Overview
This unit requires you to write a substantial creative piece accompanied by an exegesis which will be completed in HUMT20017: Research Dissertation Creative Writing B, that is, the dissertation is the one sustained project not two separate term projects. The topic will be negotiated with a supervisor. The creative piece may be either Fiction, Poetry, Drama or any other approved mix and will be accompanied by a theoretically informed exegesis (critical commentary) of a combined length totaling 15 000–20 000 words. The creative piece will be expected to reflect a high level synthesis and stylistic application of the writing skills you have acquired through HUMT20012: Elements of Creative Writing I, HUMT20013: Elements of Creative Writing II, HUMT20014: Writing Short Fiction, and HUMT20015: Writing Poetry and Short Dramatic Pieces. The Dissertation will be formatted using Harvard Author-Date Referencing Style.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisites: HUMT20012 HUMT20013 HUMT20014 HUMT20015
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2021
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a pass/fail (non-graded) unit. To pass the unit, you must pass all of the individual assessment tasks shown in the table above.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student email
'Thank you so much for all the feedback and help! I really appreciate it.'
The unit coordinator will maintain the current student-centred approach in supporting students' creative endeavours.
- Incorporate advanced stylistic and technical concepts to produce a creative writing artefact that reflects a high-level synthesis and application of various writing skills in one or more disciplines
- Apply knowledge of both research principles and methods, and, technical research skills, to the design and execution of a sustained creative writing project in one or more areas of creative writing genre
- Apply a systematic and coherent knowledge of critical reflective practice in objectively tracking and discussing the development of the creative artefact over time.
N/A
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Research Proposal - 0% | |||
| 2 - Reflective Practice Assignment - 0% | |||
| 3 - Creative work - 0% | |||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||
| 2 - Communication | |||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||
| 4 - Research | |||
| 5 - Self-management | |||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||
| 7 - Leadership | |||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Research Proposal - 0% | ||||||||
| 2 - Reflective Practice Assignment - 0% | ||||||||
| 3 - Creative work - 0% | ||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Zoom account (Free)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
n.anae@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Week 1: Conceptualising the Creative Artefact' discussion board (unit moodle site). Your entry could be a critical reflection or a draft piece of creative writing
b) Start your 'Critical Reflection Journal' (your writing journal will prove a valuable source of reflection over this term and form your submission for Assessment Item 2: Critical Reflection Journal
c) Commence drafting Assessment Item 1: Proposal (due in Week 3).
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Creative Storming - Forms' discussion board
b) Work toward finalising your draft for Assessment Item 1: Proposal (due next week) and match your work against the assessment criteria to ensure your submission meets the assessment requirements.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Beginning the Writing Journey - Techniques and Applications' discussion board
b) Comment on a fellow student's post on the discussion board
c) Commence work on your writing project. Keep in mind that this work needs to successfully demonstrate the capacity to incorporate creative writing techniques into the production of a 'creative artefact' (10 500 - 14 000 words in total).
Written Assessment 1 - Proposal Due: Week 3 Thursday (25 Mar 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Developing your Artefact' discussion board
b) Comment on a fellow student's post
c) Remember to keep your Writing journal up-to-date with weekly entries
Module/Topic
'Week 5: Finding the Story and Progressing Storytelling'
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Week 5: Finding the Story and Progressing Storytelling' discussion board
b) Post a response to a fellow student's post
c) Continue to work on your writing project.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
'Week Six: The Later Beginning'
Week Six:
Note: A voluntary Zoom session may be scheduled for this week for the purposes of collaborative review (depending on interest). If you wish to participate in a collaborative review session (online Creative Writing workshop) and receive feedback on your draft, please check the Week Five Topic Section on the moodle unit site for details. This session will be recorded and available for download soon thereafter. Please refer to the 'Zoom Tip Sheet for Collaborative Review' (on the unit moodle site) to help guide your peer feedback. If you can't make it to the session, but would still like feedback on your draft, please check the Week Five Topic Section on the moodle unit site for details.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Continue revising and fine-tuning your writing project
b) Continue creating Writing Journal
c) Contribute an entry to the 'Week Six: The Later Beginning' discussion board
Module/Topic
'Week Seven: Early Revisions'
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Week Seven: Early Revisions' discussion board
b) Continue progress on your writing project
c) Write a critical reflection in your journal for this week
Module/Topic
'Week Eight: Delivering on the Promise'
Week Eight:
Note: A voluntary Zoom session may be scheduled for this week for the purposes of collaborative review (depending on interest). If you wish to participate in a collaborative review session (online Creative Writing workshop) and receive feedback on your draft, please check the Week Seven Topic Section on the moodle unit site for details. This session will be recorded and available for download soon thereafter. Please refer to the 'Zoom Tip Sheet for Collaborative Review' (on the unit moodle site) to help guide your peer feedback. If you can't make it to the session, but would still like feedback on your draft, please check the Week Seven Topic Section on the moodle unit site for details.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Week Eight: Delivering on the Promise' discussion board
b) Continue progress on your writing project
c) Write a journal reflection for this week
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Week Nine: How We Write' discussion board
b) Continue progress on your writing project
c) write a journal reflection for this week
Module/Topic
'Week Ten: Critical Writing/Writing Critically'
Note: A voluntary Zoom session is scheduled for this week for the purposes of collaborative review. If you wish to participate in a collaborative review session and get feedback on your draft, please check the Week Ten Topic Section on the moodle unit site for details. This session will be recorded and available for download soon thereafter. If you can't make it to the session, but would still like feedback on your draft, please check the Week Ten Topic Section on the moodle unit site for details. Part of this session will be dedicated to information about Formatting your Final Creative Artefact.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
a) Contribute an entry to the 'Week Ten: Critical Writing/Writing Critically' discussion board
b) write a journal reflection for this week
c) Due: Final Creative Artefact (that is, the creative work). Finalise your 'Creative artefact' and match your submission against the assessment criteria to ensure your work meets the requirements for the item.
