English Language and Creative Writing BA(Hons)

Course structure

Full-time students have 10–11 hours contact time a week in lectures, seminars and workshops, but you are also expected to carry out independent study. Part-time study is possible and can be tailored to suit individual needs.

There are placement opportunities available in the second year as well as field trips to theatres, museums, schools, retirement villages and other community organisations. You are also welcome to study abroad after your second year.

Our courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis in order to make sure that what you learn with us is relevant and that your course enables you to develop appropriate skills. When you apply to study with us, we will inform you of any new developments in your chosen programme through Student View.

Chloe Price explains how the English Language and Creative Writing degree course has positively challenged her, the support she’s had from staff and how she has found living in Brighton

Year 1

Modules

• Narratives of (Un)belonging

  Explore the cultural and critical concepts of belonging and unbelonging. You'll situate yourself as an emerging, socially responsible writer in the wider world by engaging with diverse writings that explore themes of migration and movement, home and displacement, search for a community, and our relationship to the environment and different spaces.

• Storying The Self

  This module will introduce you to practices of storying the self in writing and digital media. Through creating a first person story combining audio script, music and still image, you will engage with the expressive complexities of autobiographical representation. The module will also give you the creative writing tools to experiment with storying the self in a variety of written genre.

• Language in the Social World

  This module introduces issues around language and society. You will develop an understanding of language as a social phenomenon, including the interplay of individual linguistic choices and social structures. You'll also expand your abilities to synthesise materials, think critically and communicate effectively about the relationship of language and society.

• Introduction to Intercultural Communication

  This module explores intercultural communication in a technologically connected world. Through examining communication in national and individual-level communities and groups, you'll investigate how different narratives and positions emerge. You will explore the challenges and opportunities of intercultural communication in a complex, interconnected and inequitable world shaped by technology and other global forces.

• Investigating Language

  This module provides a solid foundation in research methodologies and methods. It will develop your abilities in reading, processing and critically assessing analytical research. It will also build your skills in investigating language and linguistic patterns.

• Writers on Writing

  Explore the concept of a professional writerly identity, and consider a ‘writing life’ in personal, local and global terms. Through studying and by contact with professional writers, you will investigate writing as self-expression, craft, process and profession; curating a writerly identity/ persona; developing your writing towards your future career; and the writing life and its implications on the global stage, for example as an act of resistance to inequalities.

Year 2

Modules

• Stories that Transform
• Research and Practice
• Image and Text: The Language of Comics and Graphic Novels
• Power and Persuasion

Options*

• Studying Travel Writing
• Genres
• Twentieth-century Literary Experiments
• Queer Writing
• Literature in Practice
• Literature and Art History
• American Literature 1850–1945
• Multilingualism
• Sign Language Linguistics
• Intercultural Communication in the Workplace
• Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen
• Introduction to Journalism
• Cinema and Society
• Documentary Filmmaking: Theory and Practice

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Placements 

In year 2 you take a placement module which will allow you to gain professional experience in industries such as publishing, broadcasting, social media marketing, PR and the charity sector. 

Recent placement hosts include:

• Action Medical Research
• Action Tutoring
• Airstream Photo Booth
• Brighton Dome and Festival
• British Forces Broadcasting Services
• Epoque Press
• Factory Films
• The Old Market Theatre
• Little Green Pig
• Men’s Health Magazine
• Prsnt

In year 3 you can choose the Community Placement module aimed at further building your professional experience. This is 30 to 50 hours of voluntary work with a not-for-profit or community organisation. The placement is assessed and contributes to your degree.

Mia Kurian, graduate

“My placement was with Metropolitan City Church Brighton as their Social Media Manager. I learnt a lot about myself and my interests and the type of career I may want to pursue. I got to try my hand at website design, something I had never done before, and it was a great opportunity for me to expand my creativity. Professionally, I gained a lot of experience that has been extremely useful in my career today. I learnt about creating brand cohesion and creating a brand image from scratch, something I’ve never done before.

"I absolutely loved it. It was an incredible learning experience as well as insightful. It allowed me to learn a lot about myself and the future I want. My placement manager was lovely and supportive and allowed me the freedom to explore my creativity.”

Final year

Modules

• Dissertation

Options*

• Community Placement: Theory in Practice
• Russian Literature and Culture: The Golden Age and Beyond
• (Re)viewing Shakespeare
• Apocalypse, Utopia and Dystopia
• Literature and Philosophy
• Post-war American Literature
• Women's Writing and Feminist Theory
• Restoration Drama
• Adaptations
• Creative Writing Project
• Goths: Texts and Contexts
• Victorian Sexualities
• Brighton Rocks
• Writing the Contemporary
• Postcolonial Literatures

• European Literatures and Film
• Culture Wars: Revisiting the Great Divide
• Language, Culture and Ideology
• World Englishes
• Language of Gender and Sexuality
• Language, Law and the State: The Politics of Force
• Language Policy and Planning
• Analysing Big Data: Quantitative Methods in Language Research
• Conversation Analysis
• Approaches to Analysing Discourse
• English Language Teaching
• Citizen Journalism
• From Script to Screen

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Meet the team

Dr Bea Hitchman, course leader

Dr Beatrice Hitchman has written two novels. Petite Mort (Serpent's Tail, 2013), nominated for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Prize, the Polari Prize, the HWA Debut Novel Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and serialised as a ten-part Radio 4 drama. Her research sits at the intersection of critical and creative writing. Read Bea's full profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include:

• Dr Jess Moriarty (pictured)
• Dr Craig Jordan-Baker
• Dr Barbara Chamberlin
• Simon Wilkinson
• Dr Vy Rajapillai
• Dr Julie Everton
• Dr John McCullough
• Eleanor Knight.

Dr Jess Moriarty

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2023–24.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and govt funding info for UK and international undergraduate and postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf)

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

Maps

Support and wellbeing

Sport at Brighton