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Independent Reading Portfolio: The Written World

Overview

  • Credit value: 15 credits at Level 5

Module description

'You can't wait for inspiration; you have to go after it with a club.' Jack London

'Write what should not be forgotten.' Isabel Allende

'Stories cull writers from the world. Stories reveal themselves to us. The public narrative, the private narrative: they colonize us; they commission us. They insist on being told.' Arundhati Roy

The world is full of stories, stories of people's lives. Sometimes those lives are well-known and live on in fame and memory, but often the most interesting lives are the ones that are forgotten. It is one of the roles of the writer to find and tell these lost stories, whether as history, biography or reimagined as narrative.

Building on the key creative writing skills acquired on the core Creative Non-Fiction module and the research and independent learning skills acquired on the two previous IRP modules, you will receive three lectures on how to use libraries, archives, public records and interview technique to pursue your own investigation into a 'lost' or 'forgotten' life, as well as hearing first-hand accounts from leading investigative writers.

You will then draw a name from family history, a monument, a footnote or a gravestone, and then research and write up your journey in search of this forgotten life as a piece of creative non-fiction.

Learning objectives

By the end of the module, you will have gained:

  • knowledge and understanding of research approaches to fiction and creative non-fiction writing
  • knowledge of research methods relating to the gathering, sifting, selecting, organising, and synthesising evidence and subject matter
  • experience in choosing appropriate subjects and to write about them, as well as the ability to edit your work
  • library, archive and museum research skills
  • the ability to develop creative ideas in a new mode.