Creative Writing Minor

The Minor in Creative Writing at NTU is open to all undergraduate students interested in exploring their creative literary potential. Students learn the techniques necessary for crafting well-made poetry, fiction, drama, and screenplays, and are encouraged to nurture their creative and innovative abilities. The courses comprise workshops that are devoted to literary form and technique and to the exploration of contemporary trends. Classes provide a forum for students to share their work and receive responses from professional and student authors in an encouraging and productive environment.

The Creative Writing Minor is an excellent concentration for students planning careers in fields as diverse as education, publishing, journalism, advertising, public relations, business and the civil service, as well as encouraging the budding careers of young Singaporean and Asian writers.

To satisfy the requirements for a Minor in Creative Writing, students must complete at least five courses with at least 15 AUs, including one required course and any four electives. The required introductory course will prepare the students for the more advanced writing courses and give them an idea of where their creative interests and talents lie. The introductory course may be taken without further creative writing study.

Grades in these courses are based on the quality of students’ creative and critical output, including their engagement with the revision process, as well as their participation in class discussion and activities. Students are strongly encouraged to read with breadth, depth and active critical thought in the genres of their writing interest. Course assessments include opportunities to write reflectively on the connections between this reading and the students’ own writing process.

I. Required Course (3 AUs)

HZ9101 Introduction to Creative Writing
(HZ9101 is a compulsory course, and is a pre-requisite for all the other courses)

II. Elective Courses (3-4AUs)

HZ9201 Creative Writing: Poetry
HZ9202/HZ202 Creative Writing: Fiction
HZ9203/HZ203 Creative Writing: Non-Fiction Prose
HZ9204/HZ204 Creative Writing: Playwriting
HZ9205/HZ205 Creative Writing: Screenwriting

III. Advanced Electives (3-4 AUs)

HZ9301/HZ301 Advanced Creative Writing
HL2020/HL220 Creative Writing Workshop *
*Also eligible (existing course in the BA in English)

**3 AUs are awarded for students enrolled August 2011 onwards under the new Academic Units system; 4 AUs for students enrolled before that**

CONTACT INFORMATION
Creative Writing Coordinator: Asst Prof Jennifer Crawford
T +65 6592 1531
E JMCrawford@ntu.edu.sg

Course Descriptions

HZ9101/HZ101 Introduction to Creative Writing

Students will be introduced to a range of composition processes intended to stimulate frequent and adventurous writing, and will be encouraged to make disciplined and inventive use of the revision process. They will also develop their abilities to create and participate in a fertile writing community.This course introduces creative writing through the practices of writing, reading and collaborative critical response. We will work with fiction, poetry and multimedia texts (which include performance writing, graphic novels, artist books and electronic word art).

HZ9201/HZ201 Creative Writing: Poetry

Students will develop a deeper understanding of poetry as a form and practice. They will become familiar with processes for taking their own poetry from early, inchoate ideas to published or performed versions. They will learn how to manage their creative production, and how to participate in poetry communities on and off the page. Students of this course will read, write, revise and share poetry. They will engage in the history and community of poetry as readers, listeners, writers and performers, observing and absorbing the poetry and poetry-making practices of others, and expanding the range of their own inventions.

HZ9202/HZ202 Creative Writing: Fiction

In an effort to develop their understanding of fiction writing, students will be expected to complete several short stories. A focus on the relationship between form and content will form much of the substance of the students' work. The course will also provide practical exposure to a variety of stylistic and technical devices that are specific to the writing of fiction. This will all be formulated in the context of classical and contemporary examples.

HZ9203/HZ203 Creative Writing: Non-Fiction Prose

In this course students will explore "the fourth genre"—Non-fiction Prose or Creative non-fiction. Units of this course will cover feature articles, personal essays, biographies, travel writing, nature writing, reviews, argumentative essays, opinion pieces, and research articles. Students will be expected to complete several assignments in a variety of these areas.

HZ9204/HZ204 Creative Writing: Playwriting

This course will involve a more sustained introduction to the creative process involved in writing plays than was possible in Introduction to Creative Writing. Students will be expected to complete several short plays. Much of the discussion of form and technique will be done through close examination of traditional and contemporary models with the hope that students will derive inspiration from them. In addition to critiquing each other's work, students will be asked to write a review of a contemporary play or a collection of short plays.

HZ9205/HZ205 Creative Writing: Screenwriting

This course will introduce students to the practical processes and considerations involved in the production of scripts for television and/or film. Students will be expected to complete several short screenplays during the course of this course, initially by mimicking some of the best international and local examples and thereafter by producing some original work.

HZ9301/HZ301 Advanced Creative Writing

This course will be reserved for those students who have successfully completed two previous creative writing courses. The students who gain admission to this advanced-level course will work towards a publishable piece of creative work in a genre of their choice. The course can accommodate projects in poetry, fiction, scriptwriting, multimedia writing and blends of these genres, but the semester’s work should be conceived of as a single project (a themed collection of poems or short stories; a short novella, etc). Students are advised to have a course project in mind at the start of the semester. Please contact the lecturer if you need help deciding on a project, or if you wish to work in a genre you haven’t worked with before.

HL2020/HL220 Creative Writing Workshop *

Under the supervision of one of the faculty members, established writers or theatre practitioners will be invited to conduct workshops in an appropriate genre of creative writing. This may entail a practical drama workshop involving exposure to writing, direction, and theatre craft, or it may mean a closely supervised workshop with a poet, novelist or film-maker in an attempt to learn important aspects of the craft of creative writing.