Writing for Better Futures
| Module title | Writing for Better Futures |
|---|---|
| Module code | EASM218Z |
| Academic year | 2025/6 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Dr Ali Lewis (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 10 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 15 |
|---|
Module description
Writing for Better Futures is about literature that aims to change the world for the better.
From climate writing and creative activism to writing as therapy, representation, or community-building, this module asks: How can literature inspire change? Can political art be good art? And how can writers face up to the climate crisis?
Working on a self-directed project or through structured prompts, you’ll produce a portfolio of fiction, life writing, or poetry. You’ll also craft a commentary that connects your work to the issues shaping modern readers’ lives, enhancing both its cultural relevance and its path to publication.
Module aims - intentions of the module
‘Writing for Better Futures’ aims to:
- explore the potential of literature as a tool for social and cultural change
- develop your understanding of how writing engages with urgent contemporary concerns, such as climate justice and identity
- introduce you to a wide range of literary forms and strategies used in activist and socially engaged writing
- support independent research and creative work on topics of personal and political significance
- equip you to situate your writing within current debates and movements, and to connect it with socially conscious readerships and literary communities
In developing your voice as a socially engaged writer, this online module also cultivates key professional skills in critical thinking, communication, research, corporate social responsibility and audience awareness – essential for careers in the arts, education, media, publishing, and more.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Develop a substantial and distinctive original portfolio of creative writing that aims to make an active, positive difference to the author, the reader, and / or society at large.
- 2. Analyse, at an advanced level, how literature engages with social, political, and environmental challenges.
- 3. Reflect critically on the relation between your own writing and the debates and issues that affect readers' lives.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Situate your own creative practice within wider literary, cultural and critical contexts, articulating how your work engages with other writers, traditions and movements.
- 5. Reflect critically on your creative process, including editorial decisions, influences, and development.
- 6. Produce original creative work to a professional or near-professional standard, informed by in-depth knowledge of literary techniques and genre conventions.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 7. Plan and manage, independently and at an advanced level, a sustained creative project.
- 8. Communicate, clearly and persuasively, complex ideas in both creative and critical writing, demonstrating an awareness of individual, social and corporate responsibility.
- 9. Collaborate effectively and professionally in discussions and workshops, giving and receiving constructive criticism.
Syllabus plan
While the precise content may vary from year to year, the syllabus will typically cover all or some of the following topics:
- Literature as an Agent of Change – Can literature make a difference? And if so, how?
- Literatures of Witness – Do writers have a duty to say what they see — and can this be done effectively and ethically?
- Writing and Representation – How do writers explore and represent identity? We’ll consider questions of sex, gender and sexuality; race, culture and belonging; age, bodies, and dis/ability.
- Protest and Activism – How can writing be used to demand or inspire political change?
- Collaborative Writing and Community Building – How can writing bring people together, create dialogue, and strengthen collective voices?
- Eco-Writing – How are writers responding to the climate crisis and ecological collapse?
- Imagined Futures – How can utopias and dystopias help us think differently about the present—and imagine alternative worlds?
The module is delivered entirely online, and can be done in your own time. You will be taught through a mixture of online lectures, feedback and workshop forums, structured writing activities, inspiring reading, and supported independent research during the course of the module’s delivery. All of the taught modules on the programme are standalone and can be taken in any order.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 60 | 240 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 60 | Engagement online with taught content |
| Guided independent study | 150 | Research and writing of creative portfolio |
| Guided independent study | 50 | Research and writing of reflective commentary |
| Guided independent study | 10 | Guided critical reflection |
| Guided independent study | 30 | Preparation for taught activities and peer feedback |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active participation in module activities | Ongoing | 1 - 9 | Written comments |
| Creative Portfolio plan and extract of creative work | 1,000 words or equivalent | 1 - 8 | Written comments and / or oral feedback |
| Reflective commentary plan, including indicative bibliography | 500 words | 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 | Written comments and / or oral feedback |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio of Creative Writing | 75 | 4,000 words prose OR 160 lines of poetry OR a hybrid work agreed in advance with your tutor. | 1, 6, 7, 8 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up. |
| Reflective commentary connecting your creative writing to an issue or issues discussed on the course. | 25 | 2,000 words prose. | 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up. |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio of Creative Writing | Portfolio of Creative Writing (75%) | 1, 6, 7, 8 | Referral/Deferral Period |
| Reflective commentary connecting your creative writing to an issue or issues discussed on the course. | Reflective commentary connecting your creative writing to an issue or issues discussed on the course (25%) | 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 | Referral/Deferral Period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
The below indicative learning resources are an initial outline of possible texts, and will be substantially extended and revised subsequent to approval.
- The Moral Laboratory, Jèmeljan Hakemulder
- Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag
- Representations of the Intellectual, Edward Said
- ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
- ‘Venus in Two Acts’, Saidiya Hartman
- Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500 – 2001, Carolyn Forché
- The Ecological Thought, Timothy Morton
- Attached to the Living World: A New Ecopoetry Anthology, Fisher-Wirth and Street (Eds)
- Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler
- Gun Island, Amitav Ghosh
- The Great Derangement, Amitav Ghosh
- Doggerland, Ben Smith
- The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, Audre Lorde
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | Yes |
| Origin date | 5/8/2025 |
