People who are majoring in English (1 Viewer)

[Estel]

Can you tell me what it's like?
I'm curious.
Especially the Creative Writing...

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Can you tell me what it's like?
I'm curious.
Especially the Creative Writing...

I've only done normal English subjects at USyd. The Creative Writing component at UNSW is a mix.

Creative Writing A
Paul Dawson, who takes this course, is a brilliant lecturer. Honestly, he is one of the best lecturers you'll get. The course work is strange in that you don't really "learn" much like other subjects. It's more about enhancing your writing, learning techniques from other writers and experimenting with different styles, etc. For the assessment requirements you basically hand in a short critique of a piece, and one big portfolio at the end with one major piece (plus tutorial participation). The stress level is pretty low.

Creative Writing B
The lecturer who takes this, Ms Brewster, is quite into what she's teaching, but the whole thing is very wishy-washy. A lot of post-modern rambling bullshit in the lectures that, while somewhat interesting, you can't help but feel what the hell you're doing there. Her lecturers aren't too exciting either. This whole course is mostly about experimentation. The assessments are good though, you do 2 portfolios, made up of a number of short pieces, and I find that pretty nice and relaxing to do. It gives you quite a bit of freedom. I got away with never buying the course reader for this subject, still getting D's, but I mean this is really a subject you do purely for interest... I did the creative writing courses, yes because I've always been into it, but also to fill up my Arts requirements from my degree. The lecturer is a bit on the hippy-ish side, the stress level is pretty low, but the lecturer very annoyingly marks the role at LECTURES, which means you have to watch out.

Overall, I'd recommend doing both. Creative Writing A is more interesting in terms of lectures, but Creative Writing B has a better assessment method - which is what I care about.

 

[hbk_ace]

there are ppl who major in English at UNSW??

 

[Idyll]

Are you thinking of majoring in english estel?

 

[Estel]

Thanks moonlight... it's a bit of a rort tho that only 12 out of 60cp are creative... =/
Low stress levels = excellent!
btw... aren't you in USYD? how'd you do the UNSW lectures?

Idyll: yeh hopefully if I make it into UNSW...
English major and perhaps a few cp of maths purely for relief =)

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Thanks moonlight... it's a bit of a rort tho that only 12 out of 60cp are creative... =/
Low stress levels = excellent!
btw... aren't you in USYD? how'd you do the UNSW lectures?

Idyll: yeh hopefully if I make it into UNSW...
English major and perhaps a few cp of maths purely for relief =)

I was at USyd last year (B. IT), then I transferred to B. Arts/B. Laws at UNSW.

NB - USyd doesn't have any creative writing courses

 

[hbk_ace]

from what i know, they have a writing club or something dont they