Module: Creative Writing Fundamentals: Craft & Technique

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	Creative Writing Fundamentals: Craft & Technique
Module Code	LIT1005 (ITS: EL2070)
Faculty	English	School	Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5

Description

This course will introduce students to creative writing through a selection of texts both contemporary and from key periods in the history of Literature. We will look at all genres; Poetry, Drama and Fiction. The aim of this course is to encourage students to pursue their own creative writing and for this reason there will be a lot of time and emphasis spent on critiquing the student’s work throughout the semester. We will also look at creative writing practice; drafting, layout, time span, final draft, with an eye to great writer’s work practices and methods and what constitutes great writing as opposed to good writing and bad writing. The ambition would be for the student to have a finished piece of creative writing in a genre of their choosing to an accomplished standard at the end of the module.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the rigour of the creative writing process.
2. Discernment between the excellent and the ordinary in critiquing assigned text.
3. Comprehend the difference between a first draft and a fourth draft.
4. Improve and enhance critical faculty in reading text as creative documents as opposed to academic ones.
5. Explore and understand the paramount position of the imagination in all creative endeavours.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Seminars	24	Seminars
Independent Study	101	Independent Learning
Total Workload: 125

Section Breakdown
CRN	20421	Part of Term	Semester 2
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	Kit Fryatt	Module Teacher	Darran McCann

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Essay	Critical response/ essay on a writer of their choice from assigned texts.	20%	n/a
Written Exam	One finished piece of creative writing.	80%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Seminars in which the work of a canonical writer is reviewed from the point of view of informing the student’s own cre

Workshops in which members of the writing group present their work

Sessions moving towards the evolution of a finished work

Discussion of how to present and disseminate a piece of creative writing

Indicative Reading List

Books:
None

Articles:
None

Other Resources

1: Selections from writers such as: Samuel Beckett, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Ted Hughes, W.B. Yeats, Ernest Hemingway, Harold Pinter, Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy,