ENGL3304
10 units
3000 level
Course handbook
Description
This course offers students the opportunity to develop their understanding of, and practical skills in, the writing of prose fiction. By taking narratives of medicine and psychology as the focus, this course enables a close consideration of strategies for representing the body, the mind, pain, and healing in fiction.
The course contributes to students' future career potential – whether as creative or other kinds of professional writers – and provides them with a better understanding of how literary works are constructed. Students will develop a narrative-based understanding of experiences of illness and healing. Using the workshop model of creative writing, students will develop the tools to write creatively about traumatic or difficult topics in a sensitive and engaging way.
Topics will be explored theoretically and with the aid of exemplars, but the main focus of both class work and independent study will be the practical application of creative and aesthetic principles. Students in this course will use the workshop model of critiquing to develop their own written work and that of others.
Availability2024 Course Timetables
Callaghan
- Semester 1 - 2024
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the course students will be able to:
1. Apply a range of techniques and elements of writing craft in fiction, with particular emphasis on interactions between narrative, medicine, and psychology.
2. Edit and refine written language in terms of grammar and sentence construction; voice and point of view; plot and structure; creative balance of nuance and detail.
3. Critique their own written work and that of others.
4. Develop original creative works that reflect their engagement with the fields of medicine and psychology.
Content
This skills-based course is structured around wide-ranging and overlapping discussion areas including:
- character;
- setting and the senses;
- point of view (voice, perspective, and degrees of knowing);
- showing/telling;
- plot and structure;
- fact and fiction (life-writing, memory, and the use of scientific / medical / psychological detail).
Assessment items
Professional Task: Short Creative Assignment
Professional Task: Long Creative Assignment
Professional Task: Reflection
Contact hours
Semester 1 - 2024 - Callaghan
Seminar-1
- Face to Face On Campus 2 hour(s) per week(s) for 12 week(s) starting in week 1
Seminar-2
- Online 2 hour(s) per week(s) for 12 week(s) starting in week 1
Course outline
- ENGL3304 - Semester 1, 2024 (Callaghan) (PDF, 231.3 KB)
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.