, students will be introduced to a varied range of approaches to non-fictional styles. Most work will be done in workshop groups, graduating to the production of independent pieces of non-fiction. |
||
Short-Form Digital Publishing | 15 | |
In this module students will look at the global digital publishing world and at social media – at the opportunities and challenges, advantages and disadvantages, which such media present to writers. We will look closely at how online platforms allow writers to publish work, establishing a presence and appealing to different audiences, in a variety of short forms – albeit via writing that must be succinct and precise, edited and refined to required spaces and word-counts. Areas of focus might include the microblogging site Twitter and more expansive blogging platforms such as WordPress, Tumblr, Wix etc. We will look also at where the websites of newspapers and magazines showcase short-form writing such as the capsule review, list, or personal testimony etc. Students will then develop a range of short pieces of their own writing, derived from the same basic idea, each one targeted at a particular platform or outlet for dissemination to a defined, particular readership of said medium. |
||
Optional modules | ||
|
Year 2 (Level 5)
Modules Credits
Prose Fiction 2A | 15 | |
This module is an introduction to studies which will be advanced by Prose Fiction 2B, in which students develop their own short fictional writing while studying exemplary works in the short form, which will be examined across a number of interrelated axes:
|
||
Prose Fiction 2B | 15 | |
This module builds on Prose Fiction 2A in its focus upon students developing their own short fictional writing while studying exemplary works in the short form, which will be examined across a number of interrelated axes:
|
||
Copywriting | 15 | |
This module allows students to engage with a range of copywriting tasks within a variety of copywriting contexts. They will develop their own writing skills in this area in relation to specific tasks (advertising, marketing etc.) but only after they have gained knowledge of the ways/conditions in which copywriters work and the role they play within a creative team. Students will research into a variety of examples of successful copywriting (both past and present) and examine the reasons for this success – both in terms of the text itself and also the ways in which it tapped into a specific audience at a specific moment in time. |
||
Creative Non-Fiction 2 | 15 | |
Building on Creative Non-Fiction, this module will show students why creative non-fiction is a major growth area in contemporary publishing, one that provides writers with lots of potential opportunities to work professionally. A range of exemplary texts will be studied, in familiar forms such as memoir, and additionally in forms such as biography and travel writing. Unconventional and innovative styles of narration will be considered, alongside more standard linear narratives. Students will delve deeper into research methods, how to use sources both private and public, as well as into the challenges and problems of such excavations. Students will then develop their own writing skills in creating and shaping relatable narratives from real-life origins, appreciating also the occasionally blurred lines between fictional and factual modes. Through practical workshops they will develop and refine a piece of creative non-fiction prior to eventual submission. |
||
Media Writing | 15 | |
This module will see students developing their own media writing skills within the context of a wider consideration and understanding of the options and constraints attached to various media institutions, discourses and forms. This will include issues related to writing for online platforms, print newspapers and magazines, etc. They will contemplate a spectrum of potential audiences and publication outlets for their writing (including competitions and open calls for material), exploring and adapting their own particular writing interests in relation to these. They will need to look at a wide range of media products, and to consider the various possibilities for writing on diverse topics. Finally they will produce for assessment two differing written treatments of the same idea aimed at different media outlets. |
||
Optional modules | ||
|
Year 3 (Level 6)
Modules Credits
Extended Creative Project | 30 | |
Students can choose either Extended Creative Project or Extended Professional Project. The Extended Creative Project consists of:
Study and writing is primarily student-directed, with supervision supplied by tutors teaching/researching in the area of creative writing. |
||
Extended Professional Project | 30 | |
Students can choose either Extended Creative Project or Extended Professional Project. The Extended Professional Project consists of:
Study and writing is primarily student-directed, with supervision supplied by tutors teaching/researching in the area of professional writing. |
||
Advanced Fictional Writing | 15 | |
This module builds upon Level 5 Prose Fiction 2A/AB by way of a similar focus upon students developing their own short fictional writing in prose, and by close study of exemplary longer works in the novel/novella forms. It will broaden students’ familiarity with some of the boldest stylistic choices and treatments of theme available to writers and will encourage them to experiment with and develop their own fictional voice. The perennial key craft elements of point of view, characterisation, dialogue, plot, setting etc will be highlighted; likewise the key skills of researching, drafting, revising and editing. Attention will be paid to wider debates about issues such as ethics and diversity, and we will also consider nuanced issues of genre definition. Students will additionally be encouraged to think about how writers and publishers market their work, and current professional publication practices. |
||
Optional modules | ||
|
Please note the modules listed are correct at the time of publishing, for full-time students entering the programme in Year 1. Optional modules are listed where applicable. Please note the University cannot guarantee the availability of all modules listed and modules may be subject to change. For further information please refer to the terms and conditions at www.winchester.ac.uk/termsandconditions.
