English and Creative Writing

This is a Connected Degree

Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

Overview

Take your love of literature to a higher level and refine your writing skills with academic rigour on our English and Creative Writing degree course.

Explore literature through an academic lens in theory and in practice, enhancing your understanding of each through participation in the other.

You'll learn to analyse literature as a critic, historian and linguist, and from the perspective of future creators, storytellers, playwrights and poets – all of which will transform your writing skills. Develop techniques for producing short stories, poetry and plays, and learn to dissect, critique and perform your own writing.

By the end of your degree, you’ll open up professional career paths and postgraduate routes eager for writing and literary expertise, including editing and publishing, teaching, and broadcasting.

Course highlights

• Take part in Portsmouth's annual Comic Con for the latest developments in creative writing and literature, popular culture, fan communities, and technology – course lecturers and students are panelists

• Build your writing portfolio by contributing to our course blog The Eldon Review and our local news zine Star & Crescent

• Contribute to cultural preservation projects with staff members, such as the Portsmouth Literary Map and the Writing Literary Portsmouth blog, to enhance your research practice

• Learn from experts in both creative writing and English literature: from published novelists and industry-active writers, to renowned specialists of 19th to 21st-century literature and culture

• Gain valuable professional experience by taking an optional placement

• Spend a year or a semester studying abroad to discover another culture and way of learning

• Take advantage of our extra-curricular Institute-Wide Language Programme to improve your linguistic skills and earn credits

Careers and opportunities

An excellent writer and speaker will prosper in a vast field of career opportunities.

You’ll graduate from this course with outstanding writing and speaking skills, as well as proofreading and grammar proficiency. All of these qualities will help you from the moment you write your first job application.

You’ll also have developed excellent skills in imagination, empathy, and research, which are valuable assets to any employer.

Graduate areas

Areas graduates from our Creative Writing courses have worked in include:

• creative writing (prose, poetry, script)

• advertising and marketing

• arts and events management

• local and community broadcasting

• teaching

• stand-up comedy

• travel industry

Graduate roles

Roles graduates from our Creative Writing courses have gone onto include:

• novelist

• poet

• playwright

• teacher

• copywriter

• journalist

• theatre manager

• editorial assistant

Graduate destinations

Some of our graduates have landed spots in big companies and organisations, including:

• BBC Radio 1

• Red Magazine

You'll get help and support from our Careers and Employability service in finding your first role and for 5 years after you graduate.