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Module

SEL8693 : I Wanted to Build a World: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Professor Alex Pheby
  • Owning School: English Lit, Language & Linguistics
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 1 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

To develop the practical skills and formal techniques required to convincingly create settings in prose fiction writing. The course will provide students with the opportunity to write in, and analyse, the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres, and to explore the ways in which unreal worlds in any writing can be made to seem real.

Outline Of Syllabus

Over the course of taught sessions and scheduled individual tutorials, students will look at a range of prose writing and prose techniques in order to develop their understanding of the tools and resources available to them in world-building. Students will explore sources and resources, experiment with a variety of genres, and have the chance to move towards developing their work in response to seminars, tutorials, and independent study and practice.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion1179:30179:30N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching102:0020:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesDrop-in/surgery10:300:30N/A
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Through close reading, discussion, writing exercises, and feedback received in workshops, seminars and tutorials, students will apply their knowledge of a range of prose techniques to their own writing practice. They will incorporate the skills of revision, self-evaluation, and selection into the preparation of their final assessment.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Portfolio1A100A portfolio of work that should not exceed 4000 words.
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students demonstrate acquisition of knowledge and skills through the submission of their creative work and further demonstrate their understanding of their own creative practice through the accompanying essayistic work.

Reading Lists

Timetable