Module/Topic
'Week Eleven: Nearing the end of the creative writing journey'
Chapter
Unit moodle site
Critical Reflection Journal (considerations):
- Do my entries critically reflect on my creative decision-making regarding literary applications (e,g, point of view, characterisation, plot, etc.)?
- Do my entries critically reflect on my creative decision-making regarding the genre and form in which the creative work is written?
- Do my entries critically reflect on how my creative work meets/matches/diverts from what I set out to do (as stated in my Proposal)?
- Have I supported my reflections with scholarly work?
- Have I incorporated the formatting and citation standards consistent with the Harvard (author-date) system?
Events and Submissions/Topic
Due Next Week: Assessment Item 3 (Work-in-progress: Critical Reflection Journal)
a) Contribute an entry to the unit Moodle 'Week Eleven: Nearing the end of the creative writing journey' discussion board
FINAL CREATIVE PIECE (CREATIVE ARTEFACT) (WRITTEN ASSESSMENT) Due: Week 11 Thursday (27 May 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
'Week Twelve: Closing'
Chapter
Unit moodle site.
Examination of the Creative Writing Dissertation (HUMT20016) will be based on the extent to which the create artefact:
a) makes a significant contribution to knowledge concerning literature and culture, and displays mastery of the field
b) demonstrates substantial conceptualisation of the characteristics of the genre, the influence of the context and the shaping elements in a creative work
c) contains material worthy of publication in a form suitable to the discipline
d) the format and literary presentation of the creative component are satisfactory.
Events and Submissions/Topic
WORK-IN-PROGRESS: CRITICAL REFLECTION JOURNAL (WRITTEN ASSESSMENT) Due: Week 12 Friday (4 June 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Research Proposal
The proposal is a statement of intention, typically 2500-3000 words of what you intend to work on in producing a 'creative artefact'. The envisioned work should be a stand alone, 'volume length' piece of sustained creative writing ('volume length' means the natural length of a short story, novelette, series of poems, children's story, dramatic script, etc., depending on genre), rather than, for instance, the first chapter of a novel or some other linked work. The type of detail included in the proposal depends on the type of artefact intended. The proposal must specify what you intend to achieve within the duration of this unit - Creative Writing Research Dissertation A.
Proposal Due: Week 3 Thursday 11:45 pm AESTWeek 3 Thursday (25 Mar 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 5 Thursday (8 Apr 2021)
There are a number of possible foci for the proposal (these may become key points):
The project proposal will be assessed according to the extent to which the proposal:
A. Outlines the extent to which the creative artefact offers to make a potential contribution to knowledge and creativity
B. Proposes indicators of significance and potential impact
C. Proposes indicators of quality research
D. Represents indicators of presentation
- Incorporate advanced stylistic and technical concepts to produce a creative writing artefact that reflects a high-level synthesis and application of various writing skills in one or more disciplines
- Apply knowledge of both research principles and methods, and, technical research skills, to the design and execution of a sustained creative writing project in one or more areas of creative writing genre
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
2 Reflective Practice Assignment
This unit requires you to write a substantial creative piece (creative artefact) to as close to a polished final draft as possible.
In this unit, this piece will be provisionally accompanied by a 'critical reflection journal' but when the time comes, you may choose to make some small revisions to the draft version of your creative artefact (in Term 2), as this piece will be formally accompanied by an exegesis (which will be completed in HUMT20017 Research Dissertation: Creative Writing B).
