57145 Critical Writing

This subject addresses the theoretical and practical aspects of critical writing in the key creative and professional genres: literary journalism, essay writing, reviewing (particularly book reviewing) and literary criticism. Students are introduced to examples of critical writing in magazines and journals as well as in the major newspapers, and are encouraged to engage with the nature of informed critical reading in relation to contemporary writing.

The subject aims to increase understanding of how appropriate critical writing responds to significant literary issues, and how it may usefully contribute to debate over these issues.

This subject includes examination of significant literary or cultural topics, focusing on specific texts or authors (e.g. the history–fiction debate, the Norma Khouri affair) and the writing of a profile, essay or review article demonstrating an understanding of and engagement with the institutional, publishing and media context in which critical writing is produced.

Assessment: Assessment for this subject takes the form of a portfolio showcasing students' work in a professional manner and consisting of a variety of tasks. Students have flexibility in their choice of tasks but their portfolio must include one piece of writing from the list of long tasks (e.g. profile, essay), and must total approximately 5,000 words.

Examples of a typical portfolio are:

• a literary profile (2,000 words), an essay (2,000 words) and a book/film review (800 words)
• three standard book reviews (2,400 words) and one cultural/literary case study (2,000–3,000 words)
• a cultural/literary case study (3,000 words), a review article (1,500 words) and 2 or 3 short reviews (500 words).

Book/film reviews from the set texts; all other subjects are of the students' own choice. The portfolio is in two stages, the first consisting of a 1,500–1,800 words of work in progress, which receives written feedback and which may be revised for inclusion in the final submission.