A practical, easy-to-read guide that aims to help undergraduate students cope with the demands of English and Creative Writing degrees.
Written by lecturers and industry professionals with decades of experience in writing and higher education, this book also includes hints and tips from previous students. Find out what your tutors are looking for when marking your work, how to avoid common pitfalls, what the difference between clear and creative writing is, how to organise and behave on your work placement, and how to structure and research that all-important first assignment.
This guide demystifies academic language and marking processes so that you can make the most of your degree.
A practical, easy-to-read guide that aims to help undergraduate students cope with the demands of English and Creative Writing degrees.
Written by lecturers and industry professionals with decades of experience in writing and higher education, this book also includes hints and tips from previous students. Find out what your tutors are looking for when marking your work, how to avoid common pitfalls, what the difference between clear and creative writing is, how to organise and behave on your work placement, and how to structure and research that all-important first assignment.
This guide demystifies academic language and marking processes so that you can make the most of your degree.
English Language, Literature and Creative Writing: A Practical Guide for Students
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English Language, Literature and Creative Writing: A Practical Guide for Students
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Overview
A practical, easy-to-read guide that aims to help undergraduate students cope with the demands of English and Creative Writing degrees.
Written by lecturers and industry professionals with decades of experience in writing and higher education, this book also includes hints and tips from previous students. Find out what your tutors are looking for when marking your work, how to avoid common pitfalls, what the difference between clear and creative writing is, how to organise and behave on your work placement, and how to structure and research that all-important first assignment.
This guide demystifies academic language and marking processes so that you can make the most of your degree.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783082926 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Anthem Press |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 198 |
| File size: | 708 KB |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Val Jessop received her PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University and is currently a full-time lecturer in English Language with many years’ experience in teaching undergraduates. She is also the programme leader for the BA in English Language and Literary Studies.
Devon Campbell-Hall completed her MA and PhD in English at the University of Winchester and now serves as a lecturer and course leader for Southampton Solent University’s English degrees. She is passionate about teaching literature and widening participation in higher education.
Terry McDonough lectures in English Language at University Centre Blackburn College, having previously taught at several other UK institutions. He recently completed a two-year research project for the Higher Education Academy aimed at establishing links between academia and local community groups.
Cath Nichols has an MA and PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and has published poetry including ‘Tales of Boy Nancy’ (Driftwood, 2005) and ‘Distance’ (erbacce, 2012). Her ‘Birdie’ was shortlisted for the International Playwriting Student Award.
Read an Excerpt
English Language, Literature and Creative Writing
A Practical Guide for Students
By Val Jessop, Devon Campbell-Hall, Terry McDonough, Cath Nichols, Sarah Dobbs
Wimbledon Publishing Company
Copyright © 2014 Sarah Dobbs, Val Jessop, Devon Campbell-Hall, Terry McDonough and Cath NicholsAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78308-292-6
CHAPTER 1
ENGLISH LANGUAGE: YEAR ONE Terry McDonough
Introduction
This chapter will consider what language is, as well as discussing what people presume language to be. Subsequently, we will look at how language is studied and discuss some hints and tips for how you can be a successful English language student. There will also be helpful advice from previous students, whose comments greatly influenced the construction of this chapter.
I wish I had known more about the language modules before I started the first year, especially the importance of historical context!
(Zoe, Year One, BA English Language)
Quick! Come here! Listen to me for a moment. I'm going to tell you a few secrets about the wonderful world of language. I'm going to tell you about a lot of things we take for granted and don't always have time to communicate in our lectures. I'm going to give you a roadmap that will help you survive your first year as a language student and beyond. You see, I asked my students what they would have liked to have seen in an introductory guide, the advice that really helped them, as well as the things they learned the hard way. I'm not going to tell you what you already know or what you'll find in every other introductory guide. No. I'm going to tell you the things you might not hear elsewhere. Here's what we're going to do:
1. We're going to discuss what language actually is and how many of us make big assumptions about its nature.
2. We're going to have a look at what we call linguistics and how these linguistic types study this stuff we call language.
3. We're going to go through a few tips – advice that really works and will make a big difference to how successful you are.
