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What makes Creative Writing and English Language at Worcester special?

Studying Creative Writing and English Language in combination provides you with exciting opportunities to write for a range of different creative platforms, learn from guest speakers, and publish your work. Through academic study, you’ll investigate the various factors that determine how English is written and spoken, gaining knowledge to support development of your own creative practice.

The joint honours course utilises theoretical and practical approaches to deliver a well-rounded programme of education. Students graduate with an understanding of language and a writing portfolio that demonstrates preparedness to work in publishing and creative communication industries.

Overview

Overview

Key features

  • Opportunities for students to publish their work from the very first week and throughout their undergraduate programme
  • Experience writing for a range of digital, print, audio, visual and performance platforms
  • Exciting programme of guest speakers and a student writing magazine: The Fuse
  • Develops evaluation and reflection of linguistic and stylistic choices
  • Hands-on approach to the study of the social impact of language using real data
  • Integrated Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), enhancing your professional portfolio
  • Tailor your course to your individual needs with a joint honours degree
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Joint 10th for Graduate Prospects in the UK

Our English courses are joint 10th for Graduate Prospects in the UK (The Complete University Guide 2024.)

Entry requirements

Entry requirements

104
UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

104 UCAS tariff points.

The normal minimum entry requirement for undergraduate degree courses is the possession of 4 GCSEs (Grade C/4 or above) and a minimum of 2 A Levels (or equivalent Level 3 qualifications). 

Other information

We also encourage mature and International applicants to apply with relevant qualifications and/or experience.

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the Admissions Office on 01905-855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be found at http://www.ucas.com

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Course content

Course content

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Year 1

Mandatory

  • Introduction to Writing
  • Writing Poetry
  • Writing Fiction
  • General Linguistics
  • Intro to TEFL: Language Awareness
  • Intro to TEFL: Teaching Skills

Year 2

Mandatory

  • Writer as Research
  • Sociolinguistic Theory and Practice
  • TEFL: Access to CELTA

Optional

  • The Writing Professional
  • Collabowriting
  • Environmental Writing
  • Writing for Children
  • Slam, Spoken Word, and Performance Poetry
  • Genre Fiction
  • Work Project Module
  • Language and Power
  • Work Placement Module

Year 3

Optional

  • Independent Research Project
  • World Englishes
  • History of English
  • Style and Identity
  • Advanced Language Analysis
  • Extended Writing Project
  • New Nature Writing
  • Hypermedia - Creative Writing in a Digital Culture
  • Contemporary Poetry
  • Creative Non-Fiction
  • Indie Publishing
  • Writing Witchcraft
  • International Exchanges
  • Writing for Performance
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Joint Honours

Discover our full range of joint degrees and read about how your degree will be structured.

Find out more about studying a joint honours course
Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment

For more information about teaching, learning and assessment on this course, please see the single honours course pages for Creative Writing BA (Hons) and English Language (joint honours).

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest please download the latest Creative Writing programme specification and English Language programme specification documents.

Scope of the course content meant that I could research and write in a wide variety of areas, sometimes crossing into other disciplines such as Sociology. This kept the process of studying fresh and interesting.

Josh Crampton, BA (Hons) English Language Joint Honours graduate

Creative Writing aims to nurture your confidence as a writer and to support your development as a critical and skilful analyst of your own and others’ writing. Throughout, you will be immersed in intellectual issues informing the discipline and practices of writing and learn to place your own writing within contexts of published work.

You will develop expertise in commercial practice (writing for magazines, reviewing, scriptwriting, editing) and understanding of publishing and marketing processes alongside working towards your own, creative development. You will work with published writers, professional publishers and editors with a variety of specialisms including poetry, travel writing, writing for the screen, writing fiction, writing for performance, writing for children, feature writing, blogging and copy writing.

