Program Overview

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English via Study Centres BA (Hons)

Overview

English is a wide-ranging and innovative degree. You'll explore the best of English Language, Creative Writing and English Literature, gaining understanding of their interrelation and the value of studying each area in depth at degree level. As the course progresses you will specialise in your chosen field.

Following your own pathway, you will graduate with one of three named degrees: BA (Hons) English: Language ,BA (Hons) English: Literature, orBA (Hons) English: Creative Writing.

Why us?

• Specialising in your second year gives you a well-rounded exploration of English with the flexibility to change your pathway

Course structure

A typical week for you will include lectures, seminars and group work, as well as independent study.

Your progress will be assessed mainly through coursework, such as written assignments and presentations, with the opportunity to carry out a more extended piece in your third year.

All pathways

Year 1 (national level 4):

Core modules (120 credits):

• Order from Chaos: Narrative and Poetry (20 credits) Explore key narrative concepts such as setting, dialogue, and point of view by reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, ‘Never Let me Go’. Examine a selection of short stories by writers such as Thomas Hardy, Katherine Mansfield, and Hanif Kureishi. Familiarise yourself with the main tools and concepts necessary for analysing poetry from a variety of periods.
• Stages and Pages: Drama and Criticism (20 credits) Learn how drama and criticism work and see how the way we judge literature, film, plays, novels, and songs today is similar to the way it was done in the past. Examine tragedy from Ancient Greece through to the renaissance and towards the present. Explore the conventions of comedy using Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and examine critical writing, discussing the insights it gives us into literature.
• The Writer’s Craft 1: Prose and Poetry (20 credits)
• Language in the 21st Century (20 credits)
• Describing Modern English (20 credits)
• The Writer's Craft 2: From Page to Stage (20 credits)

Some modules have prerequisites. Read more about what this means in our Help and Advice article.

English Literature pathway

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules (40 credits)

• Questioning Literature: History and Theory (20 credits) Explore the historical development of approaches to literature from the ancients to the 20th century. Familiarise yourself with the major movements in English literary history and literary thought using critical extracts from each period. Examine central questions in relation to criticism, covering issues such as the authority given to literary critics’ judgements, valid critical interpretations, and classifying particular literary approaches.
• Refocusing Literature: Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism (20 credits) Examine the major theoretical approaches to literary criticism emerging from the beginning of the 20th century. Study different approaches, for example structuralism or Marxism, and apply them to a short literary text. Develop a palette of critical and theoretical perspectives and concepts that can be applied to fiction, poetry, or drama.

English Literature pathway modules (40 credits). Choose two:

• Literature from the Inferno to Paradise: The Renaissance (20 credits) Discover the emergence of literature from the medieval period into the renaissance. Learn how mankind evolved from a belief in the great chain of being and the divine right of kings into a humanistic system of beliefs where individuals were respected for the first time. Explore the works of the great writers of the period from Dante, Spenser, and Marlowe to Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton.
• Literature of the Victorian Age (20 credits) Explore the most famous and adapted pieces of writing that derive from the Victorian Age. Study how topics of gender, class, art, and religion feature in the poems of Alfred Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett, and Emily Dickinson and in the fiction of George Eliot and drama of Henrik Ibsen.
• Exploring the City and the World in Eighteenth Century Literature (20 credits)
• Romanticism (20 credits)

In addition, students on pathways will take an additional 40 credits from a combination of any core or designated modules above, or from our range of optional modules.

Example optional modules:

• X-Raying Narrative Fiction (20 credits)
• The Writing of American Freedom and Slavery (20 credits)
• Under the Red, White and Blue: American Literature, (20 credits)
• Genres of Poetry (20 credits)
• Reading and Writing the Short Story (20 credits)

Year 3 (national level 6):

Choose four modules from the list below.

• Monster, Madness and Murder: Gothic Literature (20 credits) Explore modern Gothic fiction from both literary and theoretical perspectives, focusing on a series of Gothic monsters. Delve into themes and issues in modern Gothic fiction such as vampires, serial killers, ghosts, terrorists, werewolves, dark fairies, witches, and zombies. Gain the ability to employ a range of critical approaches for analysing a range of Gothic texts.
• ‘The Play’s the Thing’: Shakespeare’s Dramatic Genres (20 credits) Gain an introduction to a range of Shakespearean plays, covering the main genres of comedy, tragedy, history, romance, and problem plays. Learn how to critically reflect on how knowledge in the discipline is produced through an appreciation of critical concepts and methodologies, in application, as well as debates around the composition of the subject.
• Troubles: 100 Years of Irish Poetry (20 credits)
• Modern Fiction: Gender, Sexuality and Experimentation (20 credits)
• Chaucer’s Genres: The Canterbury Tales (20 credits)
• The Art of the US Story (20 credits)
• Women’s Autobiography (20 credits)
• Jane Austen: Text, Context, and Adaptation (20 credits)
• Representations of Totalitarianism and the Holocaust (20 credits)
• World Englishes in Fiction (20 credits)