If you're ready, we'll get started. There's no point wasting words or thanking my neighbour's cat. These are the tips you won't get elsewhere. Grab your backpack and your boots. We're heading into the jungle. You might want to pack a machete too.
Adapting to University Life
Starting anything new fills each of us with anxiety from the first day of high school, college or sixth form to beginning a new job or moving into a new home. Starting university is no different but, rest assured, it will be the first day of the most incredible experience of your life. Not only will you meet new, lifelong friends and enjoy a host of new, and exciting, experiences, you will also enter into the only phase in your life when you can take the time to indulge in the study of a subject that you are truly passionate about.
Studying language is an exciting and interesting opportunity. It is different from studying other subjects because language is all around us: it breathes within us and lives in the world outside of us. The more you learn about it, the more intrigued you become about its puzzles and intricacies, the more you will see its influence in your everyday life. This is, perhaps, the most important thing to remember – language is everywhere. It doesn't just live between the pages of a textbook. Language is life and you are about to become a part of that life.
Some practicalities. You might be worried about getting 'lost in the crowd' if you're at a large university. The best bet here is to join in with social groups – there might be a language society! Or even start your own study group (less exciting but practical). Get involved right from the beginning and you'll start to feel like you belong. Student populations at university are expanding and if you're homesick or have any other personal concerns, seek out the counselling service. There is one at every institution. Quite often there are helplines as well if you want to speak to someone anonymously. It's interesting to note that students coming from college often find that after six months that homesickness eases. They've learned how to microwave beans as well as having the freedom to eat cheese toasties at 2:00 a.m. Mature students – expect to feel guilty. Expect to try and be Wonder Woman or Superman. Expect to wish that Beatle's song was true and there was eight days in a week. You'll adapt and those you care for will adapt with you. It's difficult but doable – we see the stories and the mini-triumphs at every graduation ceremony. Yours will be one of them.
Remember also that if you need help with study skills there are often extra classes (sometimes optional, sometimes built into the course) you can take advantage of. If you have any additional requirements, for example you are dyslexic or feel you would benefit from being assessed, make an appointment with student services. It's important to get the ball rolling with this as early as possible. Some students might be partnered with scribes or note takers, or be given additional support to help brush up their English skills if they speak another language. Help is out there, you just need to ask. Finally, take advantage of your lecturers' office hours. They'll be posted on the door or on their staff pages – that's what they're there for. Last word of advice before we get cracking – be careful of those pounds. Any bursary you might get is for books (there will be many), not for the pub. Stagger it too – many of our students have become panicked after spending their bursaries in the first week or so. It's for the year! Ask student services in advance whether your institution has similar financial help for students. Get a penny jar.
What Is Language?
This is the first question I ask. There's usually silence. A tumbleweed rolls across the floor. Somewhere in the distance a lone coyote howls. The silence kills me. Not one brave hand. First-day nerves, I think. I haven't just fallen into a Sergio Leone western. I inevitably send around a plain envelope so they can offer their definitions on slips of paper. I feel like I'm collecting teeth. I think it's only polite that you do the same. No, I don't want you to collect teeth. I want you to tell me what language is. Go on, I'm listening.
Task – Complete the sentence: Language is ...
Now, imagine you're folding the slip of paper and placing it in my envelope. We'll get to the 'answer' in a moment but we first need to have a think about what I've just done. Did you notice what I was doing?
I just sent you a message from the past. It's not a recording of what's happening to me right now but the subjective memory of a moment I experienced prior to writing this. I'm almost acting as a relay for a moment in my past in an attempt to express an idea to you, a person in some unknown future. For all I know this future moment – the moment when you read this chapter – could be years, even decades, from when I wrote it. I will never know if my idea has been communicated but I can at least be sure that I expressed it. I'm addressing you directly though, in the present tense. I'm making this happen now. I've either mastered space and time, or there's something both peculiar and amazing about this thing we call language. It's almost magical, and we might label much of that magic as metaphor. Some would say that metaphor characterizes how we think and communicate. I drew upon the domain of the spaghetti western with its tumbleweeds and howling coyotes to illustrate the barren wasteland which is that first lecture when everyone is still acclimatizing. I also mentioned collecting teeth. It would literally be quite sinister if it was true, but we accept that this is a metaphor that signifies a difficult task. (Or perhaps you imagined me as the tooth fairy?)
