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UCAS code:
Q303
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Institution code:
S82
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Location:
Ipswich
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Duration:
Three years full-time. Four and a half to nine years part-time. |
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Typical Offer:
2023-24 and 2024-25 entry; 112 UCAS tariff points (or above), BBC (A-Level), DMM (BTEC), Merit (T Level). |
Introduction
The BA (Hons) English enables you to combine diverse literary studies with innovative creative writing practice and cutting-edge research in linguistics. On the course, you will engage with contemporary subjects in literature, including queer approaches to poetry, gothic horror in young adult fiction, and the apocalyptic imagination in twenty-first-century writing. You will have the opportunity to progress on the distinct Literature and Creative Writing and Literature and Linguistics pathways, or to select options from both routes on our flexible English degree programme.
The Literature and Creative Writing pathway invites you to create a portfolio of published work, including poems, short stories, scripts, flash fiction, and novellas. You will enter exclusive writing competitions, such as the Student New Angle Prize, and develop confidence in creativity and critical skills under the guidance of published, award-winning authors. Our alumni have found employment as editors, copywriters, teachers, writers and poets. They have undertaken postgraduate studies in the humanities, including our MA Creative and Critical Writing.
On the Literature and Linguistics pathway, you will immerse yourself in a range of linguistic topics, including language acquisition and disorders, variation in spoken language, and dialects in literature and film. You will practise key skills, such as numeracy, data collection, problem solving and analysis, and receive support from active researchers and HEA-accredited lecturers. Our graduates have entered Masters-level study in the fields of speech therapy and literary linguistics. They have pursued doctoral research, commenced careers in a variety of professional contexts and seen their work cited at national conferences.
Suffolk is an inspiring place to study English. The county’s coastal villages and towns attract writers and artists from all over the world and feature in classic novels by Charles Dickens, George Orwell and Arthur Ransome. The richly intriguing historical development across the region also makes East Anglia a fascinating dialect area for linguistics studies. Share your love of literature, language and creative writing in a stimulating learning environment that encourages independent thinking, intellectual rigour and academic excellence.
Further information
- Explore our exclusive writing competition, the Student New Angle Prize, and read the winning entries, student interviews and guidelines
- Learn more about our MA Creative and Critical Writing for postgraduate study
- Join us on Facebook and Twitter for regular course updates.
Course modules
Full-time students typically complete six modules a year during the first two years of study for increased subject diversity. In the first year, all students commence on the English study route, completing introductory modules in literature, creative writing and linguistics. In the second year, students may specialise on one of two distinct pathways, Literature and Creative Writing or Literature and Linguistics, or continue on the English route for a multi-disciplinary approach. In the final year, students complete a Literature, Linguistics or Creative Writing Independent Project in an area of their choosing, along with four other selected modules.
Part-time students may negotiate their programme of study with their tutors to suit their individual needs and requirements.
Full downloadable information regarding all University of Suffolk courses, including Key Facts, Course Aims, Course Structure and Assessment, is available in the Definitive Course Record.
'Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols' - Edward Sapir
This module equips students with the tools and terminology required for describing language and helps to develop analytical skills. Students explore the basic frameworks of phonology, grammar and semantics, and learn about the development of the English language. The module is of particular use to those wishing to become teachers or to enter language-based fields.
‘There is nothing outside the text’ - Jacques Derrida
This module enables students to gain the necessary knowledge and skills of analysis and criticism on which to base the rest of their undergraduate work in English. Students will explore various methodologies in the study of literary texts and consider the purpose of literary criticism and its relationship with culture, philosophy and politics.
‘It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked' - Harold Pinter
This module introduces students to the study of Western drama, covering both its historical and literary development from the classical era through the Renaissance and up to the twenty-first century. Students will explore a wide selection of dramatic works in English and in translation, focusing on plays that have often prompted hostile speculation from audiences and critics.
'It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style' - P. D. James
This module creates a toolkit of necessary skills that students will build upon in later creative writing modules. Paying particular attention to narrative strategies and the craft of writing, students will be encouraged to examine how critical reflection and creative practice inform and supplement each other, and to view writing as part of an ongoing, developing practice, informed by diverse influences, experiences and cultures.
‘In this gorgeous mess of our own gravity’ - Jo Shapcott
This module introduces students to the complexity and pleasure of this literary form. It is designed to help students engage with poetry in a creative and active manner. Students examine a wide range of poetic forms, from canonical texts of the English tradition to digital and performance poetry, including poems in translation.
