BA (Hons) English with Creative Writing allows you to study literature critically and to practise creative writing. The degree encourages you to understand how the two subject areas complement one another through sharing critical, theoretical and creative approaches to written texts, and an emphasis on analysis, close reading and evaluation. As a student on this degree you will read texts from diverse genre and periods, and practise criticism and imaginative writing. The degree facilitates your understanding of a text's political, cultural and historical context and your appreciation of a text's stylistic features. The English component of the degree is taught as an academic subject, with an emphasis on theoretical and critical perspectives. The focus of study is literature from 1750 to the present day. In Year 1 you take two modules in literary criticism which encourage an understanding of the academic, theoretical and creative aspects of criticism. First-year topics also provide a broader historical overview of literature and include the study of medieval poetry, American Puritan poetry, Greek and Renaissance drama and nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction. In Year 2 the focus is on literature of a particular period, genre or region and topics include the study of the nineteenth-century novel, modernist literature and autobiographical writing. In Year 3 there is an emphasis on contemporary literature including postcolonial literatures in English, film adaptations of literary texts and twentieth-century popular culture. The degree includes the study of drama as text and performance, and takes advantage of live literary performances and plays showing in London. The Creative Writing component of the degree is practice-based, with an emphasis on developing your creative writing to a professional standard. While drawing on the traditional literary forms of prose, poetry and drama, we also offer innovative courses in screen writing, radio writing, interactive fiction and adaptation. In Year 1 you'll have the choice of a Creative Writing module in poetry, performance writing or screen writing. In Year 2 you'll take two Creative Writing modules, where the focus is on developing professional creative skills. In Year 3 you’ll have the option of writing a substantial creative project or an independent dissertation. Throughout the course you will examine key practitioners in all these areas, from novelists, short story writers and stage writers, through to comic book writers, video game story designers, radio dramatists and screenwriters.

This course is ideal if you want to work in publishing, journalism, other media-related professions, administration, teaching or research. It's also a useful degree for careers in business, local government and voluntary organisations where the skills of analysis, clear communication and reasoned persuasion are valued. The creative writing component of the course develops your professional, creative skills in prose, poetry, screenwriting, radio writing, adaptation/dramatisation, radio writing and interactive fiction. Recent graduates from this course have pursued the following careers: teaching (at all levels including higher education); public relations; publishing and writing for the media; librarians and curators; theatre administration. If you graduate from this course, you will be able to apply for further study at postgraduate level, including for a place on our full-time MA Creative Media Industries: Journalism, our part-time MA Creative Writing or our part-time MA Media Writing. LSBU is committed to supporting you develop your employability and succeed in getting a job after you have graduated. Your qualification will certainly help, but in a competitive market you also need to work on your employability, and on your career search. Our Employability Service will support you in developing your skills, finding a job, interview techniques, work experience or an internship, and will help you assess what you need to do to get the job you want at the end of your course. LSBU offers a comprehensive Employability Service, with a range of initiatives to complement your studies, including: direct engagement from employers who come in to interview and talk to students Job Shop and on-campus recruitment agencies to help your job search mentoring and work shadowing schemes.