Y180 to BA English Literature (Creative Writing Pathway)

Hi there, was just wondering if anyone here has studied the Y180 Making Sense of the Arts Access module and if they could share their experiences?

I haven't studied since I completed my A-Levels eight years ago and decided it would be worthwhile to do the access course before undertaking a degree. I'm hoping to go for English Literature via the Creative Writing pathway and was interested what people thought of both courses.

Thank you.

Reply 1

Persipan

I haven't done Y180 - I'm doing an Open Degree rather than an English Literature one - but I've just finished A215 (the Level 2 Creative Writing module) and I really liked it. Ask anything you like about that and I'll try to help.

Openings/Access modules can be a good way of getting back to things if you want to gear up slowly - my understanding is that they're quite a gentle start.

Open University

Milton Keynes

Reply 2

SepticLovebite

Original post by Persipan

That's what I am hoping to take from Y180 - I've been a hairdresser for the last 8 years, so I definitely need some guidance into getting back into academic work. I also like the idea of a broader spectrum module so that I can be sure that the degree I want to undertake afterwards is the one I want to do.

As for the Creative Writing module, that's what interests me the most! How much critique do you get on your writing? Is it very much a case of "you must write this way"? That possibility frightens me a little! What about the poetry? That's the one aspect that I have never dealt with before and holds very little interest for me.

Sorry for all the questions!

Reply 3

Persipan

Original post by SepticLovebite

As for the Creative Writing module, that's what interests me the most! How much critique do you get on your writing? Is it very much a case of "you must write this way"? That possibility frightens me a little! What about the poetry? That's the one aspect that I have never dealt with before and holds very little interest for me.

You're encouraged to post work-in-progress up for your tutor group to read and comment on - how many comments you get depends a bit on the group - and then you get fairly detailed comments from your tutor when you get assignments back. My advice would be, comment in as much detail as you can on all the work other people in your TG post - it's tempting to think that the only thing that counts as study is working on your own writing, and to see commenting as a distraction, but actually the process of being able to identify "This part works well because [reason] but this element is not so successful because [problem]" is really valuable for your own work, so time spent developing that skill is absolutely not wasted. (Also, your fellow students will appreciate it and will give you feedback on your own work in return). Commenting can sometimes - especially early on - tend towards "I love it! You're so clever!" (and will then probably move into a phase of spelling/grammatical nitpicking, because people feel qualified to comment on that), but it's really worth trying to move past that as you learn a lot from doing it.

I certainly didn't get any sense of the course teaching that you "must" write in a certain way - there's scope for quite a range of approaches.

The poetry chapters of the BRB ("Big Red Book") are a bit dreary, largely because they're all written by the same guy and he has a rather pompous tone. Our tutor was pretty cool about it, though - she gave us a load of other exercises to do to help us generate material. You only have to do poetry for the poetry TMA (plus if your tutor posts any online tutorials that involve poetry it would be a good idea to do them, but they aren't compulsory). The first two TMAs are prose; then for all the submitted work after the poetry one (life writing, targeting work at a publication, and the EMA) you can choose whether to write poetry or not, so if you hate it you can put it behind you. Also, while I believe for A363 you have to write in a specific poetic form, for A215 you can please yourself (which worked for me because I find free verse much easier). Although it's not my main interest, I actually quite like having to make the odd assault on poetry; it's interesting to have to concentrate on arranging and polishing a bit of language and I find doing that is actually quite useful for my other writing.

Reply 4

SepticLovebite

Thank you very much! This is all very good stuff to know! I am pretty certain I am making the right choices, as long as I get the funding!

Reply 5

Denver2010

Hi,

I have done Y180 and am just finishing AA100. I am aiming for a BA Literature. I do think Y180 prepared me for AA100 and hopefully for future courses. I would recommend it!

Reply 6

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Denver2010

Hi,

I have done Y180 and am just finishing AA100. I am aiming for a BA Literature. I do think Y180 prepared me for AA100 and hopefully for future courses. I would recommend it!

Do you really think so? I also did Y180 and I'm now doing AA100, I thought Y180 was a complete waste of time - I think most people could quite easily do AA100 without any preparation at all. It's certainly not worth the money.

Reply 7

Denver2010

Original post by Samual

I agree that it is not a nessesity and that aa100 is suitable as a first module but for someone who us just wanting to test the water before fully commiting it may be a bigger waste of money to start aa100 and decide that they do not want to continue.

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