Therefore, the complete dissertation proper is one sustained project, over two Terms, not two separate term projects.
The final creative artefact together with the exegesis (completed in HUMT20017) as a combined Dissertation document will be assessed by external examination involving two separate examiners. This process mimics the 'blind review' method adopted for MA (Creative Writing) and PhD (Creative Writing) examination.
The word length of the complete dissertation proper will be no fewer than 15 000 words, and no more than 20 000 words. With the exegesis portion of the document (completed in HUMT20017 Research Dissertation Creative Writing B) accounting for around 25% - 33% of the total word count, the word length of the creative artefact will typically range between 10 500 - 14 000 words. The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. It excludes the cover page, abstract, contents page, reference page and appendices. It includes in-text references and direct quotations.
The creative piece you complete in this Unit will also be expected to reflect the writing skills acquired through HUMT20012 Elements of Creative Writing I and HUMT20013 Elements of Creative Writing II, as well as the other two coursework units (HUMT20014 and HUMT0015) where appropriate.
Supervisor feedback will be given on this piece, but no grade will be assigned.
Week 11 Thursday (27 May 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Submit online via moodle unit site
Review/Exam Week Thursday (10 June 2021)
The Creative Artefact portion of your Dissertation will be assessed (under external examination) according to the extent to which:
A. The creative artefact offers to make a potential contribution to knowledge and creativity
- Characteristics of the chosen genre are explored and the potential of the artefact articulated in contributing, reworking, experimenting with and/or affirming these and why
B. Proposes indicators of significance and potential impact
- Significance of contribution in making a contribution to knowledge in the area with which it deals (including original and new knowledge within the genre discipline/s)
- Proficiency of the creative component in its treatment of the chosen medium and/or genre, and the extent to which it affords evidence of originality in conception, innovation, and/or execution
- Potential significance and impact of the creative project in relation to creative literature and/or suitability for publication
C. Proposes indicators of quality research
- Knowledge of generic conventions
- Structure and cohesiveness
- Development of conceptual underpinnings
D. Represents indicators of presentation
- Quality of the creative project presentation
- Quality of imaginative perspectives, and/or new insights about the creative enterprise as regards genre/s and literary style
- Quality of the expression in the creative writing discipline
- Clarity, cohesion and integration into the writing and argumentation (conclusions defended and justified)
- Quality of documentation (including formatting and adherence to Harvard (author-date) style
- Incorporate advanced stylistic and technical concepts to produce a creative writing artefact that reflects a high-level synthesis and application of various writing skills in one or more disciplines
- Apply a systematic and coherent knowledge of critical reflective practice in objectively tracking and discussing the development of the creative artefact over time.
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
3 Creative work
The critical reflection journal for the purposes of this unit is a piece of 'critical' writing (to distinguish this from the 'creative' writing of the artefact). It is expected that this piece will help to inform your exegesis (completed in HUMT20017). Typically, an exegesis ('explanation or interpretation') is no more than 25-33% of the dissertation proper.
At this stage of the process, this item is a work-in-progress only. It is not intended as a final exegesis by any means.
The aim is to develop a number of simple recording methods to help you track your creative process and progress.
It is only when the creative process is actually tentatively finished (typically by the end of this unit), that you should start analysing the process you used, the decisions you made and the context in which you made them (this phase commences in HUMT20017).
Simple recording methods might include:
• Keeping a visual diary of your work, showing its progress and transformations
• Keeping written notes alongside the visuals
• Keeping a blog or informal journal to reflect on such things as your intentions, ideas, methods, problems, reading.
As part of this work-in-progress process, you may also start to develop a brief literature review of relevant subject matter.
This item is a work-in-progress only. Therefore, supervisor feedback will be given on this piece, but no grade will be assigned.
Week 12 Friday (4 June 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Exam Week Thursday (17 June 2021)
This item is a work-in-progress only. Therefore, supervisor feedback will be given on this piece, but no grade will be assigned.
It will be assessed on the extent to which it:
- Presents an informal approach to recording and analysing the creative writing processes in progress
- Presents an informal approach to recording and considering the context that has engendered or informed the creative writing work in progress
- Presents an informal approach to recognising and ensuring a balance between creative writing theory and practice
- Presents an informed approach to submitting the draft exegesis on time and in an appropriate format (when this final component is due)
- Presents qualify referencing using the Harvard (author-date) style.
- Apply knowledge of both research principles and methods, and, technical research skills, to the design and execution of a sustained creative writing project in one or more areas of creative writing genre
- Apply a systematic and coherent knowledge of critical reflective practice in objectively tracking and discussing the development of the creative artefact over time.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