'We retain from our studies only that which we practically apply' - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
This module enables students to develop skills that are central to the study of English, such as critical reading, writing, analysing, presenting, and researching. On the module, students will have the opportunity to design and complete a short research project, selecting their own topic in literature, linguistics or creative writing.
‘Welcome to the desert of the real’ - Slavoj Žižek
Students examine a range of theoretical approaches to texts, including Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, feminism, postcolonial theory and postmodernism. They are encouraged to engage with theory as an intellectual activity that develops multiple perspectives on a variety of topics such as language, reality, subjectivity, gender, race, and sexuality.
'Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose' - Zora Neale Hurston
This module builds on the knowledge and practice obtained on Research Skills, supporting students as they prepare to design and complete an individual academic research project in English studies. On the module, students will explore the methods, approaches and structural components of an extended research project through examples in literature, linguistics, and creative writing.
‘An adaptation may come second, but that doesn’t make it secondary' - Linda Hutcheon
This module introduces students to the literary field of adaptation studies, exploring the afterlives of a range of ‘source’ texts through a critical and creative assessment of processes of textual transformation. Through an analysis of texts where characters’ afterlives also feature in the narrative, students will investigate shifts in media, genre, audience, ideological positions and modes of production and consumption.
'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown' - Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II
This module enables students to undertake a thematic study of Shakespeare’s dramatic work based on the detailed study of plays from different genres. These plays will be studied both as responses to the political, social and religious changes of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and as works of continuing relevance through a close examination of recent and varied performance contexts.
'You become a different writer when you approach a short story' - Zadie Smith
Students will be encouraged to develop their skills as critical readers and creative writers through the close reading of short stories and the undertaking of creative writing exercises, culminating in the writing of an original short story. The emphasis of this module will be on craft and technique, with an eye to wider questions of critical analysis, authorship, identity and place.
'The exercise of power, in modern society, is increasingly achieved through ideology, and more particularly through the ideological workings of language' - Norman Fairclough
This module represents a more theoretical consideration of textuality, providing preparation for students' own independent research. Students consider core topics and approaches in language study such as language variation, creativity in language use, stylistics, cognitive poetics and critical discourse analysis.
'Our minds influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they're all a projection of you' - Deepak Chopra
The module examines three major frameworks of language: acquisition, production and comprehension. These are examined and analysed through a range of case studies and linguistic data. In addition, Learning English presents and discusses theories and data relating to the acquisition of conversational skills in English, as well as a variety of language disorders.
'I believe in my mask - the man I made up is me' - Sam Shepard
This module will explore how versions of the self are written through memoir, autobiography and life writing. Students will consider different critical responses to autobiography and life writing and ways of creatively writing the self. The module will also examine the relationship that autobiographical writing has with writing fiction, autobiografiction and ethnographic practices.
'There is no god and we are his prophets' - Cormac McCarthy
The module enables students to evaluate the complex and thought-provoking forms of contemporary texts which transgress genre boundaries and solicit a speculative exploration of contemporary issues, such as transcultural identities, queer sexualities, dystopian spaces, and technological and post-humanist approaches to reality.
'The Gate ... I opened it. I'm the monster' - Eleven, Stranger Things
This module introduces students to the role of horror in young adult fiction, inviting analyses of works from literature, cinema and television that are categorised as dark fantasy, dystopian fiction, sci-fi horror and paranormal romance. Through close reading and independent research, students will examine issues relating to gender, power, identity and sexuality against the self-reflexive nature of horror and its highly subversive potential.
'Any positive emotion that you're infusing into a workplace needs to be grounded in reality. If it's not realistic, sincere, meaningful, and individualised, it won't do much good' - Tom Rath
Students undertake student-centred learning based on a placement, which will build on their knowledge from language and creative writing modules, along with subject specific writing and IT skills. Moreover, students gain knowledge about professional writing from seminars with professional writers.
'All you need is the plan, the roadmap, and the courage to press on to your destination' - Earl Nightingale
This module provides an opportunity for students to explore, over a year, a chosen area of English studies. Students will design and carry out an extensive or significant piece of independent research, examining an area of scholarship that they wish to pursue. They will meet regularly as a supportive learning group to consider common research issues. Mostly, they will work independently, guided by a specialist supervisor.
'Before I write down one word, I have to have the character in my mind through and through. I must penetrate into the last wrinkle of his soul' - Henrik Ibsen
This module invites students to work with influential and contemporary scripts written for the stage and screen to support the production of their own short script. Students will explore a selection of performance texts written for theatre, television and cinema in the twentieth century and up to the present day, engaging with crucial differences in forms of performance writing to understand the demands of each particular medium.
