The project is an opportunity to work on a substantial piece of creative writing, whether a single developed piece or a collection of shorter works, together with a critical and reflective commentary on the work, exploring writing influences, process and composition. The creative work could take the form of an anthology of poems or stories or creative non-fiction on a particular theme – nature poems, bird poems, stories set on the planet Zorn, crime stories, writings accruing from an engagement with architecture, history and landscape.

Alternatively this could involve archival or editorial work, such as putting together an edited anthology from an archive eg. The Douglas Oliver or J.A. Baker archives in the Albert Sloman Library.

The Independent Creative Writing Project (ICWP) is designed by the student, supervised by a member of teaching staff, and examined by a 7,500 word project and a presentation.

The 7,500 word project will be divided between a creative work and a reflective critical commentary including bibliography. The creative work will constitute approx. 5,000 words. The length of the commentary will be approx. 2,500 words. 70% of the mark for this project will be awarded to the creative work, 30% to the commentary. This constitutes 80% of the mark for the module.

The presentation makes up the remaining 20% of the mark for the module. Students will both supply a presentation file for the purposes of assessment and perform the presentation to an audience of the marker and other students.