Module: CW7024-60 The Manuscrip

Level: 7

Credit Value: 60

Module Tutor: Richard Kerridge

Module Tutor Contact Details: r.kerridge@bathspa.ac.uk

1.Brief description and aims of module

This module is the fruition of the course. The aim is to guide students to the completion of a manuscript that constitutes the whole or a substantial part of the book (a novel, collection of stories, work of literary non-fiction or collection of poems or long poem or) they began in the earlier parts of the programme. If the book is not completed, the 60,000 words or the equivalent written across the programme should constitute a portion substantial enough to provide the necessary momentum for subsequent completion. The aim is to help each student bring this work to publishable standard or as near as possible.

Normally, work for this module will proceed from the earlier parts of the manuscript written for previous modules. Occasionally, at the discretion of the Course Leader, students will be permitted to begin a new manuscript for this module.

2.Outline syllabus

Across the programme, the student will receive eight hours of one-to-one tutorials with a manuscript tutor allocated after the submission of the manuscript proposal during the first workshop module. Normally, one hour will be used in each of the workshop modules, leaving six for the manuscript module, but this pattern can vary. Before each tutorial the student will send the tutor up to 5,000 words or the equivalent. These submissions will normally be parts of the manuscript project, and will form the basis for the discussion at the tutorial, which will address local matters of style and technique as well as the aims and planned structure of the whole manuscript.

3.Teaching and learning activities

The primary activities are independent writing and critical discussion at one-to-one tutorials of the particular pieces of writing and the overall development of the manuscript. The tutor’s job is to give expert advice as the manuscript develops. Feedback on submitted work will consist primarily of identifying strengths and weaknesses, both in the overall plan, direction and balance of the work and in the local detail of particular sections.

The tutor will challenge the student, engage them in debate and stimulate them to deeper reflection, all as part of the creative process. On the basis of the tutor’s judgement of what the work needs, and the questions the student wishes to raise, the tutorials will focus on some of these aspects of the work: style, narrative or poetic voice, diction, form, plot, pace, characterisation, setting, accuracy, emotional effect, balance of sympathies, intellectual implications and so forth, depending on the type of writing. These comments are designed to help students make their own creative decisions. They are not instructions that students are required to follow, but propositions for them to consider in the course of their own decision-making and problem- solving. Responsibility for the creative decisions is the student’s own, as it must be.

To enable this sort of discussion to take place, students should submit work at regular intervals and in manageable quantities: normally not more than 5,000 words of prose for one tutorial. Sometimes a short sample accompanied by a synopsis of the developing plot will be a good basis for a tutorial, or the student may choose to identify a particular aspect of their work that needs discussion, and submit several examples – a page or two from three different sections of the manuscript, perhaps. It’s a good idea to use tutorials in a variety of ways, rather than simply deliver the next instalment of the manuscript each time.

The Manuscript Tutor is not an editor. Prose-writers should not expect comments on every page, but rather that the general strengths and weaknesses will be analysed using examples. For poets, it is rather different – they can expect a detailed response to every poem, given that the overall number of words will be much smaller. The tutor will identify technical weaknesses, such as incorrect spelling, grammatical errors or misuse of punctuation, and if necessary debate these with the student, but will not go through the manuscript marking every occurrence of these errors. It is the student’s job to follow-up the general comment with systematic correction.

Final responsibility for the quality of the creative writing rests with the student. It is their original work, arising from their own vision. The Manuscript Tutor is giving an opinion. After giving that opinion very careful consideration, the student has to decide whether to act upon it or proceed regardless of it. That is their creative decision. The tutor’s job is to help the student make these decisions as scrupulously as possible, having encountered a range of possible reactions and considered them deeply.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: A manuscript comprising 35,000-40,000 words of a novel or book of literary non-fiction, or, for a collection of poetry or short stories
• % Weighting: 100%