Reading and Writing Poetry

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

To allow students to produce a variety of poems in a supportive environment and be able to discuss what they have learned about poetry using appropriate terminology.

Course Objectives:

This course will:

• Foster students’ ability to recognise poetic techniques.
• Demonstrate how these features can be used individually or in combination.
• Encourage the use of such features and their manipulation to further students’ ability to hone their writing skills in creative ways.

The first half of each session considers a particular poetic form in detail. Examples will be read and shared individually, in a pair or group. This is an important part of the learning process, allowing students to clarify, question and explore the different forms. This enables students to become familiar with the features of specific forms. 

The second half of the session will be writing and sharing of each other’s work. The emphasis is on producing poetry in a supportive environment, and to provide constructive feedback. 

By the end of the course students will be expected to understand different ways in which poetry can be made.

Students will be expected to have gained and/or developed the following skills:

• Demonstrate a variety of poetic features in their own work.
• Be able to use some of these features with increased skill and confidence.

1.  Choose a poem (or poems) you love and write 1,000 words about what makes it/them special to you.  (The recommended anthologies are great resources.)

2.  A portfolio of four to five poems of approximately 130 lines or an equivalent agreed with the tutor.

Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work the required standard.

Students must submit a completed Declaration of Authorship form at the end of term when submitting your final piece of work. CATS points cannot be awarded without the aforementioned form - Declaration of Authorship form

The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS)

To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.

Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from the January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.