One item of assessment:

100% (LO 1, 2) A Portfolio of scripts, comprising:

a) A Group Project dossier containing a broad spectrum of journalistic writing presented in the form of a magazine. (4000 words)

b) EITHER a complete short script for a film/radio or TV programme (8 - 12 pages/equivalent to
1500-2000 words) OR a complete short story (1500 - 2000 words)

Key Information Set:
100% Coursework

This module is designed as a foundation course in the practice of writing for the media. It introduces students to ideas about the importance of storytelling in our culture. It deals in broad terms with the more technical and practical aspects of writing in the modern world, touching upon a range of journalistic writing conventions, the technical requirements of writing for the small and large screen and the basics of writing prose fiction. It introduces students to the cultural language widespread in the media and is designed to foster, at this early stage, an appreciation for the vital importance of editorial work, proof-reading and redrafting.

Topics covered include:

-Language in the modern world
-Basic editorial skills: proof-reading, punctuation, re-writing, polishing
-Screenwriting basics: visual storytelling/dialogue/story and plot/setting /structure/characterisation
-Familiarisation with various script formats (film, TV, Radio)
-Prose fiction: some technical considerations
-Ideas, themes, approaches (how to recognise and develop ideas)

Familiarisation with media writing genres through lectures, set exercises, workshop-style discussion and independent learning. There will be seminar presentations of various media products with reference to their writing; a group project to produce a magazine; formal exercises in various forms of media writing: journalistic writing, scripts and prose, with student presentations of exercises in workshop sessions. There is a high level of independent learning and all seminar exercises will be supported by Blackboard.

Key Information Set:
16% scheduled learning and teaching activities
84% guided independent learning.

Blackboard access
Library resources
Screenplays, newspapers, out-of-copyright works of literature available online.

Aulier, D. (1999) Hitchcock's Secret Notebooks: Bloomsbury
George, E. (2005) Write Away: Hodder
Forster, E. M. (2005) Aspects of the Novel: Penguin Classics
Keeble, R. (2005) The Newspaper Handbook: Routledge
Yorke, J. (2014) Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them: Penguin

A fuller list of recommended reading is listed in the Module Handbook