Working with published writers from within and outside the University, the Keele Writing MA offers participants an opportunity to improve their writing and to bring it up to publishable standard while learning more about the critical and intellectual context in which their work is situated. Students on the Keele Writing MA also participate directly in the development and maintenance of the events, publications, workshops, and short courses which constitute Keele’s vibrant writing culture – typically through opting to gain experience in one of the areas in which writers often establish a secondary income – reviewing, editing and teaching.
You can study full-time or part-time for this MA. It is also possible to take short courses in Creative Writing, delivered as part of our MA program, as well as Certificate and Diploma-level courses in the subject.
Course Structure
The course is delivered as three stand-alone taught modules. In addition students complete a Portfolio of original work. Students will have the opportunity to take any single module as a short course or to combine two modules and be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits) or to complete four modules and receive a Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits).
The contents of each module are summarised below:
- The Writer as Critic, The Critic as Writer (30 Credits).
- Writing Fiction (30 Credits).
- Writing Poetry (30 Credits).
- Life Writing (30 Credits).
- The Writer in the Community (30 Credits).
- The Portfolio (90 Credits)
Employability
Pursuing postgraduate study enhances students’ employment prospects because it nurtures more advanced critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and communication skills than those developed through an undergraduate degree. Throughout the course, we offer students the opportunity to reflect on the skills they are developing and, importantly, how they can articulate these skills in applications and interviews. We work closely with the university’s Careers and Employability Service to offer bespoke sessions on postgraduate employability throughout the academic year and students also have the option to complete a Work Placement module as part of their course. Most graduate jobs do not require a specific degree as the qualification which means our graduates go on to work in a wide range of careers from teaching to management consulting. However, our graduates typically go on to work in fields such as culture and heritage, education, marketing, communications, public relations, publishing, copywriting, and information management. A number of students also go on to complete PhDs at Keele and elsewhere.