Overall, I have used language to my advantage, to colour a scenario and highlight an important question, but I have also been used by my language because I have been obliged, forced even, to codify the muddle in my mind into a series of intelligible sound-symbols. Our relationship with our language is one of intimacy with our world. If you had never heard of a spaghetti western, Sergio Leone or the folklore surrounding the tooth fairy, then my metaphors would have fallen flat and my language would have failed me. I would have failed to communicate my thoughts even though I used our common tongue.
For now, back to that first question: what is language? I have your answer in my envelope.
So you think you know what language is?
Every year, without exception, the most common definition from students is that language is a tool for communication, something so common and everyday that it's barely worth thinking about. Even dogs have it, apparently, or so one of my students believed. Whilst language might be one of the ways in which we communicate, in which we express our thoughts, our desires and our needs, it is by no means simply an interchangeable tool for communication. Sometimes, as we discussed in the previous paragraph, language can fail to communicate anything at all. Language seems to exist both inside of us – as the stuff of memory and conscious thought – and outside of us – as the header on a letter or the words on this page. Language is so powerful that it can convince us of things that aren't true and even get us into trouble. It seems to be everywhere and it seems to come from everywhere. If we could hover above the earth and see human activity as a whole we would see that much of that activity is linguistic, from the father in Kenya teaching his child a song, to the astronaut aboard the ISS remembering when she first learned to sing.
Language is never a nothing, or a something; it is our everything. It came before us. It will be here when we're gone. If you are not convinced, then think about what we have just done, you and I together. We've traversed space and time to create a meeting of minds. We will never meet. We will probably never even pass in the street yet here we are together, you and I, thinking and talking across space and time. It's amazing, don't you think? Language is the genome of our civilization. That's the answer. But that's what you placed in my envelope, isn't it?
Why does language make us special?
Chimpanzees frequently use tools. When necessary, an orang-utan can walk upright. The orca whale even has some semblance of culture. Not one of these sophisticated, advanced species has a language. Yes, they can communicate (I speak limited chimpaneese) but we have yet to demonstrate their possession of a language. We have yet to come across a dolphin telling a porpoise about the finer details of existential finology, or a bonobo chimp telling a gorilla how to construct a house from bamboo. A language, you see, is defined by the possession of a grammar: by a set of rules, an agreed series of organizing principles common to all language users. Despite the variety of human language systems, the possession of a grammar is universal and not too dissimilar, bound as it is by our embodied experience of a shared world. Whether our first language is Cantonese, Swahili or Gaelic, we experience the world in much the same way. We (the subject) all experience (the verb/predicate) the world (the object) in the same way (the adverbial). How we interpret, understand and describe this experience is another thing altogether.
Isn't this all common sense?
Our common attitude to language is one big assumption. We might even say that our informed attitudes to language are, to a certain degree, based on a series of assumptions. Everybody has an opinion about language. The correct or incorrect use of language is a political topic which still has a degree of currency. You only need to glance at the comments section below a news article to witness individuals correcting one another on their spelling or use of grammar. It can all seem so mundane and technical, so commonplace. Studying language is very different from this. The more you study it, the more it wriggles beneath your microscope, the more you will realize how elusive it is. Here's an example: we all know what the colour blue is, right? It's a common primary colour. You might be able to see it right now. We might define the colour 'blue' as the frequency of light visible at 610 – 70 THz on the optical spectrum. But how might we describe the quality of the colour blue? We can conjure up a simile – blue like the sky, like her dress, like the colour of your eyes – but we're only talking about the quality of the colour blue in terms of something else. We are only making a comparison which leads us to another challenge.
Task – Can you describe the quality of the colour blue without making reference to something else? Go on, give it a go.