Your development and achievements will be assessed by means of a wide variety of writing ‘tasks.’ In your third year, you will undertake a major writing project of your choice, mentored by members of the course team, alongside participating in a range of activity designed to support you to prepare for progression once you have graduated.

In English Language your critical and intellectual faculties are honed in a variety of teaching and learning contexts. You focus on the socio-cultural aspects of language use and exploration of linguistic and stylistic choices. By your third year you will be carrying out your own independent research projects on aspects of English language as it is used in spoken and written communication   – communication central to the construction of human beings’ identities, and that is as varied, diverse and rich as are its speakers and writers.

During the course, there are opportunities for you to undertake work placements, supporting you to recognise and apply the very broad range of transferable skills and competencies that you are developing.

Meet the team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course.

Dr Jack McGowan

Dr Jack McGowan

Jack’s research focuses on contemporary poetry and poetics, and he specializes in the development of performance poetry in the UK since the mid-20th century, and the oral roots of poetry.

Jack is a performance poet with 10 years of experience on the UK spoken word scene and he writes for both performance and page publication.

Dr Lefteris Kailoglou

Dr Lefteris Kailoglou

Dr Lefteris Kailoglou is the Course Leader for English Language. He has been working at the University of Worcester since 2011, and previously taught at the University of Essex and University of Sussex. Lefteris has also been supervising a number of dissertations on sociolinguistic variation in Worcester as well as topics on language and identity. He has also been involved in the establishment of the Worcester dialect archive which is located within the Institute.The initial findings of the description of the local dialect of Worcestershire (but also Herefordshire) have now started becoming publicly available in conference papers and publications.

Ruth Stacey Profile Image

Ruth Stacey

Ruth is based in Bredon 190. As Admissions Tutor for Creative Writing she is responsible for processing new applications for study and recruitment of new students. This includes attending open days, organising events, visiting schools and colleges, and collecting student testimonials for the Creative Writing blog.

A prize-winning writer, Ruth is interested in reclaiming maligned or forgotten voices in her work, combining historical research with imagined memoir to create a new document that allows a different perspective on the historical person. Ruth is currently writing symbolist poetry as part of her research for her PhD at the University of Northumbria.  The creative aspect of the project is an imagined memoir of the tarot artist Pamela Colman Smith.

Ruth is widely published and has taught literature and writing to all age groups, including in schools and with Writing West Midlands youth groups. An experienced freelance writer and copywriter, Ruth also helped to start the indie press V.Press and worked as the illustrator for the press for seven years.

Careers

Careers

Creative Writing and English Language graduates may go on to work in sectors such as publishing, the media, marketing and communications. The course also provides an excellent basis for further study or for self-employment as a freelance writer.

Graduates from this course will also be very successful candidates for careers in teaching because of the emphasis on writing in the new English curricula. Many graduates of English Language will take a postgraduate education course as a fourth year of study and enter the teaching profession.

Others will find that the skills acquired through the study of English are particularly highly regarded in all professions where good communication skills are prized such as publishing, journalism, public relations, human resources and web-based communication.

English Language provides continuous opportunities to develop employability skills and includes work experience options. There is a range of opportunities to study for a semester abroad in Europe and the USA in the second semester of the second year. 

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Careers and Employability

Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Find out how we can support you to achieve your potential
Costs

Fees and funding

Full-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £9,250 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £16,200 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the academic year 2024/25 are £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20-credit module, £2,312 per 30-credit module, £3,083 per 40-credit module, £3,469 per 45-credit module and £4,625 per 60 credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Chestnut Halls' at £131 per week to 'Oak Halls' at £221 per week (2024/25 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.

How to apply

How to apply

Creative Writing and English Language BA (Hons) – WQ83

UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry onto full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK.

Read our How to apply pages for more information on applying and to find out what happens to your application.

UCAS Code

WQ83

Get in touch

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.

Ruth Stacey

Admissions Tutor, Creative Writing

Dr Lefteris Kailoglou

Admissions Tutor, English Language