English Language and Creative Writing (Placement Year)

Do you want to combine creating original fiction with an in-depth study of the English language? Then this is the degree for you.

At Lancaster, all Creative Writing students combine writing with study in another subject. You’ll be taught Creative Writing through lectures, readings, practices and discussion in regular tutor-led workshops by practising writers. As a student on the English Language and Creative Writing degree, you’ll join a thriving community, where you can get involved with the Writing Society, poetry nights, and spoken word events in the city. You’ll have the chance to develop your writing skills, cultivating a strong feel for words and their meaning within context.

Our Linguistics and English Language department is one of the largest in the UK. You could be analysing sound patterns or learning more about the tones, nuances and registers of the English language. The two different focuses of this degree reinforce and complement each other perfectly.

In your first year you’ll study the core modules of English Language and Introduction to Creative Writing. You will build up a writing portfolio throughout the year, which counts towards your final mark, and you will have the opportunity to work in small groups to offer supportive constructive criticism on each other’s work. In the second year you’ll move on to Stylistics and Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop. You’ll also be able to select modules such as Discourse Analysis, Creative Non-Fiction: Genre and Practice and English Phonetics. We also offer a series of lectures on the business of being a writer.

Your final year is made up of an Advanced Creative Writing Workshop and options such as a dissertation, Forensic Linguistics or Poetry and Experiment.

Many English Language graduates go on to work in education, publishing, the media and information technology. It is a subject that is useful in fields involving international communication, such as science, trade and international relations. As well as writing, this degree combination is particularly well-suited for careers in publishing, journalism, editing and PR.