Okay then, I'm guessing that no matter how hard you tried, however many ways you bent the premise, the description of the quality of the colour blue became a little tricky. I mean, how do we even know that we each see the same quality when we look at the colour defined as blue? Maybe the quality I perceive as red is the quality you perceive as blue. It's a circular question that can't be answered through linguistic investigation. It's a point where linguistic investigation (describe the quality of the signifier 'blue') unearths a philosophical question. This is not uncommon. Our preoccupation with language, with what it is and what it does, with where it came from and where it might go, has all arisen from the philosophical tradition. In fact, there is nothing more discussed or deliberated in the history of philosophy than the form and nature of language. It is one of the few spaces where philosophical enquiry meets scientific investigation. Here are a few more linguistic puzzles for you to ponder:
• Exactly how many needles of hay do we need to make a 'pile of hay'?
• Can you define what is 'good' without referring to what is 'bad'?
• Why isn't a 'toothbrush' called a 'teethbrush'?
• How might we define auxiliary verbs (be, can, could, do, have, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would) without using lexical verbs (run, jump, smile)?
Where did all these ideas come from?
As linguists, our ideas emerged, as they still do, from philosophy. However, our approach is congruent with the scientific method. By rights, contemporary linguistics emerged towards the end of the nineteenth century from the blending of philology with the concerns of continental philosophy and was later co-opted in the mid-twentieth century by what we refer to as analytic philosophy. There has been a bit of a disagreement between continental philosophers and analytic philosophers ever since and we now refer to ideas from continental philosophy as the philosophy of language, whilst ideas from analytic philosophy are often referred to as linguistic philosophy. Confusing? I agree. Avoid choosing sides, though, and aim to see the merits of each. Choosing sides often leads to fanaticism, which will only cloud your thinking. Many people passionately support a football team. By supporting a team you can only ever see the sport from that team's perspective. If you avoid supporting a team you can see the beauty of the sport for what it is, rather than from a perspective obscured by your own position.
If you want to delve into the philosophical context which underpins linguistics, then there are two texts which I would consider essential. The first is the renowned introductory text called Philosophy Made Simple (1981) by Richard Popkin and Avrum Stroll, and the second is Philosophy for Linguists (2000) by Siobhan Chapman. Whilst Chapman focuses exclusively on the analytic tradition, Popkin and Stroll provide a fairly balanced introduction to both the analytic and continental traditions.
What's This Linguistics, Then?
The hardest thing about the course was the sheer volume, and complexity, of theories about the evolution of language, from neuroscience to behaviourism. This was difficult to grasp in the first few months.
(Gideon, Year Three, BA English Language and History)
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Modern linguistics emerged from the posthumous publications of Ferdinand de Saussure, most notably his Course in General Linguistics (1916), a compendium of notes organized and published by his students. Saussure, whilst teaching philology, ended his lectures with his own ideas, and his biggest contribution was the notion that we should move away from studying how language changes over time (diachronic analysis) to how we perceive language as a phenomenon, and to what language actually does right now (synchronic analysis). Saussure's approach is referred to as structural linguistics, whilst some of his ideas are still studied in the field of semiotics (the study of signs). Saussure is also regarded as the founder of the school of thought known as structuralism, which has had a tremendous impact on academia as a whole. Not bad for a man who decided to discuss his ideas with his students after class!
(Continues...)
Excerpted from English Language, Literature and Creative Writing by Val Jessop, Devon Campbell-Hall, Terry McDonough, Cath Nichols, Sarah Dobbs. Copyright © 2014 Sarah Dobbs, Val Jessop, Devon Campbell-Hall, Terry McDonough and Cath Nichols. Excerpted by permission of Wimbledon Publishing Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction, vii,Part One English Language,
1. English Language: Year One, 3,
2. English Language: Year Two, 21,
3. English Language: Year Three, 41,
Bibliography, 55,
Part Two English Literature,
4. English Literature: Year One, 61,
5. English Literature: Year Two, 93,
6. English Literature: Year Three, 105,
Bibliography, 119,
Part Three Creative Writing,
7. Creative Writing: Year One, 123,
8. Creative Writing: Year Two, 145,
9. Creative Writing: Year Three, 163,
Bibliography, 181,
Conclusion, 185,
Index, 187,
What People are Saying About This
‘This indispensable guide to language, literature and creative writing for undergraduates demystifies degree-level study, sets out what to expect from a degree programme, and gives useful insights into study skills. A must-read for worried students.’ —Zoe Lambert, Lancaster University