Getting started

We strongly suggest that you familiarise yourself with the fundamentals of using openSpace before studying the Professional Writing units. The links you will need for supporting course information – and the course units themselves – are at the bottom of this page.

A good place to begin is the 'How Units work' page. You will find this link in the navigation panel towards the bottom of this page.  'How this unit works' covers important information like: Terminology (what certain headings mean, guidance on using the forums, how to critique your peers, netiquette and other important information).

The 'Course Taster' link will take you to our MA Professional Writing 'taster sessions'. Taster sessions are short units of study that introduces our students to specialist areas of study on the course. Taster sessions cover areas of writing that include Editing, Features Writing, Non-Fiction Writing, Novel Writing, Writing for Children, Screenwriting, and Writing Creatively for Business.

The 'Screenwriting Unit' link will take you to our full Screenwriting  module.

Your learning experiences

You can use openSpace to participate in course activities in many different ways, including:

• Accessing course outlines, assignment briefs and background materials
• Accessing information about learning resources, ‘how to’ support and help
• Participating in online workshops and exercises
• Posting your work and receiving feedback on it from fellow students
• Critiquing the work of fellow students
• Using online project workspace to take part in collaborative projects
• Communicating via unit-specific discussion boards
• Listening to podcasts and/or watching videos of lectures and guest speaker events

The course will provide you with a wide range of different learning experiences, which will typically include:

Online lectures and assignment forums

These provide specialist input, introducing and reinforcing knowledge that inform contemporary writing practice. The seminar format provides a flexible means by which the links between theory and practice can be explored. This is done with examples drawn both from students’ developing projects and from existing bodies of work.

Collaboration and team-working

Some of the richest learning experiences on the course will come through participation in group projects, which offer excellent opportunities to practice skills and share knowledge with fellow students and sometimes external partners. You are also encouraged to initiate your own group activities such as online reading groups, critiquing groups and other collaborative projects.

Our approach: Learning by doing

The MA Professional Writing course provides a student-centred learning experience. The course structure and lesson delivery enables our students to produce a body of work suitable for publication. The work our students produce is connected to their individual career aims and aspirations. The underlying assumption throughout is that the only way to learn to write is to write – and, crucially, to learn from the feedback that received from both tutors and fellow students. While you won’t receive feedback from our tutors on your work, the feedback from your peers will be an important part of your openSpace learning experience.

Key Aspects

Four key aspects underpin the course’s learning and teaching strategy, and are built into its structure and content: negotiation, evaluation, personal development planning and independent study.

Negotiation is the process by which you are invited to visualise, develop and produce projects related to your own aspirations and career goals. The role of your peers in this process is to provide support and guidance in the development of specific projects. This feedback process will enable you to meet specified learning outcomes. Learning outcomes for the course are provided in the tabs below (Course Aims, Knowledge and Understanding, Professional Skills, Critical Skills and Transferable Skills).

Evaluation involves a continuous process of self-evaluation through which you reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as a writer and evaluate your progress.  Throughout the course, you’ll be asked and encouraged to reflect critically on your work and learning; without doing so, you cannot expect to develop as a writer.  

In the same spirit as self-evaluation, students undertake peer evaluation. This provides opportunities for students to develop and test their judgement, confidence and interpersonal skills.

Independent study fosters a positive and active attitude to learning. It increases your confidence and helps you to develop problem-solving skills and judgement. Much of the course is centred on your individual projects, and you’ll need a high level of self-motivation to manage your own negotiated programme of work.  

Course Aims

Every course at University College Falmouth has what we call Course Aims.  These aims outline how courses are taught, why they are taught this way, what we expect students to learn and how we expect them to demonstrate their learning.  Below you will find the course aims for MA Professional Writing at UCF.

MA Professional Writing at University College Falmouth is about enabling our students to:

• develop a broad range of advanced professional, creative, practical, critical, intellectual and transferable skills in professional writing
   
• develop a comprehensive understanding of a part of the content industry and the opportunities that exist within it
   
• identify, pursue and realise your professional aspirations as a writer
   
• develop a critical awareness of contemporary practice at the forefront of professional writing
   
• develop advanced independence, autonomy and mature critical judgement through the negotiation, development and completion of an independent writing project 

Learning outcomes

To show that our students have achieved the course aims, they need to achieve learning outcomes in four main skills areas: knowledge and understanding, intellectual skills, professional and practical skills, and transferable skills. These outcomes, described below, are given so you can assess your own learning progress. 

Knowledge and Understanding

• A comprehensive and critical understanding of the professional, technical and commercial contexts within which writers operate
   
• A mature awareness and critical understanding of professional abilities. 
   

Professional Skills

• Advanced abilities and mature judgment in the selection, development and realisation of imaginative and effective ideas
   
• A comprehensive and critical understanding of research methods and a highly developed ability to exploit a broad range of appropriate information sources
   
• An ability to produce writing of professional standard at the forefront of their chosen field(s).
  This includes:
   
• Technical proficiency (grammar, spelling, syntax, etc.)
   
• The ability to create and sustain an appropriate narrative pace
   
• An awareness of and ability to fulfill, and where possible exceed, the expectations of the relevant audience and genre
   
• A willingness to experiment and explore boundaries
   
• Creativity in terms of imaginative use of language, structure and content 

Critical Skills

• Advanced and sustained abilities to reflect critically on the practices, processes and craft of writing, and on their own work in the context of current practice 

Transferrable Skills

• The ability to self-direct, self-manage and realise work to advanced professional standards
   
• High levels of professionalism in working with others