'That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way' - Doris Lessing
The Independent Project in Creative Writing is the culmination of students’ progressive, specialist learning in creative writing throughout their degree. Students will produce an original creative writing portfolio. This can be a novel extract, a novella or a portfolio of stories or flash fiction. Students will also produce a critical essay, reflecting on their use of sources, their writing practice, influences, and editing choices.
'Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations' - Edward Sapir
Research has shown that variations found in spontaneous speech aren’t, as once thought, random and unstructured, but, instead, systemic/ meaningful. This course will examine the theory behind variation as it occurs in natural, face-to-face communication, and how we model variation according to social constructs, such as age, gender and style.
‘Never let it be said that dialect is a reflection of intellect’ - Patricia H Graham
This module considers how language, and particularly dialect, are used in literature and film. The focus is primarily on sociolinguistic aspects, allowing students to assess how literature and film reflect actual language, and what this may tell us about linguistic attitudes and use. The module will give students a foundation in some key dialect features and characteristics, with a particular focus on British and North American dialects.
'Research means that you don't know, but are willing to find out' - Charles F. Kettering
The Independent Project in Linguistics is the culmination of students’ progressive, specialist learning in linguistics throughout their degree. Students will undertake a project that synthesises novel data and scholarly literature to examine an original research question. The project can focus on any topic in linguistics.
Career opportunities
The BA (Hons) English offers two professional practice modules: English Education Practice and Professional Writing Practice. Students may undertake one of these modules in their final year of study to enhance employability skills and build effective relationships with local schools, businesses and arts organisations.
The modules include short-term placements, talks and seminars led by industry experts, and opportunities for professional recognition, such as the EADT Award for Professional Writing and the Steve Ransom Award for English Education.
Students on the BA (Hons) English are also invited to join the Talking Shop community. The Talking Shop is hosted by the English Department and seeks to develop cultural innovation, creativity and student engagement. It offers a valuable space for students to share their work, publish news, attend live guest speaker events and participate in a series of extra-curricular workshops across the academic year. Previous guest speakers include novelists, memoir writers, poets, journalists, publishers and literary agents.
Our graduates have gone on to successful careers in writing and journalism, editing, arts management, teaching and consulting. Some have started their own businesses in areas like copyediting, public relations and freelance writing, while others have gone on to postgraduate study. Over the last three years, 100% of students applying for teacher training have been successful at interview and accepted onto postgraduate courses.
Student profiles
Fees and finance
2023-24
- UK full-time tuition fee: £9,250 p.a
- UK part-time tuition fee: £1,454 per 20 credits (please contact the Student Centre for further information)
- Full-time International tuition fee: £13,992 p.a
Further Information
At University of Suffolk, your tuition fees provide access to all the usual teaching and learning facilities that you would expect. However, there may be additional costs associated with you course that you will need to budget for.
Entry requirements
2023-24 and 2024-25 entry; 112 UCAS tariff points (or above), BBC (A-Level), DMM (BTEC), Merit (T Level).
All applicants are required to hold GCSE English and Maths at Grade 4/C or above. Applicants who do not hold these qualifications may be considered on an individual basis based upon their overall application and the course applied for.
IELTS 6.0 overall (minimum 5.5 in all components) where English is not the student's first language. You can read more about our English language requirements here.
If you are an international student, click here to find the academic requirements for your country.
Also see our homepage for International students.
If you have previously studied at higher education level before you may be able to transfer credits to a related course at the University of Suffolk and reduce the period of study time necessary to achieve your degree.
Staff
Facilities and Resources
This course is taught at the beautiful Waterfront Campus in Ipswich, a unique location offering spectacular views and a vibrant space for study and socialising.
Teaching and learning takes place in the Waterfront Building, the Arts Building and the new Atrium Building, providing access to the campus’ best facilities including purpose-built seminar rooms and state-of-the-art screening theatres.
Photo by Katie Hayward
Suffolk celebrates the literary arts every year with events such as the Halesworth Arts Festival, the FlipSide Festival, the award-winning Latitude Festival and the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.
Ipswich has a thriving theatre scene including the New Wolsey, Regent, East Anglia’s largest theatre, and Red Rose Chain, an award-winning, community-driven theatre company working in partnership with TV presenter Jimmy Doherty to stage outdoor summer productions of Shakespeare’s plays for over 10,000 spectators. Sir Trevor Nunn, former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, schooled in Ipswich and is patron of the New Wolsey Theatre, a vibrant performance space at the heart of the region’s cultural life.
The county is also home to a number of prestigious publishing houses including Full Circle Editions, set up by Bloomsbury co-founder and Harry Potter discoverer-in-chief, Liz Calder.