English Language pathway

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules (40 credits)

• Language in Education (20 credits)
• Contemporary Sociolinguistics (20 credits)

Choose two modules (40 credits) from the following:

• Introduction to Media Language (20 credits)
• Language and Childhood (20 credits)
• Language and Power (20 credits)
• Language, Literature and Computers (20 credits)
• Writing Works (20 credits)

In addition, students on pathways will take an additional 40 credits from a combination of any core or designated modules above, or from our range of optional modules.

Example optional modules:

• X-Raying Narrative Fiction (20 credits)
• The Writing of American Freedom and Slavery (20 credits)
• Under the Red, White and Blue: American Literature, (20 credits)
• Genres of Poetry (20 credits)
• Reading and Writing the Short Story (20 credits)

Year 3 (national level 6):

Choose two of the following modules (choices may vary from year to year):

• World Englishes in Fiction (20 credits)
• Broadcast Talk (20 credits)
• Language and Gender (20 credits)
• English in the Northeast (20 credits)
• Reading and Writing Children’s Fictions (20 credits)

Take a further two modules (40 credits) from final year modules.

English: Creative Writing pathway

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules (40 credits)

• Creative Writing and Critical Thinking (20 credits) Gain the skills required to win any argument with ease. Discover how to convince people over to your way of thinking and write powerful and persuasive copy sought after by companies across the globe. Learn how to disarm your opponent by pinpointing the weaknesses in their speeches, as well as how to write and speak with confidence and power wielding rhetoric capable of defeating any competitor or opponent.
• Creative Writing and Therapy (20 credits)

English: Creative Writing pathway modules (40 credits)

• Explorations in Prose Fiction (20 credits) Gain wide-ranging insight into prose forms, from flash to the novella. Find your own voice and experiment within the form to create something new. Develop experience in honing and putting your ideas across with the help of a ‘mock’ editorial panel.
• Writing for Stage (20 credits) Analyse both classical and contemporary plays, giving you the tools to write your own one act plays. Learn more about innovative theatre, including immersive theatre, and participate in script-in-hand readings.
• Performance, Poetry and Song (20 credits) Explore many aspects of poetry from the traditional to the contemporary. Examine writers and performers such as Sylvia Plath and Kate Tempest. Practise in performing your work, culminating in a performance piece for your final assignment.
• How to Write like Tolkien: Reading and Writing Mythic Literature (20 credits) Realise the secrets behind the writing of ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Tap into the mythical creatures who inhabit your dreams, the dreams of people around the world, and the psyches and backgrounds of J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling to discover the rationale behind their respective creations. Create your own hero and the monster he or she is destined to confront. Discover the monsters feared by the ancients and see how they appeared in classical literature.

In addition, students on pathways will take an additional 40 credits from a combination of any core or designated modules above, or from our range of optional modules.

Example optional modules:

• X-Raying Narrative Fiction (20 credits)
• The Writing of American Freedom and Slavery (20 credits)
• Under the Red, White and Blue: American Literature, (20 credits)
• Genres of Poetry (20 credits)
• Reading and Writing the Short Story (20 credits)

Year 3 (national level 6):

Choose two of the following modules (choices may vary from year to year):

• Genre Fiction (20 credits) Acquire a detailed understanding of the characteristics of various genres of prose fiction. Focus on writing within genres and gain the essential knowledge to start writing your own genre fiction. Cover all the major genres and concentrate on the strength of each one, gaining skills which are both genre-specific and transferable across genres. Engage with published examples of each genre, examining how and why they work, and what strengths in writing each genre relies on, before producing material informed by the reading.
• Writing the Novel (20 credits) Submit an idea for a novel before the module begins, then develop a holistic view of the requirements for writing this novel, such as ‘the elastic storyboard’. Complete the module and progress your idea using the skills and knowledge gained, with the understanding of how to submit a submissions packet which includes a sample chapter, synopsis, and covering letter.
• Creative Writing and Publishing (20 credits)

Take a further two modules (40 credits) from final year modules.

Facilities

Please contact the study centre directly for information on their facilities.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for Ireland. Please contact the Student Admin team on or .

Please contact the study centre for more information on their specific requirements and equivalent qualifications from outside the UK.

Fees and finance

Please contact the study centre for information on fees and finance.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

BA (Hons) English is an extremely well-respected degree. Your highly developed skills in communication, research and analysis will make you a perfect fit for a wide range of organisations, including graduate training schemes. Many of our graduates progress to careers in teaching, journalism, business and publishing.