The University will notify applicants of any changes made to the core modules listed above.
Progression from one level of the programme to the next is subject to meeting the University’s academic regulations.
2023 Course Tuition Fees
UK / Channel Islands / Isle of Man / Republic of Ireland |
International | |
---|---|---|
Year 1 | £9,250 | £14,700 |
Year 2 | £9,250 | £14,700 |
Year 3 | £9,250 | £14,700 |
Total | £27,750 | £44,100 |
Optional Sandwich Year* | £1,385 | £1,440 |
Total with Sandwich Year | £29,135 | £45,540 |
If you are a UK student starting your degree in September 2023, the first year will cost you £9,250**. Based on this fee level, the indicative fees for a three-year degree would be £27,750 for UK students.
Remember, you don't have to pay any of this upfront if you are able to get a tuition fee loan from the UK Government to cover the full cost of your fees each year. If finance is a worry for you, we are here to help. Take a look at the range of support we have on offer. This is a great investment you are making in your future, so make sure you know what is on offer to support you.
UK Part-Time fees are calculated on a pro rata basis of the full-time fee for a 120 credit course. The fee for a single credit is £77.08 and a 15 credit module is £1,156. Part-time students can take up to a maximum 90 credits per year, so the maximum fee in a given year will be the government permitted maximum fee of £6,935.
International part-time fees are calculated on a pro rata basis of the full-time fee for a 120 credit course. The fee for a single credit is £122.50 and a 15 credit module is £1,837.
* Please note that not all courses offer an optional sandwich year. To find out whether this course offers a sandwich year, please contact the programme leader for further information.
**The University of Winchester will charge the maximum approved tuition fee per year.
Additional costs
As one of our students all of your teaching and assessments are included in your tuition fees, including, lectures/guest lectures and tutorials, seminars, laboratory sessions and specialist teaching facilities. You will also have access to a wide range of student support and IT services.
There might be additional costs you may encounter whilst studying. The following highlights the mandatory and optional costs for this course:
Optional
Core texts
Copies of core texts are held within the library and e-books are identified where possible, however often students wish to purchase some books for their own use. It is possible for students to buy second-hand copies. Indicative cost is £160 per academic year.
Field trip
In students second year of study, there may be a field trip depending on module choices. Costs will vary.
Printing and binding
The University is pleased to offer our students a printing allowance of £5 each academic year. This will print around 125 A4 (black and white) pages. If students wish to print more, printer credit can be topped up by the student. The University and Student Union are champions of sustainability and we ask all our students to consider the environmental impact before printing.
Disclosure and Barring Service
A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) clearance check may be required if you undertake a placement, volunteering, research or other course related activity where you will have contact with children or vulnerable adults. The requirement for a DBS check will be confirmed by staff as part of the process to approve your placement, research or other activity. The indicative cost is £40.
Scholarships, bursaries and awards
We have a variety of scholarship and bursaries available to support you financially with the cost of your course. To see if you’re eligible, please see our Scholarships and Awards section.
Key course details
- UCAS code
- W801
- Duration
- 3 years full-time; 6 years part-time
- Typical offer
- 104-120 points
- Location
- On campus